Defered Option

[Texas Aggie]

is that most good White Hats will not let a captain select the option to "Kick" without making sure he is really sure that is what he wants to do

Change this to read: "(m)ost good White Hats will not let a captain select the option to 'Kick.'"

If the weather is very bad, or something really weird is at work (which I'm sure the coach will tell either me or my umpire before we go out to the field), only then is the kick option a rational choice under any circumstances. Defer, receive, or field position are the only rational choices. Kicking would fall under defer and field side virtually all the time and I'm hard pressed to think of a situation of when a team MUST kick the ball to start the game. I guess if they have a near perfect onside kick recovery unit, but if that's the case, the coach will tell me prior to the game when I ask for such things.

Both my umpire and I always ask our captains, "do you know what you want to do if you win the toss" prior to walking out to the middle. So I guess in the absolute worst case scenario, we'll have confirmed a kick option with the coach before leaving the sideline.