Does this constitute fighting ?

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by Chess Ref

It's a boys frosh summer tourney. Teams are this season's incoming Frosh class. Championship game. NFHS rules.

I am lead. Ball bouncing around at division line. 5 kids going after it. We got scrum action, partner passes on it all and ball pops out towards the other basket. I am now moving towards the division line. 2 of the kids start running at other full speed,yelling not so nice greetings, never make it to each other because 2 other players get in the way and keep them seperated. I did the big whistle blast thing which seemed to help, somewhat. Whole lotta pushing and screaming going on. I tweet. I got 2 ejections. A little chaos but coaches are cool about the whole thing.

My partner who is doing the evaulating/mentoring thing pretty much reads me the riot act for the ejections. Says I should have just sat them down to cool off for awhile, since they never made contact with each other.. I like this guy . i respect him . I think he is a very solid varsity official. I just think he missed the boat on this one.

What do you guys/gals think ?

1. The actions of the players as you have described them do NOT meet the NFHS definition of fighting per 4-18. This is the case since neither player attemtped to "strike, punch or kick an opponent." So you should not charge either player with fighting. Of course, this doesn't mean that they cannot be disqualified for another reason!

2. In my opinion, the actions of both players clearly meet the definition of a flagrant foul (4-19-4) as each displayed "unacceptable conduct" and that conduct was "extreme or persistent, vulgar or abusive." I would disqualify both players using the wording of that rule.

3. As others have said, an official has no authority whatsoever to prevent a player from further participation in a contest unless that player has been disqualified. Under strict NFHS rules there are no temporary benchings for cooling off.

4. In summary, I think that you got the situation right, but for the wrong reason. I think that your "mentor" needs to reexamine how he handles extreme behavior.