Coaches Biggest Problem With New Rules ...

[BillyMac]

In my new life as a subvarsity official, I had a middle school game last week.

Waiting for the visitors who were about twenty minutes late, I'm watching the home team warm up and come across a player with a black sleeve on one leg, and a white sleeve on the other leg, while all of his teammates with leg sleeves had black sleeves.

I told him that he would not be allowed to play with the white sleeve, his choice of sleeve color had to match his teammates.

Turns out he's the twentieth player on a twenty man team, so he doesn't get in the game until three minutes left, his team down by thirty. I spotted him right away wearing just the white sleeve, and to be frank, I was pissed because I had made it perfectly clear to him pregame that he wouldn't be allowed to play with the white sleeve.

As pissed as I was, I'm not going to take away his few moments of glory, so I let him play, but I'm not going to let him get away with it scot free.

Ten seconds left, no scoring drive by either team, I sound my whistle. I walk up to the player and quietly ask him, "What did I tell you before that game about your leg sleeves?". He replies, "That I can't wear the white sleeve". I turn to the coach, "Coach, I need a substitute for (this player) for illegal equipment".

Yeah, I could have handled it better, but I was pissed. If a twelve year old kid wants to totally ignore me then he's going to have to pay the consequences. I let him have his fun for three minutes, but he wasn't going to get away scot free.