Newspaper Article

[Snake~eyes]

I was reading somthing over at LaxPower and came across a thread about a game ending fight. The article is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51581-2005Apr13.html

What do you guys think? What can we as officials do to prevent fights? And when they do occur, prevent them from escalalating?

[michaeldwilson]

It's hard to tell from the article what was going on. But really you can only do so much as an official. I think the most I've ever done is call an official's time out and called both coaches together to tell them that the game was getting way too chippy, and to tell them to talk to their players.

I'm calling my first game (and probably only game) of the year tomorrow, and my first in about a year. Hence the basic questions as I'm re-familiarizing myself with the rules. In my reading of the rulebook this year, it seems like I'm looking at some ancient, ambiguous dead language, while the refs on this forum are high priests parsing out the meaning and implications of the code.

I really do think someone should write something equivalent to the New American Standard Bible, a sort of translation of the rules. Or at least a book called "A Players Guide to the Rules of Lacrosse," because few players are going to spend time on these often unclear, cryptic, and even tortured uses of the King's English.

Mike

[stegmakk]

I don't think this could have been stopped from escalating as it sounded like it happened instantly.
I remember an instance back on JV I think in HS...cant remember...
Anyway...our team was crushing the other with under 10 minutes (maybe even under 5)...one of our players took a cheap shot out of bounds right by our bench...being the hot head he was he retaliated against the other player...next thing you know the field and opponents bench all converge on our bench in a big melee...I was one of the few players trying to seperate players but it finally took the coaches, a couple of players AND parents to get the two teams apart...The game was called with time left...
I was embarrassed by our lack of restraint...
Point it the ref called the game with time left, and was within his right (in my opinion)...the only tough call is when it is a close game...
would it be possible to suspend the game kick out the major components of the fight, and then resume (with the instigators out, and some time to cool down)?

[michaeldwilson]

would it be possible to suspend the game kick out the major components of the fight, and then resume (with the instigators out, and some time to cool down)?

Absolutely. But it takes time to sort out all the penalties and get things exactly right. It can always be done, in my view. In fact, I think it should be done so you can determine who gets reported to the league. The main thing is to take your time and do it in a calm, professional, deliberate, and fair manner.

Mike

[pboyd]

A little more info on the article you mentioned from our assigner:
"With respect to the article you may have read in yesterday’s Washington Post about the Lake Braddock @ Robinson altercations – The efforts of the NVLOA crew were excellent. The Play-On technique was employed on the Crease violation and the subsequent events were beyond their control. At no time did they grab or touch any players. The umpire blew the whistle to freeze the players in the area of the immediate altercation and the ref turned to freeze the bench. Lake Braddock Froze and Robinson did not. We can never prepare you enough for such an event but the mechanics employed by the crew were correct! Please ensure to speak briefly to the Sportsmanship of the Game and the preservation of the integrity of our beloved sport. Don’t let actions of a few destroy what we all have helped build and know that next year after 30 years of lacrosse in our Commonwealth – We will have a State Championship!"

The real challenge is do we continue to play and if we do - how do you keep track of offsides?

[Snake~eyes]

A little more info on the article you mentioned from our assigner:
"With respect to the article you may have read in yesterday’s Washington Post about the Lake Braddock @ Robinson altercations – The efforts of the NVLOA crew were excellent. The Play-On technique was employed on the Crease violation and the subsequent events were beyond their control. At no time did they grab or touch any players. The umpire blew the whistle to freeze the players in the area of the immediate altercation and the ref turned to freeze the bench. Lake Braddock Froze and Robinson did not. We can never prepare you enough for such an event but the mechanics employed by the crew were correct! Please ensure to speak briefly to the Sportsmanship of the Game and the preservation of the integrity of our beloved sport. Don’t let actions of a few destroy what we all have helped build and know that next year after 30 years of lacrosse in our Commonwealth – We will have a State Championship!"

The real challenge is do we continue to play and if we do - how do you keep track of offsides?
Sounds like the officials did a good job, as best as they could have done in this situation.

I think its a good call to end this game.

Offsides wouldn't be that hard to keep track of. Read 4-10 and more specfically 4-11. Basically they'd have to have 3 attackmen, the if they have 4 more players, they'd have to stay in the defensive half. And if there are 1-3 players left they are the middies. It would probably be easier to keep offsides in this situation! The penalty box would be quite full too. But again good game termination by the officials.

[michaeldwilson]

The real challenge is do we continue to play and if we do - how do you keep track of offsides?

How many guys do you have left? When you have fewer than 10 players available, you are offsides if you don't keep three in your offensive area. So theoretically, you can play the game with 4 players.

Mike

[LaxRef]

How many guys do you have left? When you have fewer than 10 players available, you are offsides if you don't keep three in your offensive area. So theoretically, you can play the game with 4 players.


Depends what you mean. In NCAA, the penalties stack, so you can't be down more than 3 men at once unless you have very few players (even if you had 11, but 5 guys had penalties, those 5 guys can't be in the game even if they're waiting to serve, so you could only have 6 in the game, 3 in the box, and then 2 waiting to serve).

In NFHS, you could theoretically have 10 guys in the box at once. I don't think in principle you call the game because the team has no players on the field, but in practice you would likely have called it before assessing 10 penalties at once!