substitution vs participation

[hawkishowl20]

Who's right? Who's wrong?

I’m looking for opinions on this ‘situation’ I ran into Saturday. Maybe someone has come across this before or knows the rules.

My league uses WIAA rules which are basically NFHS rules. So, during a timeout my defensive coordinator substituted a cornerback for a cornerback. He said something like “you’re in” and “you’re out.” The kid that was in is new and not very sharp so he didn’t understand this and stayed on the field. Being new he also didn’t pick up on someone being in his position promptly. The timeout ends, the other team breaks the huddle, goes up to the line, we realize we have to many men, the official sees we have 12 men, decides to not stop play, the play is run (veer dive), the official throws a flag on the snap…

The official signals illegal participation and walks of the penalty 15 yards from the line of scrimmage.

Ok, now I notice this and say “that’s not a fifteen yard penalty.” The official says “it’s illegal participation that’s a fifteen yard penalty.” I now realize he’s calling the wrong penalty and say “that’s when someone comes off the bench after the snap. This is a dead ball, five yard substitution penalty!” He says “it wasn’t dead ball.” I’m now picking up on this guy being an idiot. “If you don’t blow dead a dead ball penalty it’s still a dead ball penalty.” As this is going on the other team is running a play and he has his back to them. A players dad on my sideline says “why don’t you watch the play that’s how someone gets hurt.” The official says “you (the dad) shut up I‘m not talking to you, you (me) I’ll stop the game to talk to you (me).” He starts walking toward my sideline. I say “that’s the wrong penalty, 15 yard penalties are for unsafe plays, personal fouls, unsportsmanlike, that’s the way the rules are structured.” He says “check your rule book before you open your mouth.” Now, I’m a very under control person which is good because the way he said this walking toward me and pointing is the way you pick a fight. I say “I’m fine, I don’t care, you have final say on making the wrong call, you’re the official, but I’m notifying you that your wrong so you never do it again.” That kept him from escalating it farther and he said something like “I’m right bla bla.” and the game continued.

Now, I checked my rulebook, the excepts are in the next post. Take a look if you need to and let me know what you think of my conduct the official and the ruling.

If anyone has a new good rulebook I’d be interested in that.