Softball Player Forced To Cut Hair Beads ...
 

https://sports.yahoo.com/nc-softball...194036423.html

I don't think that I have a problem with a softball rule change for this situation.

I'll let you softball and baseball guys handle that discussion.

I just don't think that I would like a similar rule change to trickle across to basketball.

I observed many women in NCAA regular season and tournament games with legal, fashionable, probably culturally significant, long braided hair.

More so during this past season than in previous years.

Allowing beads to be added to hair like this changes the hair into a dangerous weapon.

https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.F...=0&w=176&h=154

She wasn't forced to cut her hair, some of her companions chose to go that route with some of her braids.

The classic "I've always been allowed to do this" argument doesn't fly with me.



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It always boggles the mind when you have players that have been playing sports most of their lives getting ear rings or choosing hairstyles just before or worse in the middle of the season that they know or should know will be issues with the rules for a game.

As the parent of a 16-year-old daughter, what's most frustrating is the way many umpires deal with this stuff. Many summer rules sets do not ban jewelry and yet umpires still come in and make their own crap up, all in the name of "safety".

If playing with earrings and the like was so unsafe, why does the NCAA allow it?

I would never, ever make a girl choose her beads or not play, not now. Maybe 20 years ago I would've. Today I am aware at how culturally insensitive at best this can look and possibly worse, depending how the story is spun.

Semantics ...
 

Agree.

Things Officials Should Probably Not Be Saying In A Game

"You have to take out your earrings”, is occasionally stated by officials to players in the pregame layup lines who are wearing earrings. It’s only a minor difference in semantics, but it’s probably better, for legal liability reasons, to instead say, "You can't play, or even warm up, wearing jewelry". This puts the decision, to remove the earrings, or not to remove the earrings, on the player, or the coach, and possibly, on the parent, and takes any legal liability off the official’s shoulders.

Should Of, Could Of, Would Of ...
 

While I agree with SNIPERBBB in theory, in practice we have officials who don't know (or enforce) the "fashion rules" even though they "should know" (and should enforce) said rules, so how can we expect players (and coaches) to know these rules better than officials?

Spread The Blame ...
 

If Raymond is implying that they are lying, I can agree with him under many circumstances.

However, between poor coaching (lack of rules knowledge and/or lack of teaching) and poor officiating (lack of rules knowledge and/or lack of enforcement), this statement may be true in some circumstances, especially in games below the varsity level.

Officials, players, and coaches (let's also throw parents in the mix) are all to blame for this, I'm just not sure how to proportionately spread out the blame.

Not Woke Bad Guy ...
 

In softball, I can agree with Rich (disclaimer: I don't officiate softball), but until I hear differently from the NFHS, my state association, or my local board, I will continue to be the "not woke bad guy" in my basketball games.

No beads. No earrings. No long fingernails.

I am not unilaterally making any safety decisions not fully backed by somebody above my pay grade.

Safety sensitivity trumps culturally insensitivity in my basketball games.

Note: I did like the rule change allowing head coverings for religious reasons without state-level approval, so I do have some culturally sensitivity, I'm not a Neanderthal (although 23 And Me tells me that 4% of my DNA is Neanderthal).

https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.n...=0&w=300&h=300

Even if they are telling the truth, it still doesn't fly because I can't officiate my game based on what somebody else did wrong in another game.

My response is often "I didn't work that game".

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I'm Here Tonight ...
 

I didn't mean to imply that, "I've always been allowed to do this", would affect my adjudication. My response would be similar, "I'm here tonight". I just wanted to point at that while many players, regarding their character, are lying, some may not be lying.

Two wrongs don't make a right (but two Wrights make an airplane).

We know not to blame Raymond and BillyMac.

Pants On Fire ...
 

The reason for my post: To me, lying is a major character flaw, a real deal breaker. As my parent's son, a parent myself, and a retired teacher, I hate liars. They drive my crazy. I once had an assistant principal chastise me for calling a student a liar instead of saying that she lied. While I agree that I was not being politically correct, the assistant principal was more upset with me for my language than being upset with the student for lying to me in front of an entire class of students. That assistant principal didn't last very long at my school.

Note: Not to say that I haven't dabbled in lying. Because of lying, my rear end once had a close encounter with a broom handle.

Lack Of Rules Knowledge ...
 

We've got a few local varsity guys who believe that "school color" is still part of the rulebook (it isn't), and that compression shorts below the uniform shorts must be the same color as the uniform shorts (they don't).

