Great vengeance and furious anger...

[JetMetFan]

Originally Posted by so cal lurker

It has nothing to do with "teaching" them. As in the OP, many may well know but worry about other things -- coach behaved perfectly appropriately when told it needed to be fixed. But do you expect a defender to not use an illegal arm bar when one is applied to him each time down the court? Do you expect a player to not go into the lane early when the ref is not calling it when the other team does? Players and coaches adjust to what is enforced. If the referees in the area choose not to enforce a rule, why should the coach spend his time worrying about unilaterally complying with that instead of the myriad other things he has to think about? As soon as refs in an area enforce with a modicum of consistency, the problem goes away completely.

Let's just say it's a problem that's equally shared. We have our job to do but in the myriad of rules that exist in the sport, the uniform rule is one of the easiest for coaches to remember. Put it this way, do you see many or any teams with illegal uniform numbers? If you can handle that one, you can handle wrist bands, etc.

I've had the discussion with a few coaches about the fashion police stuff. I've told them I understand they may get spotty enforcement but if you show up assuming the rule will be enforced there's no need to worry about cutting short your pre-game time to have kids change their clothes.

One of my happiest moments - I'm easy to please - this season was when I notified a team wearing white/purple its headbands were out of whack (some kids had purple, some had white). Their volunteer assistant laid into the players because she had bought all of them appropriate headbands - white for home games, purple for road games ("Didn't I tell you all that we wear the headband that's the color of our jersey!"). She made them ALL take off their headbands.

As for us not doing our part, that burns me up even more. I've had more than a few partners toss me under the bus ("Well coach, my partner said you have to..."). I've also written notes to assignors about partners who do that. You screw me on uniforms, how can I trust you if things get hot later in the game?