Eyewear

[TxBktball03]

How do you deal with needing corrective eyewear? I have worn glasses since the 8th grade, but have tested poorly for contacts before. They irritate my corneas. I'm about to try getting tested for them again, but I was wondering what some of you who need corrective eyewar...are contacts the only option? I can imagine it being ripe fodder for hecklers to have an official who needs glasses...

[renoref]

I wear glasses and have never been heckled about them.
You can always go the laser route if you got the dough.

[firedoc]

My son recently had LASIK surgery on his eyes and he loves it. He was barely able to read the "E" at the top of the eye chart without his contacts and now he is 20/25 in each eye. Also the price for LASIK correction has dropped significantly in the past few years probably because there are more doctors doing the procedure now.

[MN 3 Sport Ref]

I personally have heard hecklers using glasses as an excuse to ride an offical. If a coach uses your eyewear as an excuse to demean you he may be looking to get whacked. If it does not bother you or make you feel self concious IMO wear them. I used to wear contacts/glasses and reciently had LASIK done, I love it!!! 20/20 both eyes. One thing for you to consider however, depending on the level of ball you aspire to work, is howmany big time officials on TV do you see wearing glasses??? Answer: next to none. the ones who need corrections wear contacts or have gotten lasered. Each little thing one does to make them less "noticible" as an official IMO makes their job just a little bit easier by giving people less fodder to use.

[Danvrapp]

I couldn't see the coaches in front of my face (not a bad thing come to think of it... ) before I had lasik, and now I can see every foul ever comitted - even out of my primary. Expensive, but if you go to a good doc you'll never regret it.

[zebraman]

It depends. In our association, we have two officials who do well at the state tourney every year and they wear glasses. I've heard that in some places, glasses are the "kiss of death."

Two of our other officials have trouble wearing contacts, but they are able to tolerate them for a couple hours so they put them in right before a game and remove them right after.

As far as hecklers.... if the best line they can come up with has to do with your glasses, they aren't worth the price they paid for admission and they need some new material. :-)

Z

[rainmaker]

I wear glasses in real life, and my ophthalmologist (I get 10 extra points for spelling it correctly!!!) doesn't recommend contacts for every-day because of astigmatism, and also another rare problem I have that can be exacerbated by contacts. (Wow, I'm just a spelling fiend tonight, aren't I!?!?) But for a couple of hours a few evenings a week, he doesn't think it's a problem. I have a prescription that allows me to see well at the distance the players are from the ref. And when I check the book, I use reading glasses. It has worked very well for me. Contacts are so much better than glasses, just because of the sweat factor, and the possibility of them falling off, getting knocked off and so forth. You might ask your ophth if you can experiment a little with them. They have closets full of samples they can let you try. And if you really use them only for bball, you can write them off your taxes??