Fashion Fun

[zm1283]

Originally Posted by OKREF

Had a girls game last night. Blue has 2 girls with black headbands, two with white headbands and 3 with blue pre wrap. White had 2 girls with Skyler Diggins black head bands. I just don't get why it is so hard for them to understand.

Because it isn't enforced consistently. I know a lot of officials who are making teams who wear the "Diggins" headband simply tuck the tail part into the headband, which doesn't make them legal. Then when some of us make them remove the headbands because they're illegal, they are confused. (With good reason)

[WhistlesAndStripes]

Originally Posted by zm1283

Because it isn't enforced consistently. I know a lot of officials who are making teams who wear the "Diggins" headband simply tuck the tail part into the headband, which doesn't make them legal. Then when some of us make them remove the headbands because they're illegal, they are confused. (With good reason)

Kind of like players who think it's OK to wear metal clips in their hair with tape over the top of them. Not on my court.

[Kansas Ref]

'Non-compliance' as they relate to uniform/equipment policies will be a continual issue across the nation. As playing equipment evolves there will be more 'devices' that blur the distinction between "equipment" and "fashion accessories". All of which will need to be adjudicated upon to determine it's compliance. Back in the day when I played varsity hoop, no one ever wore arm sleeves (shooting sleeves) or ballerina leotards. But then again, I'm a dinosaur who used to wear those white puffy knee pads.

I just know that last week I did an 8th grade boys game we noticed during warmups that a player had on gray leotards when all other teammates were wearing black ones. My partner--who was more senior than I said that "since this is just 8th grade I'm not going to call them out on the color violation". I then replied to him, "well I think we should notify coach of this player's uniform non-compliance". He begrudgingly said "well, OK, if 'you' want to you can go tell the coach about it". This set us off on a sideways tone for the game because I know he viewed me as not wanting to follow his lead--I could sense that he was a bit miffed by my assertion. But, I thought of the bigger picture: somewhere in those stands there could be my Association evaluator --it could go downhill fast from there if he saw me kicking a rule, and then I attempt to rationalize it by saying "well, my partner said it was just 8th grade and not varsity so we let them play".
In the end, I told coach, and he had the player just take off the gray leotards.