stuff off the clock

[wrb]

Green high school team brings 74 players to its away game.
Pregame warmup is remeniscent of the old "Zulu" movie ( with, I am sure, the same intended effect ). The blue team gets introduced and comes tearing through the usual paper banner, to find the green team, walking slowly 2 by 2, blocking the blue team's access to it's own bench on the home side of the field. The blue team has to wait until the entire parade goes by before they can get to their bench and coaches.

I am sure this was an intimidation tactic, and felt the slow parade to be inflammatory; professional wrestling type stuff, completely inappropriate at a high school sporting event.

Had a fight ensued before the start of the game, who has jurisdiction, the referees, the school, the police? Should the refs have directed the green team to their side of the field by a less inflammatory route? Are high school teams allowed any type of macho pregame posturing they care to pursue?

[mikesears]

Originally posted by wrb
Had a fight ensued before the start of the game, who has jurisdiction, the referees, the school, the police?

If the game officials on the field, they have jurisdiction to penalize/eject offenders but they will not get between offenders who are actually fighting. Coaches / Administrators / Police should actually be involved in breaking up the fights. Officials are simply taking numbers to eject players.

Should the refs have directed the green team to their side of the field by a less inflammatory route?
Are high school teams allowed any type of macho pregame posturing they care to pursue?

The game officials are allowed to rule on anything without specific rules coverage and to penalize for anything that engenders ill-will.

[SWFLguy]

Federation mechanics- official's responsibility begins 30 minutes prior to the scheduled game time. If such demonstrations are held
during that time period, it could well be flagged.
I've seen some goofy things that some goofy coaches
dream up under the illusion it inspires their players or
intimidates the opposition. In one country school a team
hid a nearby woods till the last minute and came out to the
sounds of helicopters on the PA system ! That team
still lost. Obvious taunting and such however must be flagged as it
would during the game !

[Mike Simonds]

All of you are correct...

Sounds like this was a unsportsmanlike tactic to intimidate the opponents. In our league, during the pre-game warm-ups each team must stay on their own pre-designated side of the 50 yard line.

The officials assume control of the game beginning 30 minutes prior to the kick-off. One suggestion is that the referee appoint one of the officials to stay on the field and observe both teams during their warm-ups. Or the referee can hold his pre-game meeting right on the field.

[don16954]

Same theory, diferent situation. Fans disrupt pregame or game play with physical actions (throwing things on field in the warm up area or in the end zone during play), phsically interefering with team from having access to field by slowly walking in groups between team and field, etc.)or using vulgar language near goallines/sidlines directed toward players of the opposite team. A couple of older officials told us that officials have the authority to remove the people from the grounds. As a lawyer, I said I cannot believe that would be possible, nor would want to attempt to do it. I believe the only thing we can do is advise the game administrators to address the problem. However, others have said that we do not even have the authority to delay the game. Which I know is false, as for the past 20 years of officiating football, baseball, softball, volleyball and basketball, the key emphasis of the official is player safety. I guess my question is, can officials only delay the game while asking the home school administration to address the problem, or is there a means of penalizing the team whose fans are the source of the problem if it is not properly addressed (I know this may be hard as yur can identify the person, but it would not take much for them to ie about which team the are really supporting)?