Kick or Defer?

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

You KNOW that's not what is wanted (and don't forget, we're not talking varsity here - at varsity, you've already asked the coaches in advance). Letting the kid make this mistake is bad form, and there is NOTHING good that can come from it. If you'd ever been there, you'd know that.

Not necessarily. I cannot remember ever asking a coach before hand what the choice was and even if I did, the captain is supposed to know what to say. Then again coaches can be at the coin flip in our state, so this is often not an issue. And it is the coach’s responsibility to coach up their captains as to what to do. The other team can hear them and if you just ignore their words we are doing the other team harm IMO.

Peace

[InsideTheStripe]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

I don't have any idea what sort of parallel you're trying to draw here... but you've obviously never made the mistake of allowing a kid to actually choose kick. You KNOW that's not what is wanted (and don't forget, we're not talking varsity here - at varsity, you've already asked the coaches in advance). Letting the kid make this mistake is bad form, and there is NOTHING good that can come from it. If you'd ever been there, you'd know that.

I've never let a kid choose to kick, but I've twice had coaches elect to kick. Once on purpose and once mistakenly. I even tried to bail both of them out.

After the coach mistakenly stated he wanted to kick, I asked him, "Are you sure? That likely means you'll be kicking both halves." He insisted he wanted to kick, so I let him. Even that nearly got out of hand. We take the field in the second half and he want to know where to line up his kick return team. I tell him that the other team chose to receive the ball to start the second half and asked him which end he wants to kick from? He started to launch into a tirade about how he kicked off the first half and should be getting the ball...

I give him a stop sign after about 3 seconds and say, "Coach, before you really get started, do you remember these exact words coming out of my mouth when you told me you wanted to kick... 'Are you sure? That likely means you'll be kicking both halves'". I must have triggered something, because he simply turned around an walked away calling for his kickoff team. I'm glad I was able to cut him off and get him to realize HIS mistake before he could really get going. I could tell it was going to be a doosey that wasn't going to end well for anyone.

[Berkut]

I have a confession to make.

I don't even ask if they want to kick. I just ask if they would like to defer, receive, or defend a goal.

I figure that if for some bizarro reason they really do want to kick, they will know enough to ask me if that is one of their choices.