Ballboys/girls or the (lack thereof) at state

[DIIA]

I don't know if this was a problem on Wednesday or at other fields on Thursday, but for our semifinal match on field #3 Thursday afternoon...

We had ballboys/girls at our state semifinal match for part of the first half, then most of them disappeared.  Those who remained were appeared to be 7 or 8 years old.  It is both inappropriate and unprofessional to put a young child this age into a situation where they are incapable of performing their duties.  It's wrong to the young child and wrong to the student athletes competing at the highest level of high school competition.  Simply put, this is unacceptable for a marquis level state tournament event.

At the beginning of the second half when most of the ballboys/girls could not be found, the fourth official came over to our technical area and asked our head coach if we (our team) were going to provide ballboys for the second half and if not, why not.  Our HC explained this being the state tournament, it was not the responsibility of participating teams to furnish ballboys/girls as that is the role of the tournament organizers.

Later in the match, this same fourth official called out one of our assistant coaches for "being outside the technical area" of which she was not.  She was at the far end of the clearly marked technical area but still within, chasing down a ball as there were no ballboys.

This was the same fourth official who on a free kick which resulted in a goal, where the center referee had the wall of the defending team back 14-15 yards, explain and quoting: "the rules say a minimum of 10 yards, the center referee can make it more, 10 is just the minimum."

No commentary is necessary on the 10 yards situation as the statement speaks for itself.

Edited October 26, 2018 by JFW3

[BigG]

Me "Why did the center back them up 15 yards?!?"

4th official "the rule states AT LEAST 10 yards, coach.  That is how it is written"

NFHS rule 8-1-2 "Players opposing the kicker shall be at least 10 yards from the ball until it is kicked."

Me: "So, by that logic, he could back them up 50 yards and be within the rule?"

4th official "......."