Expert: Bret Temple - 2/25/2011

Question
I have a player on my team who purposely hits girls in the game and has many received technical fouls.  Is there a rule against how many technical fouls one player can get throughout a season before another punishment is issued? Shouldn't there be a punishment for a player repeatedly hurting other girls on other teams and hurting our own teammates in practice.  We think she might have some kind of anger management problem but the coaches have not done anything to handle the situation.  They sit back and watch her hit other players and receive technicals and do nothing about it.

Answer
HI Emily,

I'm not sure what age level or what type of league she plays in, but this should be addressed with the league officials. Clearly something should be done as she might hurt someone. If she is purposely hurting players, than a Flagrant Technical should be called, and she should be immediately ejected from the game. If she is just fouling hard, then that's borderline on how to handle it. But I would contact the league commissioner and report it.

Emily,

I thought about this question a little bit more and realized I didn't answer your question in full, and it gave me an opportunity to think if I've ever had a similar situation. And the answer is yes. First of all, in most youth leagues there is no penalty for being accessed a certain amount of Technical Fouls, nor do they usually keep track of it. But I did officiate a girl's game in which one player was continuously and flagrantly fouling other girls to the point where girls were getting hurt. I Informed the coach that she would have to sit out the rest of the game, and I submitted a report to the league commissioner. She definitely had an anger management problem, and it needed to be dealt with. No league needs a player like that. So I hope that you did address this with your league commissioner and something was done about it.
Thanks again for the question.