Pre-game Convo With Parent

[psujaye]

During warm-ups of my BV game last night, the R & I noticed a player wearing a protective brace on one of his hands. we called him over, looked at it, deemed it to be too hard (it had 2 separate metal rods for support in it) and restrictive and asked that he take it off and have his hand taped (if he wanted). he had no issue with it and neither did the coach.
Apparently his father was in the stands and he politely comes down and asks me about the brace. Here is a brief synopsis of the discussion (it appears long but it was literally 30-45 seconds):

Father: what's wrong with my son's brace?
Me: its too restrictive
Father: did they change the rule? I had (insert high level observer as a name drop) and (insert assignor's name as a name drop) look at it and they said it was fine.
Me: We'll my partner and I feel its too hard and restrictive.
Father: do you want me to go get the rule book?
Me: no, but i appreciate the offer. We need to worry about the other 9 players on the court also, not just your son.
Father: well i'm worried about his hand. he's played 18 games with it on, are you saying the other 36 officials were wrong?
Me: I don't know what the other 36 officials did. I know he can't play this game tonight with the brace on.
Father: what's your name?
Me: (silence)
father: you can't tell me your name?
Me: if you have an issue, you should call (insert previously name dropped assignor's name here) and tell him the officials on this game wouldn't let your son play with the hand brace on.
Father: (walks away)

Has this type of thing happened to anyone else during warm-ups? I initially wanted to ignore him completely, but he was polite (for the most part). You never know who is watching (from an observer/assignor standpoint) and i don't want to come off wrong by having a conversation with a parent. I honestly have no idea if i did the right or wrong thing by entertaining this guy. Part of me feels like i shoudve ignored him completely.
I'm open for suggestions.

[grunewar]

Where was the player's coach during all this?

[psujaye]

Originally Posted by grunewar

Where was the player's coach during all this?

it was during warm-ups and he was speaking with the other coach i believe. the coach didn't have an issue with it. infact, he didn't even ask us about it.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by psujaye

Me: We'll my partner and I feel its too hard and restrictive.

Me: It's got metal in it.

Any guard,cast or brace with metal in it is always illegal.... up the elbow. Above the elbow, it must be padded.

[psujaye]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Me: It's got metal in it.

Any guard,cast or brace with metal in it is always illegal.... up the elbow. Above the elbow, it must be padded.

Yes, I agree, i don't know why i used 'hard and restrictive' vs. 'it has metal in it'. I'm not sure if that had an impact on how the rest of the conversation went.

[rockyroad]

You didn't hurt anything by talking with the dad. Your only other alternative would have been to ignore him or turn and walk away from him or something equally rude - would that have helped the situation or only made it worse? Seems to me like you handled it well. If the guy gets belligerent, walk over to the table, get game management and let them deal with it.

I would be calling the (insert twice previously name-dropped assignor here) and asking him if he actually did approve the brace. If he did, ask why? If he didn't, he probably wants to know that there is some schmuck out there saying he did.

[daveg144]

From the description, it sounds like an illegal brace. However, if, for some reason, it is legal, the team should have a letter from the state high school association (that's what we do in Ohio). If they can produce the letter, let him play.

I had a game last year where a girl was permitted to play with an "illegal" headband (yellow headband, purple jersey). When we asked her to remove it before the game she told us it was a protective headband (it was) because she had a couple concussions during the soccer season. Her coach had the letter from the state saying it was okay for her to wear it.

My daughter's teammate on the high school soccer team played with a hard protective mask after breaking her nose. Before their letter from the state arrived, she was not allowed to play in a game because the officials said it was illegal.

Just my two cents worth...

[BayStateRef]

Originally Posted by daveg144

From the description, it sounds like an illegal brace. However, if, for some reason, it is legal, the team should have a letter from the state high school association (that's what we do in Ohio). If they can produce the letter, let him play.

Under what NFHS rule do state associations get to determine whether a brace or similar item is legal? The only things I find the NFHS rules allowing is for a state association to approve use of artificial limbs (3-5-1 Note) and head covering for medical, cosmetic or religious reasons (3-5-3 Exception.)

