Coaches box
 

Had an issue yesterday. Linejudge on are side decides from the very begging to enforce the coaches box rule. Fine we as players ablige and stay behind the line. He however goes off on the coaching staff for standing off the field of play but infront of the line. One time the coach called me over as I was going to sub in and all I heard during the play was player back up. Finnaly i guess he had enough but a few plays later the ref gave are headcoach a sideline warning for being a few inches on the field 15 yards downfield, while the ball was being set, o yead did i mention are coach was signalling in a play. If this is how it is suppose to be enforced well then I don't agree with it but I respect it. my question is how hard should this be enforced and do u think the ref went to far. Thanks

Well let's see, you are asking if coaches are allowed to be on the field? The answer is no, the fact that they are signalling in a play is irrelevant.

And players may not be in the coaches box, only 3 coaches may be in the coaches box.

Only three coaches are allowed in the coaching box. All others should be in the team box. No coaches should be on the field.

Fonzzy07, The question you need ask yourself....does a "few INCHES" make THAT much of a difference? I mean, without encroaching on those few inches on the field do you really think the players wouldn't be able to see the signals?

It's been rumored that officiating crews who allowed coaches onto the field (even slightly) without flagging it had lost opportunities for working the state playoff tournament. We heard there were "spotters" from the state athletic association who were often sent to stadiums without us knowing about it and "dinging" the officials for allowing coaches onto the fields.

Linejudge on are side decides from the very begging to enforce the coaches box rule.

The LJ was 'begging' the coaches to abide by the rules?

Bob

REPLY I think he meant "from the very beggining."

Also, each time you see "are" substitute "our". Sorry the english teacher in me.

And I think you meant "beginning"... :p

Leave the poor kid alone. If he had any brains he wouldn't be playing football in the first place.

I'm all for sideline control, but I'm not as zeolous as some of you guys. I don't really care how many are in the box so long as they're not causing any problems. I kind of feel like I have bigger fish to fry. No?

You are the reason why officials can't control the team box the next friday. It's because not everyone wants to enforce the rule how it should be done. For me, it would be great to have ZERO coaches in the box (like NCAA) because I love the room to work (LJ and even HL). I hate running into coaches and not being able to back out when coaches are in the box. It is for the saftey of myself and the players of both teams.

REPLY: At my age, even the fingers move quicker than the brain!

REPLY I agree with you that the Fed should go back to their old coaches-in-the-team-box rule like the NCAA. But...you can't easily put the genie back into the bottle.

In baseball it is the Big Inning.

I've never been begged to throw a flag. For me the "are" and "our" issue is not the English teacher in me, it's the trying to understand English issue. ;)

Maybe. Or, maybe you are the reason that coaches think that we are militant jerks who worry about the minutia to the exclusion of what's really important. I have never one time had a problem with controlling my sideline. However, my point was that I don't spend a bunch of time trying to determine who should or shouldn't be in the box while the game is going on.

Thanks for making life harder for the rest of us. So it's YOU they are referring to when they say, "But they didn't make us do it LAST week!". The bane of all officials.

Can you list for me, then, which rules that our governing bodies have put into place that you feel it's too militant to enforce? Thanks.

I did not say any rule was too "militant". WHat I said was that certain officials are militant about the enforcement of some rules.

And, I doubt you call the backside hold thirty yards behind the play in an eighth grade game. Instead, I'd bet that you use your judgment, hold the flag and use the opportunity to talk to the player. Likewise, I use my judgment in controlling my sideline.

OK, fair point. Although on your analagous point, I belive 99.9% of the officials out there would not call a backside hold 30 yards from the play. However, on keeping the sidelines clear, it seems to me that this rule is important (and not militant) to enforce, and that enforcement is made more difficult by the apathy of some linesmen. I believe it's a safety issue (for me, the unsuspecting coach, and potentially for players, both playing and not playing), and is important to enforce. There are polite ways and non-polite ways to handle it, but it must be handled, not ignored. Once you let the line of coaches creep up, the kiddos creep into the coaches box. And once a couple creep in, more and more do. If you don't enforce this rule, you are bound to have problems (or if you play so far into the field that YOU don't have problems, your successor will).

I agree. Apathy on the part of the official will eventually create a problem whether it be out on the field or on the sidelines.

Where you get it???

I'll defend parepat on this one. Working the sidelines is a balance. You need to maintain order but you also need to be considerate of the coaches opportunity to coach. In a lot of rural stadiums there is not a lot of room in which the team and coaches are able to comfortably move. If a coach is calling signals, he need to be able to be seen by the captain of the O or D. Betwen plays I have no problem with a coach moving out onto the field a little bit so that his team can see him.

Believe it or not, I've found that if you try to work with the coaching staff they are more than willing to be very cooperative and considerate of giving me room to work. It may just be my personality, but I don't want to create conflict when there really doesn't need to be any. There will come plenty of conflict during the game with calls and non-calls. Throwing the flag for a coach that takes a step onto the field between plays is not an effective way to work with a coaching staff. If I run into a coach, he gets a flag, but this is a situation that I have encounter only twice in the past three years I've worked LJ at the varsity level.

As for the "bane" of all officials, I have never, ever been bothered by the "they let us do that last week" line. I simply point out that this is the way that we as a crew work and that for this game thats the way were going to have to do it...solves the problem pretty easy. Sometimes I'll come up with a witty response to break the ice and put the issue to rest.

I'm sure that I'll be burnt for this reply...but when I look at what matters we've done a great job as a crew. The coaches have been pleased that the games have been well called and that they haven't had to endure the LJ nazi in terms of how they conducted themselves (and I know this from the returned feed back cards that we give out at the start of the game to the head coaches). The one thing that puts my relationship to coaches in perspective is the nature of what we are doing out there. For a coach, that coaching job is a significant souce of income. This is his job. I'm a chemist, that is my job. I put on the stripes because I love to do it...not for the money. Therefore, I try to give him the utmost latitude when dealing with him.