Book Situation

[Rich1]

If the head coach did this "supply the scorer with the name and number of each team member who may participate and designate the five starting players at least 10 minutes before the scheduled starting time" then there is no cause to penalize him for the need to change the book. Most of the time that is done by having the visiting team's scorekeeper share the book with the home teams score keeper but I do have some coaches who hand the table a printed list.

What is not in the rules is "the coach is ultimately responsible for the content of the book" so to penalize a coach based on that statement, even if it is written in bold on the forum, would be incorrect. This is solely based on a personal philosophy/interpretation bit has not support from the rules or an official interpretation defining it in this way.

The secondary issue we have in the OP is whether or not the coach communicated the wrong number to the scorer. I would be inclined to give the coach the benefit of the doubt unless the coach has a history of such antics.

Of course, the best practice would have been for the coach to just have all of his kids put in the book whether they are playing or not!