I had a situation last night at a girls freshmen game. I will admit I did not handle the situation properly. Rule 10-5 states;
The coach must remain sitted on the bench when the clock is running inside the coaches box. So, I asked the coach to have a seat there wasn't anything spetacular going on and he's up by 20. He refuse telling me that he can stand as long as he wants as long as he is not on my case as an official and this is how he coaches. I got that and I understand the problem that I see it is. There may be official ahead of me who allow this to happen me being fairly new to this trying to enforce the rules have an different time when situations like this arises. I will state again I did not handle the situation properly. The actions I could have taken was to T him up thus enforcing the seat belt rule. I have written this down in my journal as a lesson learned and I can honestly say when this situation arises again I will not hesitate again to enforce the seat belt rule. I find it frustrating that some my predecessors are not enforcing this rule IMO. One other thing Rule 1-13NOTE STATES: A head coach can stand in the coaches box to give instruction to his team if you local state association adopts it as a rule. I will check with my state to see if they have adopted it as a rule to further educate myself. I would like to know how do some of you handle a situation like this?

Rook,

Before I get to your situation, please let me share another very important insight with you regarding the Coach's Box.

There isn't one.

Rather, it's a coaching box. I know this is a minor point, but I think it helps to maintain the correct perspective. The coach does not own the box. He can't do whatever he wants, as long as he's in "his" box. He's allowed to coach while standing there, period. Now many of us give the coach a little latitude on what they can say or ask of us while they're standing in the box. But by rule, the box is only for coaching his players. It's not the coach's box; you can take it away at any time, if the situation calls for it.

Ok, I'm off my soapbox. :)

Now, in your specific situation, there are two ways to go. First, if you're not sure whether your state has authorized the use of a coaching box, go ask the site administrator. It sounds like this was a HS game. So , find the school's AD and ask him/her if your state uses a coaching box. (What state are you in, anyway? Somebody here will probably be able to tell you what your state's rule is.) If you can't find the AD, then. . .

Second, simply look at the floor in front of the bench. Is there a 6' (or 14') box marked on the floor? If so, let the coach use it. My best guess is that the school wouldn't have wasted the money to paint the box if the state didn't allow its use. If there's no box marked, then you can honestly tell the coach, "Coach, there's no box marked, so there's no way for us to enforce it. Therefore, we won't be using a box tonight at all."

Now, once you say that, the coach will either realize that you know your stuff (no box in your state), or he'll immediately find the other coach and they will have somebody put down tape to mark the box.

In either case, I would try to minimize the amount of verbiage with the coach.

Good luck getting an answer for your state.

truerookie,
Just looked at my book and I could not find the information above. Check the date of your book and the publisher.
...And, allow the coach to stand in the coaching box.
mick

Truerookie, so long as they're coaching their team, I let them stand. Very few of them sit in a chair during practice where they do alot of coaching, to have them sit during the game is not east for most. Now, if they want to use the coaching box to ride the refs you've got a different situation.

The book I used is the NFHS 2004. It is rule 10 section 5 art 1.

CSF,can I call you that? I have to be honest with you. I wanted to T his A%% however, it would not have made the situation any better. I will go on the record and say I let logic run its course and not T him.

What state are you in?

From the coach's statements, I would guess that your state allows the coach to stand in the coaching box. If that's true and he was coaching and not interfering with you, then you have no reason to ask him to sit.

truerookie,
NFHS 2005-06 Rule 10-5-1 says:
"By state association adoption, the head coach may be off the bench in front of his seat within the confines of the designated coaching box, as in 1-13-2 [<I>coaching box defined</I>], to give instructions to his/her players and/or substitutes.

This must be one of those 'edits for clarity'. ;)
mick

My advice would be not to ask the coach to do something you're not 100% sure about. You went looking for a confrontation, in his view, for no reason. When he confronted you, you did not have the rules knowledge to explain to him why you wanted him to sit. Possibly a better way to handle it would be to talk to your partner ("Hey Partner, should we be telling this guy to sit?) or wait and look up the rule after the game. I can understand why you wanted to T the guy up, but would it have made the game better, especially considering the score. I think you did all right by not giving the T in this situation (and trust me, I'm not one to be soft on sportsmanship).

Junker,
I do have the rules knowledge believe me if I did not I would have asked my partner about the situation or I would not have said anything. I did look it up after the game and it just confirmed what I thought was Rule 10-5-1. I tabbed it as a lesson learned and I will address it in my pregame in the future with the coaches.

Mick,
thanks, this is way I am going to ask the State.

BBR, I am in Missouri.

Rook

I'm confused. In the above post, you said that you "have the rules knowledge." In the first post, you said that you "will check with my state to see if they have adopted it."

I don't see how both can be true statements.

All, I am saying the rule states they must remain seated when the clock is running unless they are shout instructions to their players or applauding a spectacular play/effort.

[Edited by truerookie on Sep 16th, 2005 at 12:14 PM]

Pre-games with coaches?
 

When we pre-game U.P. here, it just for the officials.
Coaches are not expected to be within hearing distance. ;)
mick