[BillyMac]

Girls middle school game yesterday. Third period. Only one girl on both teams had fingernail polish and that caught my attention (that, and the fact that she had delivered three consecutive air ball free throws in the first half (a personal officiating career record for me)).

It was only then that I noted that her fingernails were longer than I would have liked. How long is unsafe? So while we lined up for free throws I approached her and asked to see her nails. Not actually sure if they were unsafe so I just told her to be sure to trim them before her next game. A few minutes later I had a chance to speak to her coach to discuss the issue. I started with "Coach, #30's fingernails are long ...". Didn't get another word out before the coach replied, "Yeah, they're like daggers".

The "dagger" word bothered me and made me question my initial ruling of "safe for today". So the three of us met and I decided to bench her (her team was way ahead in the game) until she trimmed her nails (err on the side of safety), figuring she could easily get a nail clipper, file, or emery board from the first aid kit and remedy the issue and get back into game. Nothing available in the first aid kit, so I suggested that she ask parents, which she did, and was able to fix the problem.

The player and the coach never (surprisingly) gave me a hard time, but she was on the verge of tears, so I was pleased that she was able to eventually get back into the game. I hate making thirteen year old girls cry.