[TonyT]

Originally Posted by lpneck

1.) Unfortunately, I don't have a laptop with me on the court to go to the website when we discovered the problem 14 minutes before the start of the game.

2.) The confusion stemmed from whether an exception was to be made when the host school is designated as the visiting team (according to the winter bulletin- which is not provided to officials- an exception is made that the host school gets to choose the "home bench." My guess is that this is where the confusion occurred.) Both teams claimed that they had received different sets of instructions. I don't have a copy of either one, and neither did anyone else there. I am not about to arbitrarily say, "well, the team on the bottom of the bracket in the little paper program handout was the home team for the first game, so we're going to do the same for this game and start assessing penalties." You know, a little saying about assuming things and all. Without someone providing me concrete evidence which team was supposed to be the home team (which no one was able to do,) I am not going to start guessing. THAT would have made the situation a fiasco.

3.) Neither team wanted the other to be penalized to start the game. (Not that it affected my decision. If I was 100% sure who was not wearing the incorrect uniforms, we would have issued a technical foul whether the teams wanted it or not... I am just clarifying that this was not a controversial decision in the eyes of either team/coach.)

4.) I was shocked because it's not often that I work a game and then find it the discussion of a topic on a national message board the following morning. I am not shocked that this topic in and of itself is being discussed.

What a can of worms. In reading all the information you have given. I think you did the sensible and right thing. I don't think I have even heard of this in a State Tournament and I bet you hope you don't come across this again.