OT Teaser - Sport where players touch ref?
 

Here is a brain teaser I just thought of.. not about basketball, but about officiating, so I am slipping it in.

In what sport do athletes routinely and purposefully make physical contact with the officials, as many as 3 seperate times during a contest.

Hints:
* It is a sport commonly played in High School
* While this "contact" may or may not be actually written into the rule book, it is a commonly accepted practice (at least here in Michigan High Schools)

I'm just going to jump in blindly and say - wrestling?

I was thinking of the official putting his hand down during a match to check if a shoulder is down for the pin count to start, then, after the match, doesn't the official raise the hand of the winner?

Wrestling is correct----
 

You got it right.. but you had a different reason than I was looking for.

At meets with 4 mats going at once, it is impossible to hear and or differentiate the end-of-round buzzer on each mat.

The solution they use around here is this: a wrestler who is not in that match is assigned to walk onto the mat, carefully staying out of the way of the action, and come behind the ref and tap him or her on the shoulder to indicate the end of the round. This way the ref can keep his or her eye on the action between the wrestlers(does not have to look up and glance at clock), and still know when the round is over without hearing the buzzer.

One more thing--
 

the "3 times a contest" comes from the 3 round match.

Do I still win, or am I disqualified for having the wrong reasons? :)

It's still interesting because of the issues involved with players and coaches touching or confronting officials.

I noticed last weekend in the college football games I was watching that the refs touched the players several times. At least twice I saw one official (which position, I have no clue) who placed the ball on the turf, and then slapped the center on the butt as the official backed out of the play. Also, a couple times, a player came back to receive a punt, and knocked fists with the official who was there. It was just the standard fist/greeting thing. But I hand't noticed that before, and the butt-slap thing really surprised me. I suppose by college the players are too old for their parents to file lawsuits?

In football it is very common to touch players and in many cases essential as an official. If you have a fumble and you have to dig in a pile to get the ball, you need to touch the players and in some cases tap the players to let them know they need to get up when they do not have the ball. Also there is a lot of padding on the players so it is not like we are touching bear skin or just clothes.

I cannot speak for other sports that it would be common because the only I know of is football.

Peace

Yikes! I hope no one touches bear skin. Seems like it would be kinda dangerous to have bears out there on the field, with the players.

yea, I know, har, har, har.

disqualified your answer was not in the form of a question and you didn't shake hands with the presenter.

C'mon...pro football's got Bears, Lions, Eagles, Giants (semi-pro this year), Bengals, Panthers...of course they also got Cowboys and Texans, but that's just to attract the gay audience. And don't forget Cardinals for the Catholics and a cute Dolphin for the kiddies! Oh, it was a joke....