We do not get games assigned by an association so that is not always the case or a factor around here. And it really does not matter if you do something teams do not always listen to you or the next guy. Actually I am amazed how many coaches do not know things like this that their players are wearing (at least that is what they claim) when these things are addressed directly to them.

Peace

Shoot, we have a team here in Virginia that will be playing in a State Final Saturday night that was T'd for wearing illegal home jerseys in their semi-final game. They were wearing grey instead of white.

How many times do we call a foul that is not only instructed to be called, but is rules based and the teams argue with us about why we called the foul? Why do we think this is somehow different in reaction because it is a uniform issue?

Peace

Really? I didn't know that. :D

I think the same thing every time someone says on this site what everyone in an association should do. As if to suggest that everyone focuses on the same things even in a group. :)

Peace

I never found the headband rule to be a big deal. Just enforce it. As others here note, it will clean it up for the rest of us. (You too Billy...don't be kicking that can this way.)

Two weeks ago, just before the state tournament started, one team had headbands of green and black (school colors). I told them they were not legal...and they told me they had them custom made for the tourney. Sorry girls, but you won't be wearing them tonight...and you won't be wearing them in the tourney.

At my first state tourney game, I told one captain she could not wear her illegal headband (multiple logos). Her team plays in a small conference where the adherence to the fashion rules is not as rigid. We are told for the state tourney...no exceptions: enforce the rules.

After seeing the pictures from Iowa, I'm starting to understand the NFHS's position on this. The rainbow of headbands / pre-wrap looks like complete crap, IMO.

Not that I like having to be the fashion police -- this should be on the coaches, IMO (and having the penalty be a technical foul immediately, even in warmups would take care of this for good), but I get it.

That's what I felt. I'm one of those who enforces it regularly anyway but looking at that game made me think, "Yeah, the rule makes a little more sense now." Heck, we get an e-mail or two every season about it in NCAAW so if we have to enforce it there might as well take care of business at the H.S. level.

For a few years I've felt schools should make it one of their ACs jobs to have a headband/writstband chart for his/her team on any given day :)

We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us (Walt Kelly) ...
 

In addition to high school basketball, I also work Catholic middle school basketball. The assigner for the Catholic middle school games tells us that all of his officials must enforce all Fashion Police rules: headbands, wristbands, undershirts, etc., and that if he discovers that we aren't doing our job in that regard, we won't get paid. Now we really don't think that he would follow up on that threat, but none of us wants to be a test case, so we enforce the rules. By the second week of play, we don't have any problems, not a single one, with Fashion issues as the players, and coaches, know that we're going to be serious about enforcement.

If little kids coached by some volunteer parents can follow these Fashion rules, then why can't high school players with "professional" coaches? Easy answer, it because we have officials who don't think Fashion issues have any part in officiating basketball games and refuse to enforce these guidelines. One Tuesday night the girls get to wear any color headband that they want, until Friday night comes and they all have to wear the same color, which changes again on the next Tuesday night. I blame us.

Yesterday, a second team was T'd for illegal uniforms. Their jersey top had a manufacturer's logo clearly visible in upper right chest area. The T wasn't called until the start of the 2nd half. They also won, and will be playing in the state final.

Triple-L, that was one of our schools. Have we been lax on our duties this season? I didn't work any of their games this season so I know I'm clean. :D

I don't think multi-colored headbands look very good, but I'm not all that concerned with it if they got rid of that rule. But metal clips in the hair, clearly visible? Someone gets hurt in the eye during one of the scrums that always seem to happen in girls' games and there's an attorney asking why the state chose to ignore a national safety-related rule. I don't want that liability personally...

You got that right. I'm not sure what makes hair clips smaller than 2" any less likely to poke someone in the eye than hair clips larger than 2". Ignoring that rule is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Yep, it's the us problem either by not knowing the rules or not enforcing them. I rarely work games in NJ but in the three I had during the '10-11 season all three of my partners thought it was okay for a player wearing a white jersey to wear an undershirt that was a school color as opposed to white. To say I was shocked was an understatement. Ultimately, I ended up looking like the bad - or crazy - guy to the coaches in those games when I told them their players couldn't enter/start while wearing those undershirts...and that they had to remove them away from the visual confines of the court.

I'm likewise clean. It wasn't ever brought up in any of our meetings. Now, it might get on the agenda.

Do Iowa girls still have 5 players that only play half court offense and 5 girls that only play half court defense?