Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
... why do I care what type of headband someone has on their head? If the jersey is the same color and style, their undershirt means nothing to me ... worrying about the color ... of things the school does not provide is silly ...
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Agree with you that the NFHS has turned us into mostly unwilling fashion police. The pendulum has swung to far too one side. However I don't want the pendulum to swing so far to the other side that high school basketball looks no different than lower level basketball (recreation, travel, AAU, YMCA, etc.).
We absolutely need some common sense changes that simplify (and possibly eliminate) many of these rules, but these changes must still restrict equipment colors to benefit officials by allowing them to easily identify players on each team during fast paced action.
Easy start. Ignore everything from the waist down (leg sleeves, knee pads, tights, compression shorts), just as we now ignore shorts, socks, and shoes (except for flashing lights).
Headbands, wristbands, arm sleeves? Make it simpler. Black, white, jersey color (no beige), all the same for the team. Want it even simpler? Any color, but all the same for the team.
A stripe on an arm sleeve? Fuhgeddaboudit, the issue is not worth the time, energy, or mental effort.
Logos? Let's not allow players to be become billboards. Unless we change our minds and want to allow this to raise money for interscholastic sports (à la WNBA, international, etc.).
Undershirts? When I'm watching for rebounding action contact by multiple players, I don't want opponents to have the same color undershirts, and I want undershirts to match the jerseys (treated as an extension of the jersey). I have various undershirt colors in preseason scrimmages every year. They can be slightly distracting. I don't want that in real games.
I like undershirt color rules just the way they are now, strict (only two choices, white, or jersey color), but simple to understand, and simple to enforce (if we all did it, we can be our own worst enemies, if 95% of us strictly enforced this in the first week and a half in December, the problem would go away, like herd immunity).