Substitute Not Ready

[bainsey]

If you have five AVAILABLE, you play five. I say H8 isn't available, so you play four.

Food for thought:

MS G game, a few years ago. Very small K-12 school, only accessible by ferry. (No JV teams, just MS and V.)

Home team fields six players. H-1 fouls out. Later, Coach H tells me H-2 is too sick to play, so down to four. (Coach V tries to put four on the floor; I let him know five is needed, but there's no rule against one standing in-bounds and watching.) Later, H-3 fouls out, and Coach H decides H-2 is well enough to play.

We went with it. If a coach says a player is not eligible, who are we to deem otherwise?