Identical numbers
 

JV-G, I'm the U, with a younger R.

I get on the court, and start counting white jerseys. The court is really crowded, and I can't believe I just counted....19?!? I double and triple check. Yup, 19. It turns out four were swingers, but still, that's more than I've ever seen in our little corner.

The R approaches me after taking care of the book, and tells me there are multiple home players wearing the same number. I tell him he has to handle that one; no-one can share a number.

A minute later, the R says the coach claims a high-level official already told him last game it was okay for multiple players to share numbers, provided the same two numbers weren't on the court simultaneously. I'm not buying this; I tell the R to stand firm and have some numbers taped up. I talk with the coach, and he drops an even higher-level name that said it was okay. Still not buying it. They taped up a few numbers, giving everyone a unique one, and the game was no problem beyond that.

Long story short -- I emailed my interpreter, who backed me up, and sent an email to everyone on our board that "identical numbers are not allowed." It was apparent than no high-level anyone told this team it was okay.

If you're certain of a rule, stick to your guns, and trust your supervisors to back you up.

Did the coach think this was college football?


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It was baseball, but the concept applies --

I told a player to take off his jewelry. He said, "The umpire last game let me wear it."

I responded, "I was the umpire last game, and no, I didn't."

More like, I got 19 kids, two/three different uniform styles, and some of them will have to wear the same number.

Only... they can't.

Well since there are 37(but they can only use 36 of those) possible legal numbers, I have yet to see a team with that many players, including my 7th grade team when I was playing that had 24 players.

I agree with the overall sentiments and responses expressed here, but this is major factor that might mitigate things for me.

Somebody once told me, if you don't have the guts to make that call at the middle school/JV level, what makes you think others will have confidence in you to do it at the varsity level?

I think this is off.

In football, we ignore illegal or duplicate numbers at lower levels. We're strict at the varsity level. Has nothing to do with guts, but the realization that they get hand-me-down uniforms and everyone gets that and nobody cares about being strict with it.

In hoops, I would be the same way at certain levels. Know the audience and the customer. JV? Middle ground.


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Second Hand Rose...
 

Same here with basketball junior varsity, and freshman, uniforms, illegal we will let go, but duplicates are fixed with a little athletic tape.

https://youtu.be/x3zl1W1KGTM

The "home team must wear white" is only enforced at the varsity level here. Undershirt rules are enforced at all levels (religious exceptions notwithstanding), and illegal/duplicate numbers are fixed with tape. In my OP, the team didn't want to fix it at all.

I'm inclined to agree with Rich's sentiment (we're far more looser in soccer), but unfortunately, not everyone thinks that way.

Not relevant. MS/Fr/JV get a pass on illegal uniforms....by directive from our organization. Many organizations operate that way.

You’re assuming they ordered a set. More likely, they have a set made up of varsity cast offs from different years—hence, duplicate numbers.

And how many wives?

However, duplicate numbers is a fixable issue which has a tremendous chance of creating a huge headache during the game when you get into an unsolvable argument over which 32 got the foul in the second quarter and there's no way the star player has fouled out.

JV games don't have star players.


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