Game Control Question
 

During the course of a game, under Nebraska High School regulations, the game officials have control of the game, as far as penalties, personal fouls, and ejections are concerned.

At any point does the school administration or league officials have the ability to address the officials during the course of the game to let them know they were wrong in either ejecting, or not ejecting, players for personal fouls, or perceived dirty play?

I believe the game officials have control and may be addressed after the game is completed, in an official manner. There are others in the mentioned league who believe the administration must step in during the game to correct anything the officials are or are not doing.

Comments? Questions? Any input is appreciated, trying to see what the professionals think of the scenario....

I'm sure you posted this as a serious question, but I almost broke out laughing when I read it.

Other than severe weather warnings or a life-threatening situation in the stadium area, administrators have no business addressing game officials during the course of the game.

No.

No, game administration or the head coach could file complaints or objections after the game with the proper governing body. There is no "appeal process" in-game.

In NC, the NCHSAA only reviews requests that an incorrect player was ejected, such as #21 instead of #31 as there is a mandatory suspension for being ejected.

A coach could request a "coach-official" conference but that discussion could only entail a misapplication of a rule, such as a player or coach not being ejected after their 2nd unsportsmanlike conduct foul. Judgment calls such as whether or not an official deemed an act worthy of ejection are not up for debate or discussion, except amongst the officiating crew.

We are "judge, jury, and executioner". Any other method would be untenable.

Can't speak to what individual states do but the answer to your question would be no, they do not in any situation that I've ever seen. They maybe able to appeal some decisions to the state association but they have no business interfering with the crew's administration of the playing rules.

Now, tell us what happened.

The game was a championship game, between two very, very competitive rivals. They had played already during the regular season, and Team A beat Team B by a score of 13-7

It was the only loss of the year for Team B (7-1), Team A entered the game at 8-0

The incident occurred post game, literally as the last championship medal was handed to the last player from Team A (which won the rematch 38-9), the administrator was confronted by an irate parent of Team B, literally at the 50 yard line.

The parent berated the administrator that there were a few personal foul calls against Team A in the second half, which from her perspective in the stands, should have warranted ejections. (The plays I witnessed could very easily have gone both ways, and were likely retaliations, since at that point the score was already 31-2). SHE went on to say that the administrator should have come down from the press box and corrected the officials who had determined the offenses were penalties, but did not warrant ejections. The administrator repeated numerous times to the parent that the officials have control of the game and that they were very experienced in what they do, and that even if the administrator saw offenses that he felt incorrectly handled, he was not able to approach the officials during the course of the game to address them. After a few minutes of constant onslaught from the parent, the administrator simply walked away.

The next day the parent sent emails to the administrators, stating the winning team should forfeit the game for playing with illegal players (players she deemed illegal herself, because she said since they should have been ejected, and weren't, that they were actually ejected players still participating, thus illegal)

The crew for the championship games in our league consist of the most veteran and well respected officials in our pool, and they handled the game correctly, and I think, as I got to witness it all, that it was a case of sour grapes from a parent with a lot of interest in seeing her kid succeed.

So this is all about a ticked off, obviously loony parent?? What was a parent doing on the field after the game? If I'm the administrator, I tell the parent we may speak later at an appropriate time and then our school SRO is going to escort them off of the field.

Much ado about nothing.

LMFAO. It takes all kinds in this world.

Give me her phone number, I'd love to talk to her.

Imagine that. :rolleyes:

I don't think the problem today, is that there are more loony or whacky people. The problem seems to be that there are a lot more people who, for whatever reason, pay attention to the loony and whacky people.

Since we are still in the middle of the HS post-season...I'm guessing you are referring to a previous year...or worse you are talking about one of the junior, little kid leagues...parents shouldn't be allowed to attend those games.

As was stated before, if the administrator has some issue of safety to bring to my attention I want to hear from him...I.E. storm warning, (happened once this year) or the ambulance had to leave for an emergency call, and school district policies required an ambulance present for the contest to continue. (also happened this year) so we had to wait about 25 minutes for the ambulance from the next town to arrive.

Also happened once this year about halfway through the 2nd quarter the administrator got our attention to tell us two of the visiting teams players should have been ineligible due to having been ejected the previous week, He wanted us to remove them from the game. Since I have no jurisdiction to rule on the eligibility of players in this situation, my response was if that were the case, the state association would gladly hear their protest, after the game.

It turned out they had received 2 PFs in the previous game and not 2 USCs, and their coach benched them, but they were not ejected.

No.

And if an administrator did this, I would simply right what we call a "Special Report" which is a form used for ejections and other issues that need to be addressed with the state and let the state deal with why an someone from the school is interfering with the job of the officials. And then I would also call my assignor and let them know what is taking place so they can deal with the issue on their end. The bottom line is no administrator has the right to interfere with the job of the officials and if they do they can pay penalties more than suspension.

Peace

We'd be there all night if we called what the fans perceived to be a foul. Bottom line is that the fans do not understand the rules. If they did, they'd be officials. Most acts that require disqualification require judgement. What a fan thinks is a disqualifying action may differ with the officials. If the administrator tries to tell me that we have to eject a certain player, I may be inclined to hand him my flag and tell him he start calling all the fouls.

If an administrator tells me that we have to eject a certain player, I may be inclined to eject the administrator.

I swear, just about the time I think I've heard it all...