illegal alignment

[timeout]

Up judge calls illegal alignment on serving team. Coach jumps up and questions call and says 'besides, that's not his call anyways'.
Is she right? Would that be the down judges call?
Thanks

[john5396]

Normal coverage is first referee watches serving team and second referee watches receiving team. SO illegal alignment on the serving team is definitly a call the first referee will make, although if the second referee identifies an alignment fault on the serving team, they can and will call it.

[pavbref]

Originally Posted by john5396

Normal coverage is first referee watches serving team and second referee watches receiving team. SO illegal alignment on the serving team is definitly a call the first referee will make, although if the second referee identifies an alignment fault on the serving team, they can and will call it.

The R2 can make this call, but they better be 100% sure it is an alignment issue. If the R2 was wrong, it is not his call to make on the serving team.

I had a call like this as R2 a couple of years ago where S2 was off of the court at the net on serve, I whistled the alignment issue and set the serving team's coach into a raging fit. The coach tried to argue that I could not have seen the fault if I was looking at the receiving team, but I responded that I could see the offending player through my peripheral vision. The offending player was about 2 feet off of the court.

[Antonio.King]

The R2 does not have jurisdiction to make that call in NCAA and/or USAV. The R2 can suggest it, but not whistle it (excluding wrong server of course).

I would imagine the same responsibilities apply under NFHS, but I'm not 100% sure there.

[FMadera]

Originally Posted by timeout

Up judge calls illegal alignment on serving team. Coach jumps up and questions call and says 'besides, that's not his call anyways'.
Is she right? Would that be the down judges call?
Thanks

Illegal alignment on the serving team is most definitely an R1 responsibility. Coach is wrong.

[kayla vb]

Originally Posted by pavbref

The R2 can make this call, but they better be 100% sure it is an alignment issue. If the R2 was wrong, it is not his call to make on the serving team.

I had a call like this as R2 a couple of years ago where S2 was off of the court at the net on serve, I whistled the alignment issue and set the serving team's coach into a raging fit. The coach tried to argue that I could not have seen the fault if I was looking at the receiving team, but I responded that I could see the offending player through my peripheral vision. The offending player was about 2 feet off of the court.

This is incorrect. If the coach had filed a protest instead of throwing a fit, he would've won (under USAV rules). I've seen a protest filed, and won, on this exact call.

To the OP, the R1 can essentially make any call he wants to make. He can make illegal alignment calls on either team. However, the R2 may ONLY whistle the receiving team for illegal alignment.

[playr2coach2ref]

I recently had an R2 whistle illegal alignment on the serving team. The player was running towards left back (correct position) and was very close to being there by the contact of the serve. As R1, I was not going to call it, as it was really too close to call at that point. The next thing I knew, my R2 was whistling it. The coach did not complain because he was too busy yelling at the player to be where she was supposed to be.

I waited until after the match and discussed it with the R2. My main issue: if she was watching the serving team all the way until the contact of the serve to see if LB got back to her spot, who was watching the receiving team--no one, of course. My other issue was that she clearly undermined me. I was obviously watching the serving team--did she not think I saw LB running from one side of the court to the other? Did she not think I knew where she was supposed to be? In retrospect, I probably should have overruled her and called a replay, but at the time, I thought it would make us look bad as a team. However, after consulting with higher level officials, they assured me the R1 should take control in issues such as these--especially since the coach could have protested and would likely have won (well, definitely, since I would have had to admit that in my judgment the player was not out of alignment at the contact of the serve).

It was a good learning experience for me!