At a game the other evening, the head coach was observed grabbing bench players and literally pushing them back toward the bench area as the field team came by to celebrate a goal.

We all have our moments, but what is with the manhandling of players by coaches?

if he was keeping his players from rushing the opposing team-- he did the right thing and the bench players should realize.. they are on the bench.

he should have just told them to sit down, that seems like a novel idea.

Does anyone realize that if a bench player enters the field for any reason during a match without the consent of the referee, he and/or the coach could recieve a red card? Just4kicks were you on the bench and know the circumstances? I would think that if the coach is of the team that you are supporting, you would approach him/her with your concerns. Am I not right? If it was not the team you were supporting, you really should not have any beef with what goes on with their bench. It sounds as if the coach was trying to protect his players and his staff from being booked and possibly ejected.

SCSkeeper, do you realize that if this happened the other evening, as just4kicks describes, that we are talking about the second or third round playoff matches. Looking back at some of the scores, you have Irmo going to OT twice, HH going to OT twice, DF playing 2 close matches, NW coming from behind, and that is just 4A. Any of these environments is going to make it difficult to request players to sit down when a goal is scored. Would you not agree?

The other consideration is the "excessive celebration" yellow card. Players who score in a big game have to concerned with celebrating too much or they'll get booked.

While bench players entering the field and getting sent off is a concern, I'm more concerned with the bench players riling up the goal scorer and the referee misunderstanding a lot of people yelling and screaming for the goal scorer "excessively celebrating" or taunting when they are simply excited about scoring a big goal in a big game. Also, if the referee thinks the bench is excessively celebrating, the coach may get booked. Some schools and/or school districts fine coaches who get booked or sent off.

im going to have to agree with lowerstate4a. when you get this far into the playoffs, scoring a goal in a close game is highly exciting, so a simple request to stay on the bench usually isnt going to work out.

Lowerstate4A,

I was not on the bench, just a fan in the stands. It just seemed the coach crossed the line.

From a player's point of view, nothing is more exciting than scoring in an important game....

I don't think that I could stay seated in that kind of situation

Two things about the above posts. 1. If a player enters the field of play without the referee's that player can receive a yellow card not a red. It is a cautionable offense. 2. Excessive cellabration is a soft red card offense this year in High School. The player is shown both the red and yellow card and the team is allowed a substitution.

Just wanted to clear up the muddy waters.

sorry I forgot to put in with the referee's permission regarding entering the field of play.