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Gentlemen, while this forum appears to be currently used by men's lacrosse officials, I'm hoping you can still provide some guidance. I am a womens lacrosse apprentice umpire in the NW.
On Thursday we had weather that would test most mail carriers. Wind, threats of hail, the weatherman predicting thunder. Before the game, my partner and I discussed criteria to call the game off. We decided that sleet, hail, thunder or lightning would cause an immediate cessation of the game (on natural grass).
I was also concerned about wind. It was blowing sideways in gusts. We called the captains and coaches to the center to review our criteria, and I noticed one goal had blown over. The host coach said that was the 3rd time. I was concerned about the host's 15 year old goalie (who weighed about 105 lbs wet) having such heavy equipment blow over her body.
The coaches put a lot of pressure on us to play the game, and the parents offered to place their ice coolers on the back of the goals to prevent them from falling over.
My partner refused, she thought this was too dangerous. Eventually a parent made a trip to the local hardware store and bought 2 sandbags for the goals. By then the wind had subsided and we started the game, and never had an incident with the goals.
The next day I consulted with the state's umpire president, and she was leary of allowing the game with sandbags on the back of the goals.
I checked the women's rules and they are not particular about wind conditions, or sandbags (unless I missed the paragraph that discusses these points). Do you have any suggestions or guidelines to help augment personal judgement for stormy conditions?
Thanks Guys!
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