I totally missed the sarcasm - I guess my reading comprehension needs some work, too. :o

But since they charge $5 per patch here, that should eliminate most of the people who want to mimic a high school official for the fun of it. :)

Yes...I was being facetious.

In fact, around these parts, many times we will have a crew where some of the officials have patches and others do not. (I use to carry along a patched shirt and a non-patched shirt so we could match...heck, at state tournaments I have brought pleated pants and non-pleated pants so the crew would even have the same pants if possible)

Some are to lazy to put the patch on or are to cheap to buy another shirt...so they use their black and white college shirt with no patch.

On another note...we have the option, in our association, to use gray shirts or black/white. (As long as the whole crew use the same of course)

Our insurance coverage specifically states that it's void if we work with an "unlicenced" official.

We have the same option for sub-varsity, although gray shirts are mandatory for Varsity. Which makes me also remember that patches are also only mandatory for the gray shirts, so sub-varsity games will often have guys in stripes with no patches, so I guess I'll just work with anyone who shows up. ;)

By the way, I was instructed by my association that they would have backed me either way if I chose to work with the coach or not, but they said it would have been perfectly fine to let the coach ref.

Shhhhhhhhhh......

I just sold chseagle one for $114. Even as we speak, he's having it sewn on his arm. Not his sleeve, his arm.

I thought I'd remembered that, but how do you determine 'unlicensed.' Is that universal?

Kinda serves as a place setting too for those long double headers.

You're killing me JR...:D

...actually, I was thinking about having one tattooed on my arm...and then I could go sleeveless.;)

Geesh, by definition it should be 'uniform'. In Illinois, no patch and you really stand out. In fact I can't remember not seeing an unpatched shirt in a HS game at any level. Sloppy.

Now the worst part is this coach can forever claim he was an official.

Is that for UIL or TASO - or has the dust not settled yet? I know a couple of Texas first year officials who were given the UIL patches after their training was over.

I agree...

but, not all officials have our appreciation for decorum.;)

The person has to be registered either as a member of our association or as a member of our governing body (through whom we buy our insurance coverage). In my area, that's the norm. The bottom line though imo is that you should know what your own insurance coverage is before you get into situations like this. We post that info on our web site.

Opposite in Wisconsin - If you have a patch other than an American Flag and you stand out. We've been "clean" shirt for years.

The patch is a UIL patch. And even though they are in a tug of war at the moment, we haven't been told NOT to put the patches on. However, my assignor did tell me today that if UIL was the governing body, it would NOT have been ok for the coach to ref the game. Since there is no governing body at the moment, that's why he said it would be ok.