[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

I really hate to admit this but I have you all beat. It was May 2000, and I was officiating in the Hoosier State Games, girls' 13U age division.

Team A from the host city takes the court for warmups. A1 is wearing earrings and has them covered up with athletic tape. I approach A1 and ask if I can see what is under the tape on her ears. A1 replies that she is covering earrings with the tape. I inform A1 that I cannot make her remove the earrings but she cannot wear the earrings and play in the game. A1 tells me that she can play because she has them covered with tape. I tell A1 that she cannot play with while she is wearing the earrings. A1 says the other officials have let her play in her two earlier games (that is another story in itself about NFHS liability insurance for NFOA member officials). I told her that I do not know what the other officials told her be she cannot play while wearing jewelery.

I leave A1 and return to my postion on the court. About ninety seconds later Head Coach A approaches me and asks me why I am hasseling A1 about the earrings that she is wearing. I told him that I was not hasseling her, I was informing her of the rule prohibiting the wearing of jewelery. Coach A says that the other officials have let her play. I repeat to him what I told A1 about the other officials. Coach A1 reminds me that the game is for the players and not for the officials. I told him that he is absolutely correct and that my job and his job is to insure that the safety of the players is paramount. Coach A calls me a jerk. Coach A receives a direct technical foul for unsportsmanlike conduct. Coach A tells me that I cannot give him technical because the game has not started yet. I give Coach A a mini-clinic on officials' jurisdiction. Coach A tells me that the next thing that I am going to tell him is that I can eject him before the game starts. I inform Coach A that by rule it can happen. Coach A then tells me that only a jerk would eject him before the game starts. Coach A receives another direct technical foul for unsportsmanlike conduct and also receives an all expenses paid trip to the parking lot. And we still had seven minutes on the clock before the scheduled tip-off.