Taunting

[Brian Watson]

I had a bizarre request from a coach last night. Team S serves an ace. All of the players on team s dive into the center of their court and cheer or yell or whatever it is they do. This happens every game, all year long. Well this coach(team R) wanted me to issue an unsportsmanlike taunitng penalty. I have seen this happen at all levels of HS/MS ball, I have seen it in state tourneys, and never once was a penalty or warning issued. Nothing was said across the net, and they were ready to play once the ball came back. I had problems with the coach all night and rang it up to him trying to work me, but it does raise an interesting point, is that illegal? Ohio has never said it was, but....what does everyone else think?

[cjones]

I don't see much difference between this dive and high-fiving.

If the opposing coach wants to break up the diving party, his team should return the dead ball a little faster so his opponents will have to curtail their party to serve before their 5-seconds expire.

[RIVEROAKS]

There is no rule stopping this. But the mini TO's between rallys can be stopped by getting the ball back to the server and becond for serve. I'm concerned about a delay in the next serve. If this becomes a problem then a warning could be issued.