Willie,
I'm not you're enemy, partner. If your state says do it, then do it. But again, you said you've been doing this for years. When was the last time someone told you this is still the policy? What state are you in? Do they have this is writing anywhere, so that new officials may read it?
As for this deception that your state seems to fear, there's no guarantee, that just because it's marked in the book, you're going to prevent a coach from pulling such a stunt.
I'm a coach. Before the game, I indicate in the scorebook that every player on my roster wears contact lens or I indicate that #34 wears CL. With 30 seconds to go, I'm out of TOs. Any player or #34 tells you that he's lost his CL. You stop the clock, and we look for the CL. But guess what? We aren't going to find it, because he doesn't wear CL. But you have no way of knowing that. What are you going to do? You can't prove it. That's why you've never seen it. It just doesn't work.
Further, noting such in the score book does nothing from a legal standpoint. If you stop the play when a player goes down, you don't have to concern yourself with whether it was noted in the book or note. You do what's right, which is stopping the clock, without considering whether they "might" be trying to get away with something.
It simply isn't necessary. Notice that you're not getting tons of replies supporting this idea either. But if your state says do, do it.
Stay warm. I'm sure trying to!
