You're right, this battle isn't worth the fight.

...what if...;)

...that "healthy" player just cussed the coach and/or said he wanted to "quit this lousy team"?

You could whack the team, you could try and MAKE the coach play the player, you could do a host of things...many of them wrong IMO.

If the coach tells me the player is not available...then the player is not available...simple as that.

In my area...I would be supported...do what ya gotta do in your area.

If this is a JV game and the V game is to follow and I ask about a player and they say she is not available, I'm not prodding anymore. If they want to play with four, let them. The V game is a different story.

Around here, coaches/schools plan for this and sometimes don't play a JV game if they don't have enough quarters available. At other times they'll play only a quarter or half of a JV game just to get their JV kids on the court.

Each player here can play six quarters a night. It used to only be five.

I disagree. What if she's injured? We don't know and it's not our job dig any further. If the coach says she's not available then she's not, we move on.

Agree.

Even in a varsity game, I'm not forcing anything. There is nothing that doesn't apply here.

You simply can't know that. She could have already used up all her allowable quarters. If you force the issue you could cause the team to forfeit and cost the player eligibility.

If a coach says he doesn't have any available players, he doesn't have any available players. If it seems suspicious, report it to the state. Our job is to referee the game, not sit as judge of availability/eligibility.

So we need to know the definition of "available" right? This is the case book info I could find on it, I guess what is to prevent someone who wants to do what is referenced in this case, from just saying, oh we only have 4 available?

Like I said in the OP, I do not know the answer and have been told both ways as to if you can play or cannot play with 4--in this case it was the 2nd quarter of the JV, so there was no issue with the players quarters being used up.

We had to finish a game with 3 a few years back as we used our kids that were splitting time early and they were not available in the 2nd half as they were out of quarters

3.1.1 SITUATION: After six players have been disqualified, Team A has only four who are eligible to continue in the game as players. In a gesture of fair play, the coach of Team B indicates a desire to withdraw a player so that each team will have four players on the court. RULING: This is not permissible. Team B must have five players participating as long as it has that number available. If no sub- stitute is available, a team must continue with fewer than five players. When only one player remains to participate, that team shall forfeit the game unless the ref- eree believes this team still has an opportunity to win the game.

You don't know that. The player could have participated in a freshmen game earlier in the day.

It's the same answers, and the same arguments, we get every year when this question comes up. The general consensus is what's been stated: If the coach says the player is not available, then the player is not available. If needed, make a report.

The furthest I'd go is like th ecase play -- The coach "offers" to play with 4 "to be fair." I'd tell the coach that 5 must play if 5 are available. Leave the rest up to him/her.

And, I just had this in a college game a couple of weeks ago. Team has 7. 1 fouls out. 1 is injured (and attended to on the court). Team member on the bench says "because I don't f***in' want to go in." We let the injured player remain in the game. Put it in the report.

IUBIRDMAN...Just curious as to who the teams were...PM me if want to.

Just sent you one Indianaref

It's not your job to decide this. What about the girl who just came out due to injury? She's on the bench. She's in the books. She hasn't been disqualified. You going to make him play her if they drop to 4 without her?

If coach says she's not available, she's not. If she's available later, she is. Not our job to monitor.

If the coach says she's not eligible than that's that and we play on. If an opposing coach wants to make an issue of it he can complain to the league. I'm sure they would love to spin cycles on JV game debates.