Visor

[IHSAref]

In the NFHS are tinted yellow visors legal? Thanks!

[andy1033]

No they are not

[RIRef]

No tinting at all

[grantsrc]

Tinted visors only in the NFL.

How many "tinted" visors have you guys encountered this year? You know the ones that are just slightly tinted that everyone says are clear, but when you look at them from the side, you can tell that they have some color to them.

[Texas Aggie]

I've had 3 tinted visors. One coach said, after we sent his kid off the field, "I want an explanation." I said, "coach, ordinarily, I'd give you one, but here there's not one needed. The rule is clear and there are no exceptions."

He didn't respond.

[waltjp]

Early in the season I could usually find a couple tinted visors per team. By the end of the season the numbers usually wane but there are still some around. Grant has the best suggestion - look at the visor from the side.

[sj]

I actually had to get two kids side by side this year to convince a coach that one was tinted. It was the fifth week and of course he'd played all year. So I pulled a kid over who had a clear one and put them right next to each other.

[Tom.OH]

Only had a couple this year. On one the U sent him out. The other one was in a JV game in week 7 or so. I called an officials TO and told him to go off and remove the visor which he did. His coach told us during a time out it was clear. I took my white game card and put it half way under the visor the coach was holding and it changed colors, the coach just stared and said we were correct and walked away.

[Ed Hickland]

At the high school and middle school level there were none.

The problem was at the youth football level (Go figure!). One "coach" told me to tell the player to take off the tinted visor. I told the player and also told him that I did not want to see it again. The player was hard-headed and when I showed up for another game I sent him to the sidelines.

[ABoselli]

I was with the captains before the toss and I told the kid his tinted gray visor had to go.

"But you can see my eyes through it fine, sir" was his initial response. He wasn't being a jerk about it, but it sounded like he knew the rationale behind the rule (originally) and was trying to comply without actually complying.

He saw things my way and took it off.

[fattuna2]

In our 5-10 minute pregames this year, my incompetent referree would state that if we can see their eyes it was ok. As the umpire in each instance I spoke up and said no, they have to go. He would tell me not to do it, that this was his responsibility. I sent them anyway. I repeated every single frickin week that no it wasn't, and I was not going to leave myself open to lawsuits. This culminated 2 weeks ago, in me sending a kid to the sideline...the kid started arguing that I could see his eyes. I told him that was not the rule, he kept arguing. His coach came out and said I owed him an explanation. He was at least 10 yards on the field. I told him he needed to call a time out if he wanted that. At that time the referee came over and started asking what was going on. It quickly became an issue of not showing him or his player respect. The eye shield was never mentioned. Excellent. This culminated last week, in him trying to reverse the only ejection I've called in my high school career. A player after the snamp elbowed another player in the chin. Three plays later from the hashmark I observed a late hit...like 2 seconds after the whistle. The referee immediately started telling me I was officiating out of my "zone". I thought it was my responsibility to observe action around the play. Guess I'm just not part of the team or something.

A question on this. I just spend 2 1/2" months walking out on a field with a man who has no business being on a high school field. My association could care less about the quality of officiating we put out there each Friday and believe me it was an embarassment. At our Monday meeting, I was eaten up over the face shield thing (Defer to the ref, I said no way on equipment issues, it's my responisbility specifically), and then had to point out that personal fouls are the "zone" of everybody. Am I wrong here? Do I defer to a clearly incompetent referee. I can easily say incompetent. We were evaluated 3 times in the last two years and his evaluations were horrible, below 50% type stuff with comments relating to a clear lack of rule knowledge and mechanics. You know, just everything I talked to him about for about the 1st half of the season when I gave up and just kind of rode out the string. I truly believe this guy is on the field because we have overbooked ourselves, and it sucked. I've been officiating high school football for 16 years, and don't want to quit, but I can't take this.

[waltjp]

Fattuna, you can stick it out and be miserable or find another crew. Sounds like a pretty easy choice to me.

What do the other members of the crew have to say? Do they voice their opinions at all? A strong crew has the ability to talk things over and learn from each other. I couldn’t imagine working together with a crew if there wasn’t a feeling of respect for each other.

[fattuna2]

Waltip,

I'm in a group that believes in the crew system. I joined them about 5 years ago (A bad move in retrospect). Because I was pretty far down the seniority latter I was assigned to this. The crew consisted of (2) guys who were in their second year and were completely useless. There was an experienced back judge who also does college ball and repeatedly confused high school and college rules and mechanics. Another guy was rotated in. None of them (The less experienced ones) had a strong personality, and frankly had no buisness being on the field themselves. I spent many Fridays pointing out our failures from the previous week during the pregames but was shut down. Which was ok by the way, it is his crew. Moving to another group at this point just shoves me farther down the ladder. However my current group is not interested in putting the best possible officials on the field.

[nwiboi2005]

only time the visor maybe tinted is if there is a MD note. if no note then must be clear however for this you must still have a note.

[Theisey]

Originally Posted by nwiboi2005

only time the visor maybe tinted is if there is a MD note. if no note then must be clear however for this you must still have a note.

No.. this is not correct. No physicians note or prescription can alter this rule. The case book is quite specific about this.
Hope you didn't do this during this past season.