Our Y league also promotes an equal playing time rule. We play 10 minute quarters. As an assistant to my husband I take the role of charting the playing time. Rather than divide it by quarters we use the 1/2 a quarter method. We have played with as many as 12 girls and this methods works out very well. Rather than seeing a child sit on the bench through an entire quarter, they are all almost guaranteed to play part of every quarter. We will even do extra substituting at the end of the 2nd or end of the 4th if we are playing above the competition. This is not as easy as it sounds when all twelve are present or when you chart it prior to the game and someone doesn't show up. Our parents appreciate the fact that we are going out of our way to try to make it fair even if there are times when one or two players play more than the others. We had a game where one of our players had scored 21 points by the 2nd quarter. We were winning by 40 points at the half so we talked to the player and her parents to let them know that we would not be playing her an extensive amount of time in the 2nd half. She played 2 minutes in the 4th quarter and that is it, but she did not complain and neither did her parents. I'm even pretty certain the other coach was quite thankful. The constant mixing of players also ensured a fair mix of skills and we were able to allow players to try different positions. I've seen coaches try the 5 in 5 out but they do it with their 5 best players and their 5 worst players which is totally counter productive. We also have rules about starting... if you miss practice, you don't start, if you are suppose to start and show up late, you don't start. If you missed a game you cannot start the next game and so on. These rules mixed with the equal playing time promote fairness all the way around. A player that does not practice should not be rewarded with equal playing time awarded to those who do. This is a much understated factor that can just as easily rub people the wrong way.