Travesty or Travel...

[Camron Rust]

I've seen this happen a time or two in my career...not so much the coach asking for slack but where a team has put in a player that was clearly not a typical player. Recognizing that and the fact that the game wasn't close, and it being very obvious that the kid wasn't getting any advantage at all and wasn't going to change the outcome. I chose to be particularly lenient on the kid....3 steps, 4, even 5...keep playing. I think he shot the ball once or twice and it wan't anywhere near going in. Eventually, I'd have to call something if it went too far, but it didn't get that far. It was usually, just shuffling the feet around while he was trying to figure out what to do with the ball.

After not calling anything on the first situation in that game, I noticed the other coach nodding his approval with the situation and the kid's coach nodding a thank you. These were two very small Christian schools who were both interested in playing but were more interested in character and sportsmanship.

I'd have a similar thing happen a few other times too. In every case, once I realize the player isn't doing anything that will have any impact, I treat it the same. One a few occasions, I've had players on the other team initially object but a very quick and quiet word made them aware of what was really going on and their good character let the situation be.