Painting Helmets

[EugeneCoug]

Our team uses Riddell helmets, the same company that makes football helmets. We had our helmets painted by Riddell using the very same paint they use for football helmets. They also installed the facemasks and supplied the decals. After painting them, Riddell attached the white rectangular warning label on the back. Here is the problem we ran into once last season: We had an umpire declare the helmets to be illegal because they were painted. Discussions (perhaps arguments) ensued. Ten minutes or so later the umpire relented, but forewarned us that they would not be allowed at state, regionals, and nationals (which didn't prove to be the case). The incident did spook us and we were fearful every time the umpires checked at future games that they would disallow the helmets. Fortunately, that did not happen, although there was some severe questioning a couple of times. Nevertheless, we are quite concerned that there is a "myth", if you will, floating around about painted helmets automatically being illegal.

Any thoughts on how we can be more proactive to avoid a similar incident?