BCAPL Tornament team coaching regulations
I'll try to unscrew this for you. A couple of disclaimers first...
1) I'm off to the OK state tourney in a few hours. If this generates 20 other questions they'll have to wait until later.
2) What I'm putting out here is regs for the national tournament. Most state and regional BCAPL events are probably following them, but modifications may be made by the local Administrative Authorities. Below that level, what happens with coaching rules in any given league or local tournament is anyone's guess. If you really want to know, ask ahead of time and make them show it to you in writing. If they can't, run away. Run, don't walk.
To make it easier, I'll just post up the section from the Tournament Regulations for the 2010 BCAPL National 8-Ball Championships that deals with team coaching:
T6 Coaching
1. During your inning, you may not communicate with your team, and your team may not assist you in any way. Whether a coaching foul has occurred and been properly called is at the sole judgment of the referee.
2. Except as prohibited in Regulation T6.3 below, during your opponent's inning you may quietly discuss anything you wish with your team. All discussion and communication must stop immediately when your opponent's inning ends.
3. At any time, REGARDLESS OF WHICH PLAYER IS AT THE TABLE, it is a foul for any team member involved in a match but not actually playing in a game to:
a. suggest to a player in a game that they call a referee;
b. alert another player that their opponent has fouled or that coaching has occurred.
4. It is not a foul for any player involved in a match, playing in a game or not, to:
a. alert their team that the wrong player(s) are at the table;
b. summon a referee for a matter not directly related to the course of the game at the table, such as score sheet problems
c. offer encouragement or emotional support to a player at the table
5. A COACHING FOUL MAY ONLY BE CALLED BY A PLAYER INVOLVED IN A GAME OR A REFEREE. If a coaching foul occurs, and any player on the offended team who is not involved in the game calls the coaching foul before their player at the table does or alerts their player to the coaching foul, the foul is negated and play will proceed with no penalties applied.
The National office has worked long and hard to simplify the mess that coaching arguments often create and, after much discussion, has come up with an elegant solution. Please note that, per T6.5, coaching fouls cannot be called by team members of the offended from behind the rail. If a coaching foul occurs and someone from the other team replies with what is essentially another coaching foul, the two cancel each other out and you play on.
In OP's situation: if the captain had alerted the player with stripes that there was still a stripe on the table, AND player with solids called the foul, it would have been BIH for solids. In general, loss of game has not been a penalty in BCAPL play, though the regs for this event may have been different.
The complete regulations for the BCAPL Nationals are posted on the BCAPL website.
:smile:
Buddy Eick
BCAPL National Head Referee
BCAPL Director of Referee Training
Technical Editor, BCAPL Rule Book
bcapl_referee@cox.net
Find the Official Rules of the BCA Pool League here:
http://www.playbca.com/Downloads/Rulebook/CompleteRulebook/tabid/372/Default.aspx
* The contents of this post refer to BCA Pool League (BCAPL) Rules only. The BCAPL National Office has authorized me to act in an official capacity regarding questions about BCAPL Rules matters in public forums.
* Neither I nor any BCAPL referee make any policy decisions regarding BCAPL Rules. Any and all decisions, interpretations, or Applied Rulings are made by the BCAPL National Office and are solely their responsibility. BCAPL referees are enforcers of rules, not legislators. BCAPL Rules 9.5.3 and 9.5.4 apply.
* No reference to, inference concerning, or comment on any other set of rules (WPA, APA, VNEA, TAP, or any other set of rules, public or private) is intended or should be derived from this post unless specifically stated.
* For General Rules, 8-Ball, 9-Ball, 10-Ball, and 14.1 Continuous: there is no such thing as "BCA Rules" other than in the sense that the Billiard Congress of America (BCA) publishes various rules, including the World Pool-Billiard Association's "World Standardized Rules" for those games. The BCA does not edit, nor is responsible for the content of, the World Standardized Rules. The Official Rules of the BCAPL is a separate and independent set of rules and, to avoid confusion, should not be referred to as "BCA Rules".
* Since 2004, there is no such thing as a "BCA Referee". The BCA no longer has any program to train, certify or sanction billiards referees or officials.
* The BCAPL has no association with the Billiard Congress of America other than in their capacity as a member of the BCA.
* The BCAPL has not addressed every imaginable rules issue, nor will it ever likely be able to, as evidenced by the seemingly endless situations that people dream up or that (more frequently) actually happen. If I do not have the answer to a question I will tell you so, then I will get a ruling from the BCAPL National Office and get back to you as soon as I can. If deemed necessary, the BCAPL will then add the ruling to the "Applied Rulings" section of The Official Rules of the BCA Pool League.
