The death of knickers (I hope)
 

Uni Watch Another Nail in the Knickers’ Coffin?

This should eliminate the argument that black pants are inappropriate for warmer nights. Hopefully this trickles down to the HS level (here in WI) in a couple of years and I can throw out the knickers for good. We only wore them for 4 of our varsity games last year -- we wore shorts or black pants for all of our subvarsity games.

The white hat on my crew hates the black pants with a passion and wouldn't let us wear them at all last year. :(

I was going to buy another pair of knickers this season but I think I'll wait now. I'm hoping this change is adopted sooner rather than later here in this state.

I look forward to the day when I can tell the rookie officials "When I started, we wore knickers and striped socks." :D

Really? I'm the WH on my crew and could never imagine acting as that much of a dictator in areas such as this. Matter of fact, the crew votes on what we wear every Friday night and I am merely the tiebreaker.

Our WH is not our crew chief and does not have that power either. We wear these pants all the time when we can. I hate white knickers as they are hard to keep clean and look silly in my opinion.

Peace

In reality, most WHs are the crew chiefs, I would guess. I know the occasional crew up here where another member is the listed crew chief, but I'm guessing it's less than 1-in-10.

I could try to be a dictator in this area, but what's the point? I try to assert what limited authority I have over areas that really matter.

Besides, my crew all loves the black pants, so we never really argue over this one thing anyway.

Of course most are. That goes without saying. Funny I have never been on an actual crew where the WH is crew chief at the high school level. And even my current crew chief does not act like he is in charge. He only makes decisions when we cannot seriously agree and someone has to decide. But he gets out voted by many all the time (we joke about it) with uniform changes or when we wear them. Other than that this is a partnership and we all look at it that way. He just takes care of most of our administrative issues and we try to work together on everything else.

Peace

Of course. If a CC acts like a dictator in our areas (where the crew self-forms) people would just join another crew. My crew has had the same five guys now for 6 straight years.

Week 1 this year will be the first time I will miss a game (I'm working a baseball tournament in Maine). Someone else will wear the white hat and life will go on.

Hochuli looks like he's tapered his pant cuffs a bit. He's allegedly always had his shirts tailored for the "gun show" but he might be tailoring the pants also.

Actually tapered cuffs make a lot of sense. Elastic bottoms (sweat pants) would also help putting one's heel through the bottom of the pants that ride down from all the running.

Why? All you need to do is properly hem the pants and it is no different than basketball pants. Not much to be concerned with if you ask me.

Peace

Our assn assigns crews for the season. Yet we are small enough that everyone knows the quirks of each of the WHs. We have one that refuses to wear jackets (long sleeves are ok). We have one that refuses to wear shorts. And we have some as others describe (whatever the guys want--and everyone owns--we are good). But in all case, the WH has the ultimate say.

In reality, what people wear comes down to what the assn mandates. And the assn only mandates nickers, short sleeves, and long sleeves (along with socks, shoes, hats etc). Heck, we don't even have blue bean bags, despite all the snow, since the board (state and local) can't agree on that. (And we all know that blue bean bags are only a problem in Boise, so I don't know why there is such opposition.)

We do need a lighter weight version of the pants. I'm not one to buy into the myth that dark colors are automatically hotter than lighter ones (dark colors absorb more LIGHT, not necessarily more HEAT; the material makes 99% of the difference), however the thick material Honigs black pants that I have would be pretty hot in August -- at least hotter than similar pants with a lighter weight material. Lighter weight white knickers usually meant the black stripes of the shirt showed, but with black pants, that's no longer a problem.

I HATE knickers. I don't think they look bad per se, but I hate wearing them. I also think this would steer most of us in the south toward shorts in early season subvarsity games.

Honigs already has the 2" shirts on their site, and you can have the shirt made with a letter already on the back -- no placard, its part of the shirt. How long before 2" comes to HS?

Word on the street is that the Gerry Davis and Cliff Keen black pants are a lighter material than the Honigs. I wouldn't be surprised if Honigs is also developing a lighter weight version.

Aggie, how long before you think TASO will adopt the 2" stripes and black pants?

I'm a benevolent dictator. I give them a vote and then overrule them accordingly!

Seriously, I do get input, but my guys expect me to lead, and I do just that. I have the reputation of going short sleeve on any game not played at the North Pole or in weather warmer than 0 deg. F! Sort of a long running joke, though not entirely undeserved.

Funny because I sent my chapter's VP this question just tonight. My guess is that next year, we'll be able to wear the pants whenever we want. Officially, we can wear them with long sleeves, but I think that will change. It won't be a mandate, but an option. As far as the 2", maybe 2 years. They look MUCH better with the black pants.

The other thing is that the pants will make the shorts a little more acceptable for subvarsity wear. The real problem with the shorts isn't because shorts look bad, but because too many guys wear the overfitted basketball shorts. If we can get them semi-uniform, you might even see them on Friday nights in early season.