Announcement
The committee did approve one rule change and two major editorial changes, which subsequently were approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.
Rule 2-12 will now require the official scorer to wear a black-and-white vertically striped garment. Previously, this was a recommendation for schools.
“The players, coaches and officials need to be able to quickly and easily identify the official scorer, and making this a requirement should assist in that regard,” Summers said.
One of the editorial revisions approved by the committee concerns changes made last year in a team-control foul. The following language will be added to Rule 4-19-7: “ . . . including a member of the throw-in team from the start of the throw-in until player control is obtained inbounds.”
The committee noted that the team-control rule change last season introduced an unnecessary level of complexity to a number of rules. This additional language will allow all rules affected by the team-control definition change last season to revert to previous verbiage.
The other editorial change is Rule 2-2-4, which expands the timeframe for state associations to intercede in the event of unusual incidents from after a game, to before and during a contest.
In addition, the Basketball Rules Committee approved four points of emphasis for the 2012-13 season: 1) closely guarded situations, 2) contact above the shoulders, 3) intentional fouls and 4) guidelines to enforce illegal contact. Points of emphasis are specific rules that need more attention by players, coaches and officials.
Basketball is the second-most popular sport for girls and third-most popular for boys at the high school level, according to the 2010-11 High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the NFHS, with 438,933 girls and 545,844 boys participating nationwide. The sport ranks first in school sponsorship of girls and boys teams with 17,767 schools sponsoring the sport for girls and 18,150 sponsoring the sport for boys.
