Rule Proposal: Shot Clock Officials

Rule Proposal by Ben Tubergen

Rule proposal: Shot clock officials are responsible for distinguishing a legitimate throw vs. a non legitimate throw.

My reasoning for this is that there have been multiple occasions this year where the shot clock official stops his/her count thinking it was a legitimate throw, then realizes the head ref thought it wasn’t, and then begins to pick up their count again causing confusion for the throwing team. Typically resulting in balls over.

I hope that wasn’t too wordy. But this is the scenario. Team A’s shot clock is at 12, team A makes a throw attempt that the shot clock counter deems legitimate, he/she stops counting. Team A continues play as if their shot clock has been reset. However the shot clock official then realizes the head ref deemed the throw illegitimate. The shot clock official then begins to either pick up their count from the time of Team A’s throw (at 13) or skips ahead to compensate for the time that elapsed (14 or 15). Leaving little to no time for Team A to react. In numerous occasions this scenario causes confusion for team A resulting in a balls over, because they’re listening to the count not watching the head refs signaling.

Author: Jacob Leski

Former President of Central Michigan's Club Dodgeball team. 2x First Team All-American (2015, 2016). 2nd year as Director of League Expansion and Retention.

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