[Freddy]

"The statement, 'I am not the uniform police' is correct. However, officials are hired to enforce the rules of the game. Uniform, equipment, and apparel are all included in the rules book and must be enforced... Consistency among the officials in enforcement of these areas will provide for a unified statement to coaches. When some officials choose not to enforce the rules, they are only hurting the profession and setting up the next crew for criticism from the coaches, when, in fact, the officials who did not enforce the rules are the ones who deserve the criticism." (NFHS 2017-19 Basketball Officials Manual Point of Emphasis, p.4.)

Hopefully the lessons learned from this Fashion Police bust at this state cross country meet yesterday bubbles up to positively affect the coaches and officials of other sports, especially basketball:

How Shirts DQ'ed an Entire Cross Country Teaml

Note how the pre-season POE's and online rules meeting slides and the review questions -- all mandatory for all cross country coaches in the state -- all refute the blame game that the coach and many supporters of the featured team have chosen to play.