On the subject of screw ups
 

Many years ago, when I was young and ignorant, (now I am no longer young)
I called a lot of local elementary and jr. high ball before I had ever seen a rule book. One day, 8th grade boys, I called a foul on white #50, but incorrectly reported the # as 40. Next possession, same kid fouls again. Now the (wrong) # is fresh in my mind, so I report white 40 again, probably did not even attempt to look at the # that time. A few minutes later, I looked at the kid as he ran down the court, and the 50 smacked me full in the face. I blew the whistle, huddled with partner and both coaches, and explained my mistake. My partner, a registered official, even though he was several years younger than I, explained that this was not a correctable error since we had had several dead balls since then. This was fine with white's coach, since 50 was a much better player than 40. Years later when I had a chance to study this rule, I decided that I considered this to be a bookkeeping mistake, 2 fouls charged to the wrong player, even though this mistake was the result of bad information given by an official, not a mistake by the bookkeeper himself. Is this/has this ever been addressed here or in the books? I may have even posted it here myself, but I've slept since then, and well, you know........

We've discussed it on this forum before. Most of us believe that it is a recordkeeping mistake and can be fixed with definite knowledge.

Someone will probably do a search and post one of the past threads for you.

Yes this is correctable at any time during the game. Don't know where it is in the book but trust me I know, when I first started I did it alot.

NFHS rule 2-11-11