Just wondering what the general idea for a referees uniform is for a day when the rain is pouring down.

Mine consists of a garbage bag under my shirt, my question is should I invest in a striped jacket, or one of those nylon (waterproof) pullovers to wear under my shirt.

IMHO, striped jackets just don't look good. A garbage bag is interesting... but I'd think you would get very hot and sticky inside that thing.

I wear my short sleeve under armor black shirt as I always do. Over that I wear a pullover waterproof/breathable rain jacket (Gander Mountain Guide Series -- it looks just like the Honig's windstopper, but w/ a neck zipper). Then I put my long sleeve shirt on over that. I think it looks pretty good; no one can tell that you have it on, other than your shirt may poof out a little more. Tuck the rain jacket into your pants with your shirt.

If Honig's "windstopper" pullovers are waterproof, that would be a pretty good item, too.

Biglax: take a look her http://www.officialforum.com/thread/15855
I think you were the one who was asking originally.

We are not alloed to wear rain coats or any type of rain gear. The windstopper is water proof and works well in the cold weather with a turtleneck on underneath.

This is definitely a regional thing.

I'd never seen shorts in a varsity game until a few years ago. Likewise, I'd never seen jackets or striped coats on officials until I moved to Wisconsin.

I'd never worn one....until two weeks ago.

I was filling in on another crew. Rainy and cold -- the temp walking in was about 43 degrees and it dropped to 35, windy and rainy by the end of the game. I wore underarmour and a long sleeved shirt for the first half and then I noticed that the rest of the crew had coats on. When in Rome....

So I wore my striped parka the second half. I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to get at my flag or beanbag well, but not to worry -- no bags or flags needed the entire second half.

I'm not a fan of the coats on the field -- underarmour can stop most cold and wind and you can always layer UNDER the long sleeved shirt.

--Rich

I've only been at this a few weeks, so this may not apply to the vast majority of you guys, but (especially at the lower levels where I work), I've seen all sorts of different uniform combinations already. Guys seem to be going for comfort above all, and everybody seems to be okay with it. I've seen jackets, sweatpants, shorts, different sleeve lengths and pant lengths among guys on the same crew - you name it. I'm guessing it's a lower level thing and that it's pretty okay, but all the instruction I went through leading up to this stressed uniformity in uniforms among a crew and stuff. I guess they were talking about varsity (strangely, since the majority of us new guys aren't going to work varsity anytime soon).

When it's frigid (meaning down in the 50s!), I usually bring my longsleeve shirt. If the rest of the crew brought one, we wear it. If even ONE of us didn't, no one wears it. (This is for any level - 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, JV, V).

I don't own a jacket - waht's them thangs for? :)

I do have a rainjacket I cut to short-sleeve length that's very thin, but waterproof, and white. I will wear it under the normal shirt if the rain's particularly bad and it's cold out, but usually it just makes me hot, so I just get wet.

Frigid in the 50's? :cool: That can be considered tanning weather around here. Today we won't see 50 in the Green Bay area, and the forecast is for a scattered snow flurries this evening "up nort", right about where my game is tonight.

Regarding the gear, the crew I am with wears long sleeve only after 10/1 (unless there's a late Sept night with really crap weather) and all cold weather/rain gear must fit nicely under the long sleeve stripes. It looks much better.

I typically use the Under Armour shirt, with a white long sleeve shirt over that, then the long sleeve stripes. I sweat as soon as I move even when its 10 below 0, so I am ok with that, and most rain gear keeps as much sweat on me, as rain coming in. Although some of the crew members do wear a waterproof pullover under their stripes, I will be looking into one of those.

OK what does a jacket look like? Up here in the northern region of the country-Alaska (or for that matter the furthest west and east also) we do not wear jackets at the Varsity level, they look like s!#$. There is enough cold weather gear that we buy the other garmets a little bigger and wear as much as possible underneath. Last week I had to even take off a layer, it did get into the upper 40's.

From Seattle....What's rain gear????

From Arizona .... What's Rain? :)

That's usually not a problem around here, although I guess I can't really talk since I never wore a garbage bag.

I hope your kidding about that!!

As for the jacket issue, I have one as it came with my "starter pack" from Honigs, but I never wore it. IMHO, a jacket looks bad on the field. Back when I was in high school I remember a rain game where some of the officials wore jackets, and it really looked poor, so I won't wear one.

I would never wear one of those striped jackets
back in CNY (I agrre with those who think that
they do not look good.
For rain I'd put a nylon pullover
windbreaker under my striped shirt (long sleeve).
If it was warm enough to wear short sleeves back
there, I did not worry about rain.
Here in SW FL, it's almost always short sleeves
and I've never seen anyone wear any kind of rain
gear. Warm rain is usually not a problem-- but there
are not many things worse than cold and rainy-
except of course snow and sub freezing temperatures !

No rain games as of yet. But when it's chilly and damp - Wyoming - I wear a weatherbeater over Asics running gear shirt and wear the running pants under my knickers.

The Cliff Kleen shirt I have is a SWEATBOX!!! No breathing ability. Honigs gas a goretex lined shirt I'm getting next year to add to my increasing wardrobe.

Right now I'm washing my starter package after this afternoons Soph game so I can head to Montana to work three games in a row tomorrow. Read 5 stinking guys in a closed vehicle for 2 hours...