Player with a saftey concern checks into the game

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

I am late joining the party.

It was the early 1990s (Mark, Jr., was a baby and Bonnie Jean was not yet pregnant with Andy. It was late in the season and I had a Saturday afternoon girls' VAR game (Which was unusual because I usually had a women's college game on Saturday afternoons followed by a boys' VAR game in the evening but on this particular Saturday afternoon I had a girls' H.S. game instead, in fact I ended up having two girls' VAR games that afternoon but that is a story for another time.).

I was the R and the U (The OhioHSAA had not yet gone to Three-Person Crews for boys' and girls' VAR games.) gathered at Center Court for the Pre-Game meeting. I immediately noticed that the Captain for the Home Team had finger nails that extended approximately 0.5 inch past the tip of her fingers and the portion of the each nail that extended past the finger tips were approximately 1/16 inch thick. The nails were painted a bright red with silver stars pasted on top of and in the middle of each nail. The nails were artificial nails that she had put on that morning because she was attending a formal dance the evening. I informed her that she could not play while wearing them because they were a safety hazard. Needless to say her HC and the Home School AD became involved in the discussion and neither the Player nor her HC nor the AD were happy with my decision.

She explained that it had cost her $5 per nail to have them done and that the only way to remove them was to cut them off. I told her, her HC, and her AD that I was not making her remove them, just that I would not let her play while she was wearing them. I guess she wanted to play in the worst way because she cut them off.

Sunday afternoon I received a phone call from the League Assigner demanding to know why I had made her cut her nails off. I told him that was 100% incorrect and that I had made no such demand. I told him that she just couldn't play while wearing them. Her AD and her parents were going to file a complaint with the OhioHSAA. I told them that so would I and I do not think they will like Columbus's response and they were not, .

MTD, Sr.