Observations from my first season/tournament

[Mark Dexter]

Originally posted by crew

a kick is when a player intentionally kicks the ball whether offense or defense. then you said "the ball bounces off his leg" now i am confused to what you are reffering. please unconfuse me.

Crew, trust me, I know what a kick violation is. In this case, A1 was on the ground (without posession, so it wasn't a travel on the rebound ) with his legs somewhat askew. While he was bobbling the ball, it accidentally hit one of his legs (which he had not moved into the ball), I blew the whistle, froze and called a kicking violation.

The main complaint from team A was not that A1 had not intentionally kicked the ball, but that there is no such thing as an offensive kick. When I checked our IM rules later, there is a note stating "There is no such thing as an offensive kick."

I then tried to explain to all of the parties who were complaining (who are, BTW, both IM officials) that under NFHS rules, you can have a kicked ball called against the offensive team. I agreed that it would be rare, but A1 might intentionally kick the ball (I used the example of a long pass about to be intercepted by B1 - A1 cannot steal the pass back, so he kicks the ball to avoid the turnover.)

Of course, even after e-mailing one of the guys the relevant rules, he denies that there are offensive kicks.

(This is the same league where my supervisor (without me present) told one of the team captains that I was wrong in my insistence that the FT shooter's opponents nearest the basket cannot stand on the blocks.)