Coah asks for line up check after whistle to serve is blown

[officialtony]

HS Varsity match. Tean A is ready to serve when Team B's coach sees her girls are overlapped - she is desparately trying to corect this. R blows the whistle and signals for serve. She shouts to the U " line up check ! " as team A serves, the U walks out on the court waving his arms and states that Team B is requesting a line-up check ( ball is already over the net and in for an apparent ace ). R halts play and lets U check AND correct the line-up. R then signals for Team A to serve. Ruling please?

[TimTaylor]

Originally posted by officialtony
HS Varsity match. Tean A is ready to serve when Team B's coach sees her girls are overlapped - she is desparately trying to corect this. R blows the whistle and signals for serve. She shouts to the U " line up check ! " as team A serves, the U walks out on the court waving his arms and states that Team B is requesting a line-up check ( ball is already over the net and in for an apparent ace ). R halts play and lets U check AND correct the line-up. R then signals for Team A to serve. Ruling please?

Interesting question Tony.....I actually had something very similar happen last week, only the request was clearly between the signal for serve & the ball being served. I was the umpire, and what I did was ignore the request, called the misalignment, then told her "sorry coach, he'd already signaled for the serve". She accepted that, got her alignment check, & we moved on.

In digging a little deeper, this is what I came up with:
Rule 12.2.5.b allows coach to ask for, among other things, a lineup check during a dead ball.
Rules 9.3.1 & 9.3.2 clearly state that the ball does not become live until struck for serve.
Rules 10.1.2.c and 11.2.1 specifically disallow requests for substitiutions and timeouts after the Referee signals for serve.
I can find no mention in either the rulebook or casebook for similar exceptions for allowed dead ball requests under rule 12.2.5.b.

Interesting, eh? It would appear at face value that the Federation's intent is to disallow requests after the referee signals for serve, but if that's truly the case, why didn't they just say that, instead of specifically disallowing timeout & substitution requests? A simple "no requests allowed after signal to serve is given" would be great! Sometimed NFHS drives me nuts.......

[TimTaylor]

Tony,

Just for kicks, I referred this to our association's rules interpreter. Her initial response was "no requests honored after whistle/beckon for serve", but to make sure, she bounced it to the State rules interpreter who concurred.

So for Oregon at least, we have an official interpretation!

[officialtony]

Tim,
Thanks for the feedback. I, also, questioned my association and got the same response - " no requests for alignment check or time outs are to be honored after the referee has signaled for the serve. If the coach persists, a delay of game penalty is to be assesed. " I could have asked further if, after the penalty is assesed, do I allow the timeout, but I think I knew the answer. If a time out was still available, the coach and the team would have been charged a time out and therefore received it. If no time out was available, the penalty point would have been assesed and we would have continued with a dead ball situation, where the coach could then ask for a line up check.

[Homer]

Isn't the answer in the rulebook under 8-1-5?

"After the referee's signal for service, no requests (i.e. time out, SERVICE ORDER, LINEUP, substitution, etc.), may be recognized until after the ball has been served."

-emphasis added-