BIG PARKWAY EAST RULES – UPDATED FOR THE 2025 SEASON
Our league theme is I Corinthians 9.24-27 about running the race to win for the imperishable wreath and our website is bigparkwayeast.com
“An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.” 2 Timothy 2.5
BEFORE THE OPENING TIP-OFF OF THE SEASON: Each player must sign the church liability waiver form and the player sportsmanship agreement. Both forms are available at the scorekeeper’s table inside the gym. No player may participate without signing those two forms.
Length of game and clock: The games run for two 24-minute halves with a running clock that stops for shooting fouls and timeouts. It also stops in the last minute for every whistle.
Forfeits: A team forfeits the game if it has fewer than four players ready to play. If a team has four players we consider it a legal game. If a team has three players at game time, it has 15 minutes to get the fourth player there to avoid the forfeit. The game would be shortened to two 20-minute halves if it starts 15 minutes late. In the event that a team forfeits, it must pay both referees fees to the refs, which equals $110.
Pre-game duties: Coaches should get their players into the scorebook as soon as the previous game is over to help the games stay on time. Please put your team on the side of the scorebook where your team will sit. After both teams have time for warming up, we will gather at the center circle for basketball trivia, a short devotional story and a prayer as a way to build brotherhood and friendship among the teams in the league.
Overtime: Five minutes long and each team gets an extra timeout.
Referee fee: Each team pays $55 for the referee fee.
League fee: Each team must pay a $75 gym rental fee and a $50 league fee, which covers scorebooks, trophies and other expenses. Please pay that asap after the league starts. The gym rental fee can be paid by check to Beulah Presbyterian Church and the league fee goes to me.
Timeouts: Each team gets three timeouts per half, non-cumulative.
Timeout rule inside of a minute: A few years ago we added the rule that a team can move the ball to halfcourt on a time out inside of a minute either at the end of the half or the game.
Halftime: This last five minutes to allow the scorekeeper, the refs and others time to go to the restroom or whatnot especially when they do multiple games. It also gives the teams adequate rest, especially when a squad only has five guys.
Personal Fouls: A player fouls out after six personals. A technical counts as a personal.
Technicals: If a player gets two technicals due to unsportsmanlike behavior and language, he gets ejected from the game and suspended from the next game. If he gets suspended for a second time, he is out of the league for the season. If a player uses profane or obscene language, he gets a technical and is removed from the game as well as suspended from the next game. If he uses obscene or profane language a second time, he is also done for the season. This includes using the Lord’s name in vain, f-bombs and other profane expressions. This may seem harsh to some but all I can say is I’m more patient than the previous commissioner. The previous commissioner had a one and done policy. If it happened once you were gone for the year. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building other up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4.29
We naturally want to avoid having players taunting each other. We haven’t had a lot of problems with that in the past but we want to reiterate that we are not in this league to humiliate or put other players down but to build them up. Don’t get me wrong. It’s important to play hard and compete- to run to win like our league verse says. Just do it with integrity and respectfully.
Jerseys and numbers: Each player needs to have a separate number with the same color jersey as his teammates. We can not have two players with the same number or players with different colors. If a team is guilty of violating this rule, the opposing team gets to shoot a two-shot administrative technical at the beginning of the game or at some other point of the game if the violation is discovered afterwards. The team that shoots the technical also gets the ball out of bounds. One player can have no number and be considered 0 or 00 if all the other teammates have numbers. The reason for this is that it makes scorekeeping a nightmare and the refs often don’t give the fouls to the correct players etc.
Playoff eligibility: A player needs to appear in 50% of the games to qualify for the playoffs. Exceptions have been made to this rule for players who have played for a team for several years and haven’t been able to play due to injury or illness or some other reason.
Cancellations: If a team cancels their game by the night before due to not having enough players, it will be considered a forfeit win for the opposing team as well as a loss for the forfeiting team and the schedule will be adjusted as best we can. There would be no forfeit fee in this case but the game counts toward the records of both teams. Please have some extra players on your roster to avoid forfeits and cancellations. If a team cancels the morning of a Saturday game or in the late afternoon or early evening of a Thursday game, they will have to pay the forfeit fee because there is no way to cancel the refs and adjust the schedule in time. We want to avoid cancellations.
Cancellations due to inclement weather: I will communicate with all the coaches if we will need to cancel due to snow or ice. Most of the time I will wait until the morning of Saturday games or the afternoon of Thursday games to assess whether it is too dangerous to play. But in some rare occasions we might cancel the night before. I always like to assess things as close to game time as possible. In the past there have been times when we cancelled games the night before and the weather turned out fine. We only want to cancel when it is truly a bad situation.
Unwritten mercy rule: We do not have an actual mercy rule per se. My only comment is I hope that teams will not employ a full court press against a team that is obviously weaker, for example a team that has only four players and hasn’t won a game like what happened one time. Also, another example would be playing a real intense man to man defense when you are up by 40 or more points.
Please help with scorekeeping as needed. I will miss some games this season due to other commitments so I won’t be at every game.
Thanks for being part of the league. I will update or change rules as needed and you’ll be notified asap.