Official's Facial Hair

[chartrusepengui]

Dunno. But after my first season a respected veteran from my area suggested that I leave my cane, my dog, and my tin cup in the locker room during games.
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I've always wanted to try that. My dog keeps encouraging me too but I keep telling him that an officials job is not to upstage the game or coaches knowledge and he knew more about the game than most coaches

[rsox34]

...where I worked previously--facial hair on white male officials was frowned upon. Now in NH and MA where I currently officiate, there are a lot of white guys with facial hair.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by MajorCord

Do your official's associations have regulations concerning facial hair...?

Around here, if you have facial hair, as in this picture, you don't get any varsity games. Just curious what your experiences are.

In the Portland area we don't have any regulations governing facial hair.

That said, I can't think of a single official that has much more than a mustache that does Varsity games. There are one or two that have sometimes had very thin goatees or similar...no full beards at all.

[IREFU2]

I make sure i have a clean face, only a mustache (Spelling?). I wear glasses, but wear contacts when I officiate.

[Mark Padgett]

I really don't get the controversy over facial hair. It actually can be a benefit when officiating. Do you really think any coach is going to argue with this guy? BTW - that's me when I was just starting out.

[just another ref]

A word about unwritten rules: If it is worthy of being a rule, it should be worthy of being written somewhere. Facial hair is a negative thing in this instance because ........? Even so, if it is not allowed, tell me. Spell it out. You can be an official and have a card but you will not get varsity games. You can call all season and get rave reviews from EVERYONE, (yeah, right) but you cannot call in the playoffs. You can call all through the playoffs but not the state finals.

If you give me a state final to call, it will be over in a couple of hours. I have had a beard since 1980. Given the choice, I think I know what I would do.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by just another ref

A word about unwritten rules: If it is worthy of being a rule, it should be worthy of being written somewhere. Facial hair is a negative thing in this instance because ........? Even so, if it is not allowed, tell me. Spell it out. You can be an official and have a card but you will not get varsity games. You can call all season and get rave reviews from EVERYONE, (yeah, right) but you cannot call in the playoffs. You can call all through the playoffs but not the state finals.

If you give me a state final to call, it will be over in a couple of hours. I have had a beard since 1980. Given the choice, I think I know what I would do.

If it's written, then it's also guaranteed that some clown with a beard who can't referee a lick is gonna file a lawsuit for follicular discrimination because he wasn't given a state final.

It may be old school. It sureashell may not be reasonable. But it is the standard across the country.