This reminds me of a similar experience earlier this season. G/JV, girl approached us before the game to see if it was ok to play with a plastic tip on her finger. Both my partner and I told her no and to see if she could tape it up. Well, she ran back across to tell her Varsity coach who waved us over to explain. We told him the rule, also told him of a November memo from the IHSAA about the rule from elbow down. He told us we didn't know the rule, that she had played 20 games this year with it on and nobody had said anything about it (disingenuous, no way she could have played that many by end of December). We asked the coach if he knew the rule, why did she come to ask us...
Well, at half time of our game, I see the V coach sitting behind the V officials lobbying to have her girl play in the V game (very unprofessional). Lone and behold the V officials let her play with the plastic tip. They told me before their game that it was no more dangerous than a finger. I told them them the rule, the IHSAA memo, and how bad that makes me look. The long and short of it, the problem in Indiana is that coaches vote makes up 100% of post season tournament selection. These guys were protecting their vote. This still pisses me off.