C'mon bob, lighten up a little why don't ya!! I heard you were showing your wild side in the TOurney chat room the other night. Wish I coulda been there for that.

You heard wrong. I wasn't in the Tourney Chat room the other night, or ever.

Darn it, don't make it sound like you agree with me!

I didn't say I would ignore the rule, or that I would disregard it. I said, I probably wouldn't notice. I didn't mean the not noticing would be intentional.

We DO NOT have the ability to add judgment to any rule. That is not written anywhere in the rule book, or anywhere else. The judgment that we are given is only to see where a certain play or situation fits into the rules, not whether or not to apply the rules. I don't like the rule about not changing the jersey near the bench, but I can't just choose to pretend it's not there. If have to enforce it, regardless of my personal opinions.

1) Because it's not really a big deal. That guy started as HC, and he remains head coach.
2) Becuase it's the rule.
3) Because it's very simple to enforce.

I think where Juulie is going with this is there were other things more important going on that precludes my looking to see where a coach is seated or standing at tip off. I may glance but I am looking at the table and the players to confirm their being ready and whether the toss was straight or ...

I actually don't notice if the coach is in or out of the box unless I'm on that side of the floor and play is near or in the general area of the coach. I had one "T" for being out of the box this year on an assistant who got up following an intentional foul (easy whack) and maybe three "get in the box coach" comments during my season.

Completely wrong according to the recent NFHS Points of Emphasis.

2005-06 POINTS OF EMPHASIS
1. Sporting Behavior. The NFHS Basketball Rules Committee continues to be concerned with player, coach and fan behavior. While administrators continue to focus on solutions, it is imperative that all parties involved accept responsibility and improve behavior. Specifically, the committee wants the following addressed:...

D. Coaching box: The committee wants coaches to stay in the coaching box. There is a constant problem when coaches wander. It is a distinct advantage to the coach who is permitted to be out of the box because the coach has a better chance to communicate with his/her team. The coach can also influence play by being out on the court.
The rule is black-and-white, but it has not been dealt with properly. Most officials have not enforced the rule. The fact that the coach is not directing comments to the officials or is "coaching the team" has no bearing on rule enforcement. The coach who continually abuses the coaching-box rule risks having his or her governing body remove it completely. The official who doesn't enforce it runs the risk of not following what the governing body wants enforced.
Once the coaching box has been removed because of a technical foul, all related rules restrictions must apply. There's no way to get the box back after the privilege has been lost.
Assistant coaches must be seated at all times except during time-outs, to attend to an injured player after being beckoned and to spontaneously react to a play. The rules that permit a head coach to rise in certain situations (time-outs, confer with table personnel for a correctable error, dealing with disqualifications) do not apply to assistant coaches under any circumstances. Again, the fact that an assistant coach is "only coaching" has no bearing on the rule or enforcement.
Head coaches have the responsibility to remain in the box. School administrators must support that by demanding their coaches do so. When violated, the official must enforce the rule with a technical foul.

Me...and anyone else who works for the same assignor I do...it is a point that was made very clearly that ALL aspects of the bench decorum rules were to be enforced - including that the head coach had to be seated in their box or they had no box...kinda stupid considering how big their box is, but "When in Rome..."

No doubt, you're on top of it!

I (and others) may jog by and say

• "Do you know where you are?
• "...big box tonight."
• "Are you okay where the box is tonight?"

What aggravates me is when a T'd up coach is allowed to continue using the box. :(

Agreed...I was referring to where the coach was seated or where their chair was at before we tossed the ball...once they get hit, they don't get to wander no more.

Girls varsity game early this season. Visitors have two coaches -- a man and a woman. Every action tells me he is the head coach and she is the assistant. We do the pregame with the coaches and he attends; as the the players are introduced, he shakes their hands; first time out by V and he calls it A minute later I see both two coaches standing ... one towards the table; the other at the other end of the bench. At the next dead ball, I tell the man that only he can stand. He tells me that they are "co-coaches." I say they can be whatever they want, but for this game he is the head coach and only he can stand.

Next time down the court, I am the lead, and I see she is standing and coaching. I call a T on her -- as the assistant standing. When I get to the table, my partner and the man greet me. The man says that she is the head coach today and she will stand. He said he explained that to me when I talked to him earlier...I said that he had taken every action possible to prove he was the head coach and for this game, he was the head coach. My partner called me aside and asked me to reconsider the T. Now I feel stuck. The rule, case book and point of emphasis all back me. She was not saying a word to me...she was coaching the players. But now I am told that she is the head coach and I can't penalize a head coach for coaching from the coaching box. So I take the T back. The home coach doesn't like it, but he accepts the explanation....the T was for the assistant standing, but since she is not the assistant, she is acting within the rules.

At halftime, my partner gave me the "Don't go looking for trouble" talk. He may have been Old School for all I know. because he said exactly what OS said (if they are not screaming at you, ignore them...no matter where they are standing.) When I had that team a few weeks later, the man made a point of coming up to me during warmups and saying he would be sitting and she would be the head coach for the game ... but he also gave me the, "No one else has said a thing to us all year" line.

Our District Director this past season (HS, NFHS rules) made it clear that the state directed that the Head Coach must attend the pre-game conference. No questions asked. I know that there could be many circumstances that may come up to adjust this. I did not have any, but I can see some arising. For instance, I had to wait for the book to arrive one night because the coach left it home and his wife was on the way with it. Maybe the coach is single and had to go himself/herself to get it, or a car breaks down, etc. I think common sense prevails here. Things happen. However, if the head coach is in the gym and has no other reason, we are NOT ALLOWED to do the pre-game conference without him/her. I waited on more than one occasion for a head coach to come out of the locker room, bathroom, stands, etc. By doing this, we all know who the HC is and who can stand in the coaches box.

Do you have to look at <b>where</b> the coach is sitting though, Rocky? Are you telling me that your assignor is telling you to take the box away for the whole game if the coach is sitting more than 14 feet away from the 28' line at the start of the game?

If so, your assignor must be a Mariners' fan.:D

Yeah, I know you were, rocky. I could live with that if it was a decree.
But since it isn't I just move 'em back with *those* words.

I did, once, have to mention the rule to a coach.

He was walking to the endline and coaching all the way down. At a time out I asked him what he was doing down there and he told me he was going to his seat. I suggested that surely he was mistaken and that wasn't his seat because of the coaching box/seat rule. He smiled like the cat with the yellow feathers in his mouth.

No doubt that you didn't know that either.