I often wonder how often they crack open a rulebook?

The NCAA has fewer schools to deal with and the NCAA likely has more protections of liability. I would not compare that to the NF that likely has one state that has more members than the entire NCAA membership at all levels combined. And I would not ever make a girl take out the beads, but they are not playing with them in my games either. Sorry, had boys do that mess and they had to take them out or not play. Never tell them what to do with their hair, but they are not playing with them on my watch. And as others said, I am not responsible for what other officials/umpires do. The coach should know the damn rules and warn their players of the repercussions. But that is what we get when coaches are not required to take rules test or have to do something more than just complain when they are confronted with a situation.

Peace

I had a player say something like that to me one time when I responded with..."No, I made you take them off last week."

Character Counts ...
 

Players that wear the uniform of the school and the city represent that school and that city and have a responsibility and obligation to demonstrate good character.

If I were the coach of such a player, I would want to know.

As a retired coach, I would probably feel obligated to calmly let his head coach know about the lie, and the player's apparent lack of good character.

I would then proceed to work hard to not hold a grudge against that player and treat him fairly for the rest of the game.

Just sayin'.

NCAA Women’s Softball Tournament
 

It is amazing to me, watching the number of games that I have watch that all the young women DO NOT have anything hard in their hair. Most the women have either braided their hair or have it bunched together with hair ties in 4 to 5 places. All LEGAL!!! This was about a player that breaking the rules and was told to correct it. How they choice to correct it, was their choice. If a player was to get hurt and it was because of the HARD items in her hair. The lawyers would be out. I also do not like being the fashion police, but I enforce the rules. The other place to clean this up is in the pre-season.

NCAA Women’s Softball Tournament
 

It is interesting to see the ear rings and Necklace’s .

Different sport with different dynamics. Players in softball are rarely anywhere near contact with each other in a way that it could be an issue where basketball has far greater chances for entanglement. And, with the NFHS rules, they like to be consistent across all sports with safety rules to keep it from being too confusing to those that participate in multiple sports.

Preseason Fashion ...
 

Customs here in Connecticut have basketball players not wearing "real" uniforms during preseason inter-team scrimmages. Most players wear some type of reversible top, often with an undershirt under the top, undershirts that don't necessarily match the color of the reversible top, especially as teams "switch" colors between games in "jamboree" type scrimmages involving many teams.

We let it go, however when I'm involved in preseason scrimmages, I always point out to the coaches and players that they are in violation of the fashion rules (also including headbands, sleeves, wrist bands, etc.) and that in few weeks, when the season starts, these rules will be enforced.

However, any preseason safety issues are dealt with on the spot, no laxity with safety issues (earrings, bracelets, necklaces, hard hair control devices, long fingernails, etc.) in preseason scrimmages.

Semper Ubi Sub Ubi ...
 

It is for this reason that I'm so vehement about legal undershirt colors in "real" games. During these scrimmages I will occasionally have a slight problem easily identifying players, especially players in close-contact rebounding situations involving fouls, or bang-bang out of bounds plays.

And I'm a guy who over forty years, thousands of real games, tens of thousands of players wearing legal real uniforms and equipment, twice, not once, but twice, called close-contact rebounding fouls on players fouling teammates.

Legal undershirt colors didn't help me in ether of those cases. Imagine if I didn't enforce undershirt color restrictions?

In both situations I had the presence of mind to quickly overturn my own call as I went looking for a color and number (inadvertent whistle).

Rules that restrict equipment colors benefit officials by allowing them to easily identify players on each team during fast paced action.

A player wearing a correct color undershirt in a real game will help insure that we get as close to 100% correct calls as we can possibly get.

In my opinion, from the waist up (including arms and wrists), colors matter.

From the waist down, I'll enforce color rules, but only reluctantly, and I wouldn't shed a tear if such below the waist color rules disappeared (like present shoe, sock, and game shorts rules).

Uniforms replacement and/or new purchased are expensive--and disproportionately expensive for many of our rural schools.

Perverted ...
 

I just realized something.

No color rules for socks. Any color goes, don't have to match for an individual player, or for teammates.

No color rules for shoes. Any color goes, don't have to match for an individual player, or for teammates.

No color rules for uniform shorts, that's right, I''ll say it again, no color rules for uniform shorts. Any color goes, don't even have to match for teammates.

And they don't have to be shorts. Skirts, or pants are legal.

