Coaches/Captains sell out by the R

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by j2u4now

Help me out here. I am working a Varsity girls game. R is a veteran official. During warm ups both teams have 4 different colored hair wraps.( This is a POE for our Association this year. We were informed to enforce this,period) So I mentioned to the R that I have 11 players, one has an illegal knee brace, and we need to address the hair wrap issue.
He states " the knee brace is hard plastic with metal, what's wrong with that? They're all made like that? And we'll give them a warning for the hair wrap, I'm not gonna enforce it tonite.
My response " the knee brace is illegal and it's the 7th game of the season for these teams, so we get to be selective on what we enforce with illegal uniforms?"
We got to coaches captain meeting and the R does his "speel" he then says "Coaches I know the ladies are not properly equipted tonite, J please explain the headband/uniform rule". Being caught off guard, I explained " dominant uniform color,black,white, or tan".
He then says" Coaches now that you know this, this is going to upset J, but consider this a warning for tonite, you need to be in proper uniform by next game".
So as we leave the meeting I ask" why did you bring it up if you're not going to enforce it?"
His comment " so they know for next time".
I feel the veteran sold me out to the coaches and put me on the spot. Give me feedback? I'm pretty ticked about it still.

j2u4now:

I want to start with your meeting with the coaches. Your partner is a "Grade A Schmuck" and at halftime I would have kicked his tuchus around the dressing room of the seven minutes we were in there. As someone who has spent many years on constuctions sites to tell you that I have a lot of other things that I could call him but some of them are including in George Carlin's Seven Words You Can't Say On The Radio and all of them cannot be used in polite society. The one thing I will say is that he is not a horse's rear end because that would be insuting to the two horses that my wife and I have owned.

Regarding the hair wraps, I think that most of us old geezers will agree with me that we really are getting tired of being fashion police. I will be honest with you, Mark, Jr. and I had a Jr. H.S. assignment earlier this month where the girls of one team wore different colored wrist bands and none of the colors were white, black, or the dominant color of the jersey and some wore regular head bands while some wore different colored pre-wrap. This was a school that barely had enough girls in the district to field both 7th and 8th grade teams. Did we care? No. BUT, when I officiate a game at the freshmen level and above I start to take the rules seriously, even though I dislike with great instensity being a fashion policeman.

Staying with the hair wrap subject (as well as wrist bands, illegal t-shirts, jewelry, etc.), the instant I see player(s) on the team for which I am resposible watching during warm-ups, I go to him/them and inform him/them of the problem and tell him/them that I cannot make him/them rectify the problem but that he/they cannot play unless the problem has been rectified.

Regarding the knee brace. Why was it illegal? I am hard pressed to remember (basically because it was probably during the peach basket era of basketball and I am a senile old geezer according to my sons and BillyMar, ) the last time I saw a player with an knee brace that did not meet the safety requirements of the rules. BUT safety rules can NEVER be ignored. When safety rules are ignored the entire officiating crew (even if you can prove that you told the R and he said he was not going to enforce the rule) is considered negligent if someone gets hurt because the rule was ignored.

What does the last sentence of the previous paragraph mean? You have to decide if you if you are going to force the issue with your partner. That means are you are willing to walk off the court and not officiate the game because he is refusing to enforce a safety rule, especially if you are a less experienced official working with a so-called veteran official. I know that is a difficult decision to make because I threatened the center official in a boys' H.S. soccer game with that exact situation if he did not enforce the NFHS jewelry rule. As a soccer official I was the least experienced official on the crew, but I had officiated H.S. basketball for more years than my two partners had been officiating soccer together. I told him that I would walk off the field and inform the home school AD (it was the home team players that were wearing the jewelry); I would then go home and immediately send an email to OhioHSAA informing the of the situation. That got his attention immediately and he did the correct thing. BUT, no one has ever accused me of being a meek and mild person.

MTD, Sr.