jewelry in girls rec

[mdray]

had this sitch recently...6th grade girls rec league:
Game 1 - girl shows up with hair braided with beads all through the ends, beads swinging all over. I tell her she can't play wearing those. Manager of facility says he's ok with it and to let her play; tells me if I don't want to ref the game I could leave and he would see that I didn't work there again. I tell him I'm trying to ensure the safety of all the players; he says the facility has plenty of insurance and the level of play isn't going to result in anyone getting injured. He'll "take his chances".
Game 2 - three girls have stud earrings in. Manager says they can tape them over & play. He didn't want to hear anything about the rules, kids safety, etc.
Next day, I ask the assigner about this & he replies the Fed rules don't apply since it's just rec league. Tells me not to worry about it.

[Jurassic Referee]

1) You're taking a chance-re: liability.
2) Your assignor is an idiot for putting you in that spot.

Jmo, but I'd say bye-bye.

[Adam]

Typical. Only two things you can do about it. Say your piece and let it go, or don't work this league any longer. Personally, I'm struggling with it, too.
I had a girl bawling because she didn't want to take her studs out. 4th grade. I ended up letting it go, not really wanting to hassle with it.
My question, to those who have had their ears pierced; is it really going to close up in an hour?

[brainbrian]

That's a shame.

I once had a coach tell me that their supervisor allowed this girl to wear earrings, and he wouldn't give up his case as he wanted this girl to play. Only to find out later his entire story was a lie.

[zebraman]

Originally posted by mdray
had this sitch recently...6th grade girls rec league:
Game 1 - girl shows up with hair braided with beads all through the ends, beads swinging all over. I tell her she can't play wearing those. Manager of facility says he's ok with it and to let her play; tells me if I don't want to ref the game I could leave and he would see that I didn't work there again. I tell him I'm trying to ensure the safety of all the players; he says the facility has plenty of insurance and the level of play isn't going to result in anyone getting injured. He'll "take his chances".
Game 2 - three girls have stud earrings in. Manager says they can tape them over & play. He didn't want to hear anything about the rules, kids safety, etc.
Next day, I ask the assigner about this & he replies the Fed rules don't apply since it's just rec league. Tells me not to worry about it.

I'd say, "you don't have to see that I won't work here again because I'll see that I won't work here again." Not worth the liability risk.

Z

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by Snaqwells
My question, to those who have had their ears pierced; is it really going to close up in an hour?

Absolutely not. If they were just done in the last few days, it's still pretty tender, and it can be a pain to get it back in. but it's not impossible, and it does no real harm.

mdray -- My suggestion would be to either don't work for that facility again, or find a lawyer that's willing to write you a non-liability contract with the facility. People are sued every day for all kinds of ridiculous things, and regardless of how innocent you might be, you could lose a lot of mattress stuffing even if you are never found liable. The fact of the matter is, your name can be put on a liability suit, and then you've got a huge expense regardless of who wins. Liability insurance covers the cost of your defense so that you don't get ruined by someone else's carelessness.

What usually works, though, is to say to the kid (especially the young ones), "Have you ever seen what an ear looks like when an earring has been ripped out of it? Is that what you want?"

Here's the all-time stupidest remark from a coach on this subject. I told him his player (jh girl) couldn't play with a splint on her finger. After some arguement, he said, "So if she plays without the splint, and re-injures her finger, you'll be responsible?" I should have tossed him just for being so stupid.

[ref18]

This is one area in which more importance should be placed.

In any game you do, there is to be NO jewlery worn by any participant who intends to become a player at some point during the game.

Nothing hard in the hair and nothing hard on the arm, or hand.

Now I do quite a bit of rec league early on in the year (sept-dec) And I see all sorts of jewlery being worn. When I question the coach about it, I usually get the "Well last week the refs let her play with them in" line. Now I used to think these coaches were full of sh!t. But then one day I was working a rec league game, and we were talking to the coaches, and when the coaches asked about earrings my partner said yeah, because they're new, you can tape them. Now I immediately excused myself and my partner from the coach's presence, and basically told this partner that under no circumstances whatsoever is a player allowed to participate with any jewlery on.

You let the player play, you are negligent, your insurance might not cover you if your negligent. The insurance that the site or league has might not cover you if your negligent if you were covered at all under it. Don't risk it, tell the manager, either the jewlery/beads go or I go. No exceptions, a $25 game fee isn't worth the risk of a lawsuit and legal fees.

