Rule book?

[JMN]

Coach,

I would also like to add my welcome, and thank you for your thoughtful commentary.

I do agree that the official should have known the rule and/or that his crew should have helped him on the right call. We live and die as a team, just like you and your players.

In youth ball, we do use the games as the "laboratory" for our newest officials, however, we rarely assign them without seasoned vets to also work the games. Together, we usually get the calls correct.

We know when we walk on the field that the expectation of coaches, players, and fans are that the officials call a 100% perfect game. Funny thing is, we also expect this of ourselves! Unfortunately, we do make mistakes, but we try to correct them on the field.

When we don't, we end up with a valuable learning experience and a situation that we are expected to never repeat! For the benefit of the entire association, we discuss the issue and proper ruling at our group meetings.