Dwelling on calls

[bainsey]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

Of all the things that could cause an official to get "rattled", being the fashion police would fall way down the list, I would think.

Fair enough. It was more about having to deal with this stuff repeatedly with the same team/coach, and the indignant reply when I tried to cut that team a little slack.

Home team in green, visitors in blue. (In this state, white jerseys are only required for home varsity teams.) Both teams had at least one white undershirt. I spoke with the home coach about his lone offender, and it was taken care of without incident.

Visitors had warm-ups on during pre-game, so I didn't see the two white undershirts until a few minutes into the game. (They were sleeveless, but they were visible at the neckline. I already had to deal with this same issue with this team a few weeks ago. Rather than remove those two immediately, I thought I'd cut them a little slack, and told the visiting coach to take care of it at the end of the first quarter. The coach just gave me an indignant "whatever," twice.

"Whatever" is a pet peeve of mine. (I've said before that "whatever" is for stupid teenage girls.) I allow the kids to finish the quarter, and I get the clean version of "screw you"?! Plenty other schools understand that the undershirt's color must match that of the jersey, like it or not. (My son's coach doesn't even allow undershirts, headbands, etc.) Apparently, this coach thinks he can duck rules he deems stupid.

The fact that I allowed it to get to me and rattle my focus for the rest of the half is on me. In the grand scheme of things, this is far from major. While I didn't react overtly, I still chose poorly internally. Fashion police stuff is a PITA, but I'll likely have to deal with it again. If I don't deal with it, I'm just making it messier for the next guy.