This is true, but let it be known I "clean" my whistles to get rid of the more "common" types of kooties that lead to sore throats, sniffles and other assorted badness. Maybe it really does not make a difference but I feel better doing it.

I'm sure it doesn't hurt. But I'm not sure that it kills the cooties. Any germ on your whistle came from you to begin with, so it wouldn't be anything new to your system. I'm not sure how long they can live outside a warm, moist environment anyway.

Perhaps RefRx will further enlighten us.

Agree with Chuck. You're lucky if you have a clean private place to dress at HS games. And the shower is a large perk. Towels? Forget it!

When I worked in school administration, I made sure that the officials had all of the above plus I'd make sure they got a sandwich or sub to take with them after the game. That school still adheres to that policy. Officials love to work there. I think each school should assign someone, student or otherwise to make sure the officials are taken care of. Wouldn't take much effort to get it done. And it goes a long way.

Well, when my kids were younger (I think I was younger too, can't remember now) they would get strep, and the doctor always told us to be careful because strep tends to hang around awhile, and sure enough I or my wife would get it a month or so later and my doctor would ask "kids get in the last 3 months" and he would smile when I said yes.

So, I got trained to wash the kooties out. Maybe RefRx will tell me I'm wasting my time and perfectly good listerine.

Cleaning your whistle won't affect cold sores (virus), but there is a lot of "stuff" out there to catch. Your mouth is a great breeding ground for bacteria and your whistle is no better, so it's a good idea to clean it.

Interestingly enough, I get cold sores. My family doesn't.

They get strep throat. I've never had it.

But yes, I too have heard that strep hangs around.

Okay, okay!

My games are postponed.

I have nothing to do.

I'll go clean my damn whisltes!

BRB! :)

I too get them, all you need is some good chapstick to keep your lips from getting dry like BktBallRef said. Haven't had one in a while because of the chapstick. :)

The mouthpiece was colored black about 3 years ago. They don't make it black anymore. Anyone also notice that the ring that attaches your whistle to your lanyard is now colored gold. I liked them better when they were silver. I even take the silver one off of my old one and replace the gold one. My God am I anal!!

I've been buying them since they came out and I've never found a black one. A friend has one but he's had it for several years and couldn't remember how he obtained it.

I use a whistle for 2-3 years. I clean them periodically with listerene...soak overnight...tastes nice for a couple of games too. I've only cracked 1 ever. If you're biting through them in 2-3 weeks, perhaps you should relax a little.

Good point, Camron.
My whistles are lasting longer and longer be cause I am not as tense.
Additional serendipity comes with teeth and jaws that don't feel like you been chewin' on four double-bubbles all day. :)
mick

Here in the great state of Wyoming, where by the way, we hardly ever cancel games due to snow, just better equiped to handle it I guess, we usually have nice private places to dress, and shower...the only exception so far this year has been that we dressed in a coaches office, no biggie, and pretty common, except that this one was also in the home team locker room...so we wait till the teams leave the floor at half time, then follow the home team to the locker room....good thing there were no real problems....

This is AWESOME!

I had a science teacher in high school who never cleaned his coffee mug. It kinda grossed me out, but when he explained why, it made sense. Said that all of the germs build on each other, and then your body starts to build immunity, etc. Once I heard that, I was like why bother cleaning the whistles??? I'm gonna be healthy after a game! Hee hee.