Adult Co-Ed Rules/Blocks

[Fritz]

New to VB officiating this past year; done some youth league games and worked into a few HS subvarsity this past winter. Now into the Adult Co-Ed season and have a question for anyone else that does co-ed leagues.

The ones I have been doing all seem to allow one of the back row male players (if there are two at time of serve) to come forward and participate in blocks at the net. Yet their league rules generally say they are playing NFHS rules - if they even have a set of league rules. Thought back row players couldn't participate in a completed block.

Is this an exception generally granted to co-ed teams or am I missing something else?

[Antonio.King]

For co-ed, some rules are altered; one of them being the allowance of a male to block out of the back row (not attack, however). In addition, another rule that's altered is a female has to make 1 of the 3 contacts before sending it over the net (often referred to as the "guy-girl" rule).

[FMadera]

Yes, in coed rules, if one male is in the front row, another male may come from the back row and block legally. However, the remaining male in the back row "must be behind the attack line until the ball has been contacted by the blocker(s)or has been hit in such a manner that no block is possible."

If the team doesn't bring another male from the back row to block, then there is no restriction on either back for player being in the attack zone.

Reverse coed is the same thing, with women taking the place of men in the above description.

The best thing about reffing coed is...it's pretty much the only level where the players not only know the rules better than the officials, but will actually help let us know when there's something they're not allowed to do. :-)

[Fritz]

Thanks for the info. Strangely the league doesn't have any posted rules except for who can be a member of a team and things like that. It just says they follow NFHS rules.

But as you point out they do seem to know the rules pretty well and, with only one referee, they also seem to point out most of their own violations. This is especially helpful since they don't always start off in their correct places at the time of the serve making it a little tougher to track back-row attacks.

[FMadera]

Originally Posted by Fritz

Thanks for the info. Strangely the league doesn't have any posted rules except for who can be a member of a team and things like that. It just says they follow NFHS rules.

Hm, I must have missed the NFHS rules/sections on co-ed play.