Not Notified of Fifth Foul

[tazzeroo2002]

At the end of the second overtime period a foul is called on Team A. Team B is in the double bonus. After the first free throw, two Team B players are at the table to sub in and are beckoned in. B6 and B7 come on the floor. Before B1 shoots her last free throw, the buzzer sounds and the scorekeeper calls the trail official to the table. The scorekeeper informs the official that B6 has 5 fouls. The officials confer and do not recall ever disqualifying a player from Team B (they weren't aware anyone had reached five fouls and thus had not notified the coach or the player.) The scorekeeper says that he informed the officials by raising his hand with all five fingers out when the foul was reported, but cannot recall if the player was ever formally disqualified from the game. Would you penalize Team B for playing a player after disqualification? How would you handle the situation?

As a secondary issue, in addition to scorekeeping, the official scorekeeper also did the public address for the game. The scorekeeper, who is also Team A's Athletic Director, confronts the officials after the game and makes it clear that he thought the two officials (who did not penalize Team B, simply asked B6 to leave the game) handled the situation poorly and should have penalized Team B. The officials feel the AD was distracted by doing both jobs. The two officials are concerned, despite feeling that they called an otherwise good game, that this could jeopardize their opportunities to work future games at this school and in the conference.

Is there any rule relating to limitations on the scorekeeper to do only scorekeeping duties? How would you handle this aspect of the situation?

[APG]

Not notified of 5th foul

Team B is not penalized. B6 is not disqualified until B's coach is informed that B6 has 5 fouls. Here is the pertinent rule:

NFHS Rule Book
Rule 2, Section 11, Article 11, Note 2:

2. The procedure if a player who has committed his/her fifth foul continues to play because the scorer has failed to notify the official is as follows: As soon as the scorer discovers the irregularity, the game horn should be sounded after, or as soon as, the ball is in control of the offending team or is dead. The disqualified player must be removed immediately. Any points which may have been scored while such player was illegally in the game are counted. If other aspects of the error are correctable, the procedure to be followed is included among the duties of the officials.

As to the second part, you can use 2-3 and handle that if you feel you need to.

[Smitty]

Personally I would have handled it the same as those officials. The player is not disqualified until an official informs the coach that the player is disqualified. Whether the scorekeeper held up his hand on the fifth foul is irrelevant. If the officials did not appear to recognize the hand signal as the fifth foul, there's always the horn to get their attention.

As far as working at the school again, that's out of my control. All I can do is follow the rules.

[maven]

APG has posted the procedure for DQ. A player is not disqualified until the covering official informs the coach. If the official failed to notice or interpret correctly the scorer's outstretched hand, then the player was not in fact disqualified.

So, to handle the situation in the OP, the officials should have done just what they did: DQ the player at that point, no additional penalties on anyone, and play on.

Handling the AD is a different matter. He has no business threatening officials in order to get a call to go his way, and such behavior needs to be reported to the conference commissioner/assignor and probably the state.

And aside from that, he was wrong.