Fashion Police . . . with a Vengeance

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by johnny d

While the coach of said team should know the rules, this was clearly a failure on the part of the official to warn the team that they were not in compliance with the rule. Since they were not properly warned by the meet official, it is improper and against the rules to disqualify them as well.

How is it against the rules.

Do two wrongs make a right?

The premeet (earlier meets), prestart (this meet), officials certainly played a part in this fiasco, and should take some blame, but the coaches were the most at fault. Coaches should know the rules and should communicate such to their athletes. The postmeet officials that disqualified the athletes were in no way at any fault, they were just doing their job. Why have rules if they're not going to be enforced.

[johnny d]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

How is it against the rules.

Do two wrongs make a right?

The premeet (earlier meets), prestart (this meet), officials certainly played a part in this fiasco, and should take some blame, but the coaches were the most at fault. Coaches should know the rules and should communicate such to their athletes. The postmeet officials that disqualified the athletes were in no way at any fault, they were just doing their job. Why have rules if they're not going to be enforced.

Not two wrongs, only wrong was by the two officials that approved them before the meet started. They did not tell them their uniforms were illegal, therefore, they were not given the warning required by rule. Also, in most states, the only meets that uniforms are looked at or even matter is in the state tournaments. Most meets, especially the small weekday meets, the runners were whatever they feel comfortable running in, and many do not wear their uniforms at all during these meets. I have posted the rule below. In addition, no team has been disqualified from that states postseason for a violation of that rule in over 30 years.

"For the wearing of an illegal uniform, when a violation is observed and noted by a meet official, the competitor shall be required to make the uniform legal before becoming eligible for further competition, and shall be issued a warning that a subsequent violation shall result in a disqualification from the event. The referee shall be notified of the violation by the observing meet official, and the referee shall then notify or cause to be notified the head coach of the offending school of the competitor's violation and warning."

[johnny d]

Also, the rule applies to individuals, not the whole team. Therefore, in addition to the fact that they did not give the team or any individual on the team the required warning before disqualification, they compounded the mistake by disqualifying the entire team when only a handful of their competitors were in violation of the rule. Complete and utter incompetence on the part of the two officials that inspected this teams apparel before the race started and by the official that disqualified them at the end.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by johnny d

... officials that approved them before the meet started. They did not tell them their uniforms were illegal, therefore, they were not given the warning required by rule.

Thanks for the rule citation. I already put part of the blame on these premeet officials, but some blame still must fall on the coaches as well. Coaches aren't blameless here.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Thanks for the rule citation. I already put part of the blame on these premeet officials, but some blame still must fall on the coaches as well. Coaches aren't blameless here.

If the quoted rule is correct, blame should also be on the postmeet officials who disqualified the athletes, because there was no warning given (by the quoted rule) before the meet. I previously held these postmeet officials blameless.

Here's the last paragraph of an article I recently had published regarding basketball (Fashion Police) equipment restrictions:

Rules that restrict equipment colors benefit officials by allowing them to easily identify players on each team during fast paced action. Consistency among officials in the enforcement of equipment restriction rules will provide a unified statement to coaches. When some officials choose not to enforce these rules, they are only hurting the profession and setting up the next crew for criticism from the coaches, when, in fact, the officials who did not enforce the rules are the ones who deserve the criticism. For those officials contemplating not enforcing equipment restrictions because such rules have “nothing to do with the game of basketball”, in the words of author Roy T. Bennett, “Stop doing what is easy, or popular. Start doing what is right”.

If all (adult officials and coaches) involved in this cross country fiasco hadn't done what was easy, or popular, and decided, instead, to do what was right, none of this would have happened.

This reminds me of the Muslim basketball player last year whose head scarf was ignored by officials all season long until the state tournament when she was asked to provide documentation that she didn't have. She didn't have it because she had played in twenty regular season games with no questions asked. The tournament officials (correctly) didn't allow her to play and everything hit the proverbial fan. With apologies to "Art" Linkletter, sometimes adults do the darndest things.