It was my understanding that any kind of headware for religious reasons had to be approved by the state associations.

Any feedback on this would be appreciated.

Rule 3-5-2 Exception 1b. <li>State associations may on an individual basis allow a player to participate while wearing a head covering if it meets the following criteria: For religious reasons - In the event there is documented evidence provided to the state association that a participant may not expose his/her uncovered head, the state association may approve a covering or wrap which is not abrasive, hard, or dangerous to any other player and which is attached in such a way it is highly unlikely it will come off during play.

I would be very hard-pressed to not allow a head covering for religious reasons as long as it does not pose a threat to any players on the court. The key is safety.

Since the rules state that state associations may approve it I would be hard pressed as an official to allow it if the player did not have state association approval. My feelings are that if I were to allow it without this approval and if something happend then I am puttng myself in a difficult situation.

Leave this alone.
 

Unless you have some information specifically from the state and even then I would be careful on telling a player not to wear something that had religious significance. I know of a girl that last year was Muslin in our state and had gray pants and a head scarf to represent her Muslin faith. State allowed it and she wore it all year.

Peace

I would think that this would be taken care of prior to the season being started in most cases. I would be very careful in telling someone to take it off. I would inform the coach to get something from the state, and I would be calling the state on the next business day.

AK ref SE

The situation happened in a freshman boys game yesterday. I explained the rule to the coach and even showed him the rule book. His school is from a different association. he told me they said it was ok.

I certainly would not tell someone to take something off if they couldn't, but I told the coach the player could not play with it by rule. To say the laest he wasn't too happy. His team did win the game.



My reasoning was; Since I had nothing in writing in the form of a state approval I was not going to take it upon myself to allow it. If something were to happen, an injury, no matter how unlikely, than I put myself in a very tenuous position. I also had to work the first three quarters alone. No one showed up. I didn't even have someone to discuss it with. Finally, there seems to be a lack of coaches knowing what the rules are and taking the necessary steps to care of situations like this.

A concern at the varsity level would be if no approval was granted and the lcoal association allowed it all season what would happen if the team made the playoffs and oher officials were involved.

I would hope the coach takes action today to take the necessary steps to get approval.

What kind of head covering was it? Was it dangerous?
Z

Without something written, I would have strongly requested the opposing coach's approval and then allowed the player to participate.
If you see no danger, then let the kid play.
The spirit and intent of the rules is not to sit a kid for religious reasons without something in hand.

What if the coach had said, "I have it in writing, but I am sorry, I don't have it with me."

Dangerous"

Probably not, unless it were to come off in a loose ball/ rebound situation. One problem I have and I am all for kids playing, is that coaches need to take care of details.

The proper way to have ahndles this as a coach is to hve taken care of this and then approached me and shown me the state approval. Then, obvioulsy we have no problem.

In my opinion, this coach would not have said I have it, but forgot it. He didn't know the rule. In this situation you make mutiple copies, keep one with you, put one in the med-kit, tape one in the scorebook. You know you have a special situation. You are prepared for it.

I don't belive it is my job to deny that the rule is there just to be nice to the player. Did I personally like having to do it. No. It has bohered me.

I have written my state association rules interpreter to get some clarification from them. Obviously I would not want a repeat of this and would like some specific guidelines on what steps to take in the future. When I get a response I will share it here on the board.

While I agree the coach should be proactive and have a copy with them at all times, I think a little common sense also applies. Suppose you have a game involving a private school catering to Orthodox Jews. Are you going to make the team forfiet if the coach forgot the paper from the state?

The assumption here seems to be that the state would ordinarily deny such a request. Given our current society I feel you can safely assume the state would need a reason to deny. A local (North TX) judge recently ruled that a pentagram worn by a Wiccan (sp) was a religious emblem, and thus could be worn to class and was not a violation of the schools dress code.

Let 'em play. Sure, the head covering may fall off and pose a possible safety hazard. But then, a light bulb over the court could explode causing shards of glass to fall on the floor...we don't play in the dark with a glowing ball. The building could catch on fire...but I don't remember seeing a fire unit on standby.

Hmmm,
 

I think some of you have missed the point of 'why' the rule is in the books.

As times change we are faced with interesting decisions. The National Federation of High Schools reacted at first to the 'head covering issue' when problems were occuring in the large metropolitan areas of players wearing "do rags".

The NFHS reacted by out-lawing all types of head covers.

It had NOTHING to do with the safety 'during' the game but had everything to do with safety 'outside' the game.

We now fast forward a few years and there are several religious groups that require head coverings (some 100% of the time others during specific times) so the NFHS ruled that the state (and only the state) could make 'individual' decision on players and the right to wear a head covering.

So we, that is the royal reference to OFFICIALS, are again directed to make sure that there is PROOF that the ruling has been made.

So as an official you have to make one of two choices:

1) Follow the letter of the rule and ask for documentation that apporval has been given or,

2) Make your own decision that there is enough evidence that you strongly believe that it is agreeable to allow the head cover.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear --

There has been no LEGAL challenge to not allowing the head gear. Officals, in a court of law, are expected to abide by written rule. Therefore there has been no legal finding holding an official at fault for following the predescriped rules.

I do not think there is an 'easy' answer to this question (we get the same question and have a like rule in FED baseball) and I do believe this is some thing worth time of discussion at your local association meeting.

A very well-thought out reply. I will be bringing this up at the next meeting.



It will be interesting to see additional feedback on this issue.

caref,
Yes, I do not disagree with what you are saying.

The coaches shouldn't put us in those positions by their ignorance, or arrogance, but they do give us that yoke.

When they do, we use our experience, knowledge and sometimes "gut feeling" and make a decision for which we are willing to take the heat.

Whether we follow a rule to the letter and get applauded,
whether we very liberally interpret a rule and get chastised, or whether we just disregard a rule and are never confronted, we make decisions with which we are willing to live.

At sub-varsity levels,
I do not make a fat kid tuck in her shirt.
I do not make a big kid wear the identical jersey of his teammates.
I do not "T" an excited sub that forgets to report.
I do not "T" a squad of 24 jr. High players with illegal numbers.
I do not penalize any wrong color of T-shirts under team jerseys.

These are decisions which I typically decide to bear. Why?
Cuz it doesn't bother me to allow these illegal actions and equipment.

To paraphrase Rut, do, or don't do, according to the cusomary practices in your area, but don't be the only official to enforce a specific ruling, because of the rules.

Your gut told you that something was wrong with the picture; sometimes that's the only answer we have.

mick

I disagree with this philosophy. Frequently I am the only one who is right when the rest of the world is wrong.

Just ask Juulie.