Substitute Not Ready
 

Had a GJV game today in which the visitors had 6 in the book and the home team had 8. And it was a slugfest. Even a conservative foul calling strategy was not enough to prevent some players from fouling out.

With about four minutes to go in the 4th, the Vs were down to four players. The home team got down to five with about 1:30 remaining. But here's the catch. H8 was in the book but did not expect to play, so was not dressed in the proper game shorts. After H1, H2 and H3 had all fouled out, coach sent H8 flying into the locker room to put on the correct shorts, and in the meantime said, "we'll go with 4 until she comes back....that's fair, 4 on 4, right?"

Of course we've all read the case play that states if you have five, you have to play five. I told the H coach that I appreciated his offer, but by rule he has five available team members, so he has to play with five.

Of course all this is occurring while H8 is in the locker room getting the right shorts on. It's a one-point game, and not surprisingly the V coach is angling for some sort of penalty on H. DOG doesn't apply here, and nothing about what the V coach did was unsporting (it may have been shortsighted, but it wasn't unsporting). So I didn't feel I had a penalty to administer.

Finally after about two minutes H8 returned and we continued play.

Did I handle this correctly?

P.S. The game went to OT, and the V team, playing 4 against 5 for the last 8 minutes of basketball, won the game. Interesting.

I would have played -- H8 was temporarily "injured" and not available (even if s/he was in the book)

I am confused (so what else is new). What did the Home HC mean by H8 was not in "proper game shorts"?

MTD, Sr.

Play 4 v 4 until A8 is back on the bench.

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?

She was wearing some kind of street shorts or warmup shorts or whatever. She had the right jersey on, but for some reason chose not to wear the same shorts as everyone else. I guess if I was 99.9% sure I wasn't going to play I might do something silly like that, too.

It's that 0.01% that gets you every once in a while. :D

If H8 isn't legally equipped and needs to go to the locker room to address that, I don't see the problem considering her unavailable until she is in proper uniform.

This weekend at a CYO JV #2 girls (5th grade) game, a home player didn't have shorts until the second half and sat on the bench in pants until someone could get her a pair of shorts. Once she had a pair and changed into them for the second half, she was then deemed available to play.

Short Answer: I agree with APG.

I see a theme evolving here. The key is "available." Makes sense. Best part is it doesn't involve a penalty. Thanks, everyone.

The real answer is to avoid working those types of games. :D

Tell me about it.

I'm in the military and every time I move it seems like I have to go back to the mail room, whether they see you work over the summer or not. Bummer.

I did have one commissioner once who saw me work, overlooked the local politics, and put me right on his V staff. It was all 3 person crewing, too. That was a fun season.

Short Shorts (Royal Teens, 1958) ...
 

Has it been determined in this thread that H8 was not legally equipped, and, if so, what was illegal regarding her equipment? Just because the coach deemed that the player isn't wearing the proper shorts doesn't mean that an official would deem them illegal under the NFHS equipment rules. We all know how much coaches know about the NFHS fashion police rules. What was the problem with her shorts?

I don't think the nature of the problem is the issue. I ask the coach to sub in an available player, they don't have one we play 4 on 4. If at somepoint for some reason coach has another available player (they got taped up, passed a concussion check from onsitw medical staff, replaced faulty/damamged equipment, put on the right shorts) they are now available.

Even in the old Hickory HIgh School scenario . .. while "my team is on the floor" might not cut it, as soon as the coach says "thats all the players I have available" we're moving on. I'm not going to run medical test or run through team/school rule books or track who can play how many quarters to retain eligbility. Coach says they are not available they are not available.

WGAF? Coach sent her to the locker room, that's good enough for me.

(And, honestly, if I was the coach and a player couldn't be bothered to dress properly, I would be likely to not let her play at all.)

Curiousity Didn't Just Kill The Cat ...
 

If she had already been sent to the locker room, as I now understand it to be after re-reading the opening post, I agree. I'm not chasing her into the girls locker room.

I'm still curious if there was any discussion between the officials, and the coach, before the player was sent on her way to the locker room. Did the coach believe that she was wearing illegal equipment, or an illegal uniform, thus sending her to the locker room to become legal? And, were the shorts, in fact, actually legal, in which case he screwed up by sending her off? Or was the coach just upset that she was wearing her junior varsity shorts instead of her varsity shorts, knowing that either pair of shorts would have been legal? And I'm still curious about what was "wrong" the first pair of shorts?

By the time I got to the bench to ascertain what was going on, the player in question was 3/4 of the way to the locker room and running, because coach told her to hurry. I was focused on the coach and not the exiting player, but I think she had on home white shorts, just a different type than the rest of her teammates. I probably would have let her play if she'd stuck around to be inspected, but that didn't happen.

For sure, the coach jumped to a conclusion.