And yet, the NFHS has the audacity to ask us to enforce color rules for leg sleeves, knee pads, compression shorts, and tights.

I find that to be some what perverted.

I agree. Undershirts should be the color of the jersey, if only because they could be considered part of the jersey when players are moving at full speed. However, any stuff below the waist won't make one team any more or less likely to be confused with the other team.

I see players wearing non-solid socks as the visiting team in soccer all the time (usually white socks with stripes in some other color), and don't see why that should be a big deal, as long as the uniform shirts are white, and the socks are not a color that could be confused with the home team's sock color. I would apply the same analogy to basketball.

RE: The OP, hard beads shouldn't really be a safety issue, because when on offense, the player's hair is likely tucked under the helmet, and on defense, I don't anticipate a situation where any part of the player's hair should contact an offensive player. That said, the rules don't allow hard beads, barrettes, bobby pins, etc., so a player should not attempt to enter a high school game wearing any of those things in her hair.

Are you really sure about that (don't have to match)....look up the definition of the word "uniform". I think the fact that they're part of the uniform implies uniformity in any aspect not explicitly listed as variable...i.e., shorts and pants.

Uniform Shorts/Pant/Skirts ...
 

I can't find any rule that says otherwise. There actually aren't many rules about uniform shorts/pants/skirts.

3-4 is the "Uniform" rule. With one exception (3-4-5) the entire rule covers jerseys, and only jerseys.

3-4-1 : Uniforms - Team jersey color and design must adhere to the following …

3-4-5: Uniform pants/skirts must have only one visible manufacturer’s logo/trademark/reference. Showing multiple manufacturer’s logos on the waist band of the pants/skirts makes the item illegal.

Other than the two rules mentioned above, I could only find three other rule references to uniform shorts/pants/skirts:

3-3-5: A player not wearing the pants/skirt properly and above the hips and/or a player not tucking in a team jersey (front and back) designed to be worn inside the pants/skirt, must be directed to leave the game as in 3-3-4; a charged time-out must not alter this requirement.

3-5-5 Note: Provided the shorts are not in conflict with Rule 3-4-5, no drawstring or other part of the shorts intended to maintain them in a normal position causes potential harm to the player or others and wearing of the shorts is not objectionable in exposing the anatomy, there is not restriction on folding or rolling the shorts at the natural waistband seam.

10-4-6-H: A player must not: Removing the jersey and/or pants/skirt within the visual confines of the playing area.

We have a few teams here in my little corner of Connecticut where the junior varsity players wear different color shorts than the varsity players. Some players will play on both teams, and not change their shorts between games, so we have multi-colored shorts on one team. Over the years we've been told by our local interpreters that not only is this allowed here in my little corner of Connecticut, it's also fully legal under NFHS rules.

If I Were King Of Basketball ...
 

... not queen, not duke, not prince.

Disagree.

In a utopian world, basketball players would be either be dressed in all dark, or all white. Everything - jerseys, shorts, shoes, socks, equipment, tape, braces, hair control devices, etc. Everything.

Confusion and mistakes will still be made, but they won't be because of confusing colors.

But it's not a utopian world, so compromises are made, and lines are drawn.

My line is that colors above the waist (including arms) are more important than colors below the waist.

If I were the king of basketball, color restrictions would be based on that line of demarcation.

But I'm not the king of basketball, so I (pretty much) do what the NFHS and my local interpreter and assigner tell me to do.

Note: I often wonder why some basketball players wear bright fluorescent shoes. If I were a basketball player, I wouldn't want any extra attention drawn to my feet, or make it any easier for officials to observe my feet. I bet it costs such a player a few extra travels every season, travels that might otherwise be missed.

[QUOTE=BillyMac;1043474]Disagree.

Note: I often wonder why some basketball players wear bright fluorescent shoes. If I were a basketball player, I wouldn't want any extra attention drawn to my feet, or make it any easier for officials to observe my feet. I bet it costs such a player a few extra travels every season, travels that might otherwise be missed.[/QUOTE

*Astute observations: I remember my HS football coach telling us defensive backs to wear black gloves instead of our school colors "(gold/purple/white) bcz it makes it more difficult for the refs to identify and call holding. Same for our Basketball coach he would tell us to never wear white wristbands only black because refs can see "reaching in" much easier--he used to say "you don't want to draw attention". This was his advice for both the black and white players!

NFHS Update ...