Now to step down off of this damn soap-box

Can't you tell this is a pet peave of mine

[tmp44]

Originally posted by brainbrian
That's a shame.

I once had a coach tell me that their supervisor allowed this girl to wear earrings, and he wouldn't give up his case as he wanted this girl to play. Only to find out later his entire story was a lie.

Yea and the sad part is, because it was a lie and something would have happened, guess whose a$$ would have been on the chopping block!

I agree w/ ref18 here...under absolutely no circumstances would I allow anyone to play w/ something hard in the hair or earrings in. Also, mdray, you said that your assignor said that NFHS rules don't apply to that league. Well then you should definitely ask him what rules do apply, not just for jewlery, but for other situations as well!! If you are using NFHS rules for sitchs like timing mistakes, correctable errors, when to use AP vs. POI, etc, then you should definitely be using the NFHS rules regarding jewlery as well!

[JRutledge]

I worked a tournament last year where we had a player wearing jewelry. The player had an earring with tap on it. I insisted that he remove the jewelry. Well the tournament was run by a D1 basketball program and the head coach of that program wanted to allow this particular player to wear his earring. After some discussion, this D1 head coach said, "We will take on the liability." That is all I needed to hear. He made the statement with several people around. So I did not fight it after that (in this particular case). I just do not think the coach realized what he was taking on for his program.

Peace

[Mark Dexter]

Originally posted by rainmaker
My suggestion would be to either don't work for that facility again, or find a lawyer that's willing to write you a non-liability contract with the facility.

Even with such a contract, I'm not sure I would work there. If a player gets injured, it's not going to take their lawyer very long to say "That contract's nice, but my client never waived his liability for the ref's mistakes."

That's why, with the amount of jewlery present in IM games, I'm glad I'm an employee of the university, rather than an independent contractor.

[bigwhistle]

Originally posted by JRutledge
I worked a tournament last year where we had a player wearing jewelry. The player had an earring with tap on it. I insisted that he remove the jewelry. Well the tournament was run by a D1 basketball program and the head coach of that program wanted to allow this particular player to wear his earring. After some discussion, this D1 head coach said, "We will take on the liability." That is all I needed to hear. He made the statement with several people around. So I did not fight it after that (in this particular case). I just do not think the coach realized what he was taking on for his program.

Peace

Don't you sometimes wish for the good ole days? You know, when you didn't have to lock your doors at night, when kids addressed adults as sir or maam as a general rule instead of the exception, and when only females wore ear rings.

[ChrisSportsFan]

Me: No jewelry.
Coach: She just had her ears pierced.
Me: (I stole this from one of you guys)
Well coach, she has 3 choices;
1. Leave them in and not play.
2. Take them out and play.
3. Leave them in and just take her ears of, then she can play.

Site Manager: Let's let her play and if something happens then we're responsible. If you don't want that then don't work here.
Me: Have a nice day......tail lights.

There's way way way to many gyms that WILL support this rule to work games where they won't. Besides that, kids that want to play with jewelry on are not the competition level I'd prefer to work anyways.

[cmathews]

We had some situations here in Wyoming, not jewelry, but timing issues. They wanted to let JR High players play 7 or 8 minutes instead of the 6 that is in the rule book. We were concerned about the liability issue as well. We contacted the NFHS and were told that we would be covered as long as the sport was a sanctioned sport in our state, even if we used a completely different set of rules, or a set of NFHS rules modified by the "association" we were working with. With that in mind, while I certainly don't want jewelry on the court, I would think the same thing would apply. If the "association" you are working for has different rules, then you are still covered by the NFHS as far as liability goes...I would however think it would be a good idea to have the "rules" and exceptions written down somewhere as opposed to just going case by case gym by gym....

[JugglingReferee]

Originally posted by ChrisSportsFan
Site Manager: Let's let her play and if something happens then we're responsible. If you don't want that then don't work here.
Me: Have a nice day......tail lights.

Does one still get the travel fee?

Agreed. No tolerance.

[SeanFitzRef]

In the summer here in Chicago (& suburbs) we get a lot of the boys and girls with beads in the hair, earrings, etc. I have had sitchs where I had the kids remove the beads before they could play, or take on a new role as asst. coach. Had one game, 6th grade girls, last game of season, and they are all dolled up to take pictures. Had to delay the game (and calm three or four mommas and grandmas down) in order to get five players ready to play.
At least it was girls.

I tell the guys "If you knew you were comin' to play ball, why did you go through all that crap (beads in hair) in the first place?"