The reason NFHS refs (yeah, yeah, yeah, local adoption) are told to wear jackets is simple.

the NBA does it.

NCAA does it.

We need to pretend that some obscure high school game in some backwater town in as important as hte NBA or NCAA.

So we wear jackets. So we can be like the big boys.

Here's an idea. We wear jackets (or not) based on the temperature. Around here when the small schools start in late October it can easily be in the 80's.
On these days, my jacket never leaves the house. Beyond that, it depends on the gym. Some places, if you leave your jacket at the table, it winds up on the floor, or someplace on the bleachers where it may get stepped on. With all this in mind, I lean toward leaving mine in the locker room.

Rule To Live By ...
 

From my pregame: Every game is the most important game being played anywhere tonight for these kids, fans, and coaches. Let’s make sure we officiate the game keeping that in mind, through effort, and attitude.

You may not believe me, but I abide by this statement about 95% of the time. The rare exception may be the fourth game of a Catholic middle school girls junior varsity (fifth and sixth graders) quadruple header, especially if it's a boring, blowout game. Other than that, I treat every game as if I'm officiating an NBA, or NCAA game, in Madison Square Garden. I don't have to pretend. I just love interscholastic basketball, I love officiating interscholastic basketball, and I always try to give it my 100% best effort.

Well in this part of the state we do not do games until November, so it is not that hot. Not an issue around here. ;)

It is usually typical here that the table puts the jackets in a relatively save place and it is not uncommon for the GM to take our jackets to the locker room before half-time.

But I thought they did not give you guys a locker room? ;)

Peace

Figure of speech, so you'd understand. :) We pretty much always have a room, just very seldom have lockers.

So you need lockers to change in that room?

If that is the case I would come dressed too. ;)

Peace

Coz' Every Girl's Crazy 'Bout A Sharp Dressed Man ...
 

As most officials do, here in my little corner of the Provision State, when they work middle school games. Maybe no dressing room, and even if there is one, it's not very secure, and seldom does one have access to a shower.

You need a shower every time you work a game?

Peace

I have no idea what you just said. But that's not unusual.:rolleyes:

Didn't you say that a room that you are often given by schools do not have lockers?

You really do not understand what I am asking? Again you made the issue out of having a locker in a room not me.

If I needed a locker in a room as the reason I get dressed, I would not ever change at the game site.

Say anything to keep up your ridiculous point of view.

Peace

Sweating The Oldies ...
 

Yes. Mr. Dimico, my junior high school physical education teacher, taught us good hygiene.

Either I take a shower at the site, get dressed back into my "business casual" street clothes, and stop on the way home for some adult beverages with my colleagues at the usual "watering holes". Or, I work a game where there is no shower, or no changing area, available, almost always a middle school site, and then I have to drive all the way home in my sweaty referee uniform (yuck), and take a shower at home. Since I live in the far southwest corner of my local board's geographic area, it's usually a long drive back to one of our "official" meeting spots, so I usually don't bother to go out, and just eat my dinner, and read my paper, or watch television. That's the "culture" of my local board. Been that way for over thirty years.

JRutledge: Do you not shower after every game when a shower, and changing area are available? Do you drive home wearing a sweaty uniform? I hope that you don't meet up with your colleagues wearing a sweaty uniform?

I've very rarely worked at a place that provided us lockers. That's never been a reason for me to come to a game dressed...which is what I got from JRut's post.

I do if the shower is not nasty and if they provide one.

If you have not figured out, I never wear my uniform out of the "locker room" ever. I always change from those clothes. Now some places you know do not have a good shower and I will still not come dressed.

I tend to not sweat that much at least not for what happens in a basketball game. And if I do the undergarments I wear do the job. Maybe it is my fitness level or just biology, but I am not one of these guys soaking with sweat after games. I take showers when I can, but even when one is not available I have gone right home. I also refuse to take a shower with cold water, so the shower is not an issue for me. But as stated previously most of the time there is never a locker. We are put coaches office or some lounge where they may not be a big room to shower or you have to go somewhere else.

Peace

Like The Only H**ker At A Shriners Convention ...
 

You are indeed very fortunate, so count your blessings. By the middle of the first period, even in a Catholic middle school girls junior varsity (fifth and sixth grader) game, I'm sweating like a horse at the end of the Kentucky Derby. In a high school boys varsity game, I'm sweating like a horse at the end of the Belmont Stakes after only one, or two, possessions after the jump ball. Thus, unlike you, I will jump quickly into, and quickly out of, a cold water only shower. With the exception of those middle school games where there may not be a shower, or a secure changing area, I'm taking a shower almost everytime, as do almost all of my colleagues.

For the record: I don't need or want a locker for anything. We are given a room, more often than anything else it is a coaches office. I could change in there if I wanted to, but I don't, and neither do 98% of my partners at all levels.

To each his own.