This is totally the officials' responsibility -- and as others have said -- only the officials working that game can make that decision. Ask anyone who officiates youth girls games about how many permutations there are to allowing earrings since "she has been allowed to wear them in every other game."

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

I would be calling the (insert twice previously name-dropped assignor here) and asking him if he actually did approve the brace. If he did, ask why? If he didn't, he probably wants to know that there is some schmuck out there saying he did.

Good point. I would have also told the dad that *in my judgement* the brace is unsafe *because* whatever. This derails the "well they let me do it yesterday" and "let's look at the rulebook" parts of the discussion. I would have also told him if his contacts think the brace is safe he should have gotten that in writing for the coach to provide.

I also agree you done good by talking to the dad.

[JoeTheRef]

Originally Posted by psujaye

Yes, I agree, i don't know why i used 'hard and restrictive' vs. 'it has metal in it'. I'm not sure if that had an impact on how the rest of the conversation went.

Hard or metal, either one works for me especially when it is on the hand, wrist or elbow. All it takes is a kid to get knocked out or cut accidentally by it then you'll probably looking at some liability issues. Either way, I think you did a good job handling it. Me personally, I probably would've walked away after the first 5 words out of this parent's mouth. Usually when a parent is walking by or up to me, anything other than a greeting and have a good game, I would probably turn and walk away.

[Rizzo21]

Originally Posted by JoeTheRef

Hard or metal, either one works for me especially when it is on the hand, wrist or elbow. All it takes is a kid to get knocked out or cut accidentally by it then you'll probably looking at some liability issues. Either way, I think you did a good job handling it. Me personally, I probably would've walked away after the first 5 words out of this parent's mouth. Usually when a parent is walking by or up to me, anything other than a greeting and have a good game, I would probably turn and walk away.

Same freshman game, afterwards, we just arrived in our quarters and some guy I didn't recognize entered following the AD who must have given him permission to follow him. The guy says "I just want to tell you guys that was the best officiated game we've had all year". Mind you, it was a freshman game (we were probably more experienced than most guys he's seeing) and this probably wasn't the father of the kid that removed the pad. It was appreciated but I'm wondering if that's good protocol to let a stranger approach the officials quarters even if he tells the AD "I'm here to praise those guys".

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by Rizzo21

The guy says "I just want to tell you guys that was the best officiated game we've had all year".

A-hah! So, this was their first game!

[just another ref]

I suppose it's a bit too flippant to use in this case, but this would be applicable.
I was at an auction once where the consignor was complaining about the price of an item he was selling. "I saw one bring (x amount) at a sale last month."
The auctioneer, without missing a beat, replied, "That was then and this is now and I'm doing the best I can."

[RCBSports]

This has happened at our place before. Player had a wrist brace; the brace had a metal strip to keep the thumb from moving. I told that player, b/c I am the student trainer, that he may not be able to play due to the fact it has metal in it.

Ten minutes later, he comes to me and ask if there are any alternative solution. He said the official wouldn't let him play. I agreed, but I wanted to see the reasoning. Went up to the official, nice as could be, and basically asked for the reason why. That way, I can make a log of it and bring it up in our class. He said that the device is illegal due to having a metal strip in which it can be used to cause harm to oneself and others. He gave me an example. Foul shoot, player is base, goes catch the ball, hits the player across the face as coming down and could knock him out.

I said that's fine, if I go and use athletic tape and tape his wrist, would he be able to play, and he said yes, he would first have to check it though. Said sure thing. Took me a while to figure out an effective way to wrap his thumb, but I got it, took him to the official and said all is good.

So yea, you are in the right doing. However, next time, I would summon the coach. But that's me to have the coach agree with my ruling.

[HawkeyeCubP]

Originally Posted by RCBSports

Took me a while to figure out an effective way to wrap his thumb, but I got it, took him to the official and said all is good.

Super-thumb-spica?