Interesting situation I heard about last night. It didn't happen in my game, however in a fellow official that I am good friends with. The most common answer is probably going to check with your state, however I just wanted some input.

Here's the situation: (You are the Referee)
Team A is down 10 points at the half. Coming back onto the floor for warm-ups before the second half, Coach A comes to you and tells you that 4 of their players are breaking out in hives and wants the game suspended.

5-4 describes it fairly well, but what would you do?


In the sitution I just described, lucky the school nurse was in attendance and confirmed to the officials that the players could play and finish the game, therefore they didn't have to make a choice. I guess she thought that some of the opposing players were wearing tanning lotion that was getting on the other players, therefore causing them to break out.

That is not what the rule is in there for, it's for things like power outages, a leaky roof, a riot breaking out in the stands, and I'd include a situation where a player, coach, official or fan had a serious injury...that required a very long delay...or someone dies.

Are we to suspend a game if 4 of his players foul out?

Sprain ankles?

I was speaking of forfeiting. That would be an easy choice if he wanted to just forfeit.

Of course we aren't suppose to suspend the game if 4 of his players foul out.

So you are saying you are making the coach continue even though there is a medicial hazard?

Where was the medical hazard?

I thought you said a qualified person (school nurse) was there to evaluate the situation & said the players were OK.

I did.

What I was saying was that if there wasn't a nurse there what would you have done?

Sorry for the confusion.

Generally there's a trainer or the like at games.

If one is not available I wouldn't suspend the game.

The coach can then decide what he needs to do.

With all due to school nurses everywhere: I would advise Coach A, that his athletic director should confer with Team B's athletic director immediately about how to proceed. If the school's agree to reschedule the rest of the game, that is their decision, just make sure you don't leave the game site without your check.

If School B does not want to reschedule and Team A does not want to play, do NOT declare a forfeit. This is an weird situation and I would send a report to your StateHSAA and let them make a decision; just make sure you don't leave the game site without your check.

MTD, Sr.

Tanner -- I'm trying to understand. Coach A contends that four of her players are breaking out, and it's because some Team B players have something on their bodies, that's rubbing off on Team A players?!?! That sounds bizarre to me. No Team B players are breaking out from a full exposure to this stuff, but four Team A players are breaking out? It's good that your friend had a nurse there to help with the decision, but I wouldn't have suspended the game just on that basis. Sounds strange.

Juulie,

No he wasn't contending that something was rubbing off, that was what the nurse thought happened. He was just wanting the game suspended due to the fact that 4 of his players broke out in hives.

It was thought by the nurse that they were wearing this stuff, therefore that's why they weren't breaking out from it.

So Mark, if I'm understanding you correctly, you're saying it's all about the Benjamins?

Absolutely NOT!! Having said that, there are far too many of us old geezers on this board that have had experiences with schools that somehow forget to pay the officials under these condidtions because the game might not be completed.

I can tell you of one instance (oh how it pains me because it was a soccer game) where the two schools involved were Christian high schools that were not members of the MichiganHSAA, but they did follow MichiganHSAA rules for playing soccer. When I and my linesmen met with the captains before the game, one of the captians from the visitors was (horror of horrors) a female. The AD from the home school marched out onto the pitch to inform us (the game officials) that she could not play because this was a "boys'" soccer game. I told him that there was nothing in the rules that prevented her from playing. He said that if she played he would pull his team off the field. I asked him if he really meant that. He said yes. I told him that was fine with us, just give us our game fee checks and we would go home. He told us that he wouldn't pay us if there was no game paid. I told him that if he didn't pay us that our soccer officials would pull all of its officials from his school's home games. Guess what, the girl played that night.

End of lesson.

MTD, Sr.