As a down official, what is your responsibility if you know that the serving team has the incorrect player serving and your partner is not picking up on it?

Do you wait for the table to notify you? Do you make the call as soon as she serves? Do you try to prevent her from serving?

Please answer specific to NFHS rules.

I don't have my rulebook on me, but I'll check tonight and see how I fared off the cuff.

It seems to me that if you are 100% sure of the serving error and know your partner is just not picking up on it, you should call it immediately after the serve, when the violation occurs. If you are only 99% certain, I can see waiting until after the point has been played to check with the scorekeeper to confirm the error, and then making your partner aware of the problem so the score can be corrected.

Even if you are 100% sure, I wouldn't have you do anything before the serve (other than try to discretely alert your partner to the potential problem). The serving team should have the responsibility of recognizing its own error. It has the opportunity to correct itself up to the time the serve is hit, and before that point there is no violation to call.

Finally, I would not wait for the table to notify me, unless I was sure that the scorekeeper knew what he or she was doing. My limited experience tells me that most high school scorekeepers (at least in this area) lack the experience and confidence to recognize the problem and promptly alert the umpire.

Nick

Under the NFHS rules, the scorer is responsible for this call - Rule 5-5-3.e. The scorer is supposed to sound the horn as soon as the incorrect server serves.

If the scorer doesn't catch it, the protocol locally is to let the point play out and at the first dead ball, inquire of the the scorer whether there was an incorrect server and to give the appropriate signal and assess the penalty after confirmation by the scorer.

You definitely do not attempt to prevent her from serving - the teams are responsible for knowing the service order and can ask for a lineup check if they're unsure.

Homer is correct. If the scorer does not sound the horn for the incorrect server, you wait for the point to play out and then confirm with the scorekeeper and correct the score and rotation then. You should never attempt to keep them from serving.

I checked the rule book, which clearly lays the responsibility on the scorekeeper to sound the horn when an illegal server contacts the ball (5-5-3-e). The referee also has responsibility to determine the alignment of players of the serving team (5-3-3-c-7) and has general supervision of all officials (5-3-34-a-1). You could argue that if the scorekeeper misses it and the referee misses it, the umpire could still blow the whistle upon the improper server's contact, because under Rule 5-4-3-a he or she would be "assist[ing] the referee," but would be a stretch to say the situation was "clearly out of the referee's view." . . . out of his mind, maybe, but not out of his view. ;)

Thus, I come back to jumping on the sound advice that Homer and Andy have given of letting the point play out (even if you are 100% sure of the violation) and during the next dead ball checking with the scorekeeper. If you were right, you notify the referee of the error and correct the score appropriately.

Nick

I would have to agree on all points that have been made. Let the scorekeeper do his/her job. Play the point out, if need be.
The one question I have is this: In our area (Wisconsin), the down official keeps track of the rotation. (As well as the scorekeeper). Would the up official necessarily know that it is the wrong server? I do not think they are keeping track of that fact. Just wondering.

Dave - The up official has the responsibility of alignment for the serving team at the serve as well as back row attacks and blocks. S/he should have an idea of the rotation order, even though the down official may be keeping a lineup card.

wrong server
 

Incidence: I as the down official believe that Team A has a wrong server going to the line, I am fairly sure that the wrong server is approaching the serving area, I ask the excellent and very experienced score keeper if the correct server is at the line, she replies yes, server scores two points, I ask again, "are you sure that is the correct server?" score keeper replies "yes". server makes another point, on the next serve the ball is lost. Team B serves with the correct server, loses the ball, Team A sends same server to the line as was up previously, I say to the score keeper, "so she was the wrong server last time?" score keeper replies, "oh my yes". Coach on Team B becomes incenced, because he heard me asking about serving order previously. Game goes on, no points were taken away because the serve had changed. What could or should I have done? Should I have taken time to check the score book and make sure?

Re: wrong server
 

Sounds to me that you did just about all you could. You asked a scorekeeper that you trusted, twice even, and received an affirmative response. I suppose that you could have checked the book yourself, but I would only recommend that if you weren't confident with the scorekeeper or you noticed that s/he hadn't been paying attention.

Did team B not have anyone keeping a book? Usually, both teams keep a book with the home team being official. If Coach B heard you ask previously, why wasn't he asking his bookkeeper about the serving order and getting it straightened out right then. Once team A has lost serve and team B has served, it's too late to do anything about it.

wrong server
 

Team B did not have anyone doing a score book as far as I could tell

Re: wrong server
 

Absolutely!