Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyMac
Thanks for the rule citation. I already put part of the blame on these premeet officials, but some blame still must fall on the coaches as well. Coaches aren't blameless here.
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If the quoted rule is correct, blame should also be on the postmeet officials who disqualified the athletes, because there was no warning given (by the quoted rule) before the meet. I previously held these postmeet officials blameless.
Here's the last paragraph of an article I recently had published regarding basketball (Fashion Police) equipment restrictions:
Rules that restrict equipment colors benefit officials by allowing them to easily identify players on each team during fast paced action. Consistency among officials in the enforcement of equipment restriction rules will provide a unified statement to coaches. When some officials choose not to enforce these 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. For those officials contemplating not enforcing equipment restrictions because such rules have “nothing to do with the game of basketball”, in the words of author Roy T. Bennett, “Stop doing what is easy, or popular. Start doing what is right”.
If all (adult officials and coaches) involved in this cross country fiasco hadn't done what was easy, or popular, and decided, instead, to do what was right, none of this would have happened.
This reminds me of the Muslim basketball player last year whose head scarf was ignored by officials all season long until the state tournament when she was asked to provide documentation that she didn't have. She didn't have it because she had played in twenty regular season games with no questions asked. The tournament officials (correctly) didn't allow her to play and everything hit the proverbial fan. With apologies to "Art" Linkletter, sometimes adults do the darndest things.