Assistant Coach Instructing Players

[bookemDano]

Hello,
I've been a head coach and assistant coach in youth basketball for the past six years and I had something happen in a game Sat. that I have never seen before.

During the first quarter of a 5th grade boys game, the head coach was up on her feet instructing the players and I was sitting next to her instructing different players at the same time. Our players were confused on defensive assignments so we were both trying to get different players to find their man assignments.

It was a small gym and we were quite loud. The lead official stopped the game. Came over and asked who was the head coach. He then said that "assistant coach couldn't coach players from the bench during play but only head coaches could do that. He said I could "coach" during timeouts and between quarters."

Between quarters, I politely approached the official, apologized, and said that I never heard of that rule before and he told me it was "in the high school rule book."

Later that night I watched two high school games and assistant coaches were yelling out instructions the entire game.

Is there such a rule for assistant coaches? Can officials instruct coaching staffs to be "quieter" when they are addressing players on the court during play?

My gut feeling is that the official in my game was probably working on his fourth straight assignment and all our yelling was giving him a headache! As an assistant referee in soccer, I can relate to that ... I'm just confused about the rules of assistant coaches "instructing players."

Thanks for your thoughts ...