Fashion Police -- Only watch above the Socks

[CMHCoachNRef]

I have never been a real fan of being the fashion police, but there are several things in this area that make no sense. The NFHS was concerned about players drawing attention to themselves, therefore they put a number of rules in place.

1. They attempted to eliminate the Shooting Sleeve -- Unless it is for medical purposes, which basically has permitted the shooting sleeve if a player really wants one.
2. They determined that "anything that goes completely around the head is a head band and, therefore, must be the same color as all teammates AND must be one of the four permitted colors of headbands: white, primary uniform color, black or beige (so that the "typical" pre-wrap color could be used).
3. Undershirts, if worn, must be similar in color to the jersey and the sleeves are to be the same length.
4. Memorial patches must be be no more than 4 square inches and CANNOT be a number.
etc., etc., etc.

Apparently, the NFHS Fashion Police Committee must all have stiff necks as they apparently cannot see below the bottom of the shorts. While I will be the first to admit, I dislike a number of these items -- ESPECIALLY item #2 when doing a girls varsity game (or any girls game for that matter) -- I can't help but wonder what they are really thinking.

Exhibit A: Varsity Girls game on Saturday night. One team had 12 players. Four players had one black shoe and one white shoe (three black right shoes and one black left shoe). Most other players wore black shoes, while one wore white shoes. A couple wore one black sock and one white sock pulled up high. One wore a pair of black socks with three wide white stripes. A couple others wore plain high black socks. A few others did not wear visible socks at all.

If the NFHS is going to require me to tell a player who has black hair and has a black rubberband to hold her hair in place that she has to remove it because her teammates are all wearing that ugly beige pre-wrap in their hair; or require me to tell a team that their uniforms are illegal because they have a 1.5" high #12 in the inset of their jerseys to honor a teammate who has lost a battle with cancer; or require me to tell a player that they have to take a black underarmour shirt off because their uniform is blue, WHY does it allow the area below the knee to look anything BUT uniform?

I understand shoes not matching. But, if they are going to make us go to the nth degree to observe all of these other aspects of the uniform, why not at least the color of the socks -- if they are visible?