Ahh! The NFHS

Um, you do realize that in FIFA soccer you must send any nicked player to the sidelines immediately, don't you?

HS swimming is notoriously unforgiving. Lead the race by 20 yards and make one bad stroke and you are disqualified. The shaving rule may not be medically sound, but it's unambiguous. And it's not a judgment of performance, it's a deterrent rule, so the retroactive part is hardly objectionable. The coach should have done better.

Yahoo trolls the HS competitions for these kind of stories because it makes for a cheap fill.

 

Ok, I understand your point. But since I know nothing about swimming I ask how well known is this particular rule? Is well known or some obscure part of a rule book?

If it's something everybody knows then yes, the swimmer is dumb and the coach if she knew about it should have done better.

I too dislike when Yahoo, or anybody else make officials look bad for enforcing well known rules. The example that comes to mind is when in the middle of a tournament a U-something girl decides to have her ears pierced and I wouldn't let her play with tape over, Mom comes over and yells at me "but she can't take it off, she just had them pierced last night" (this is was on a sunday and the tournament started friday night so literary in the middle of the tourney), I said "bad decision on your part" she isn't playing.
Everybody who's played more than 2 games on a rec league knows you can't wear jewelry and I'm the bad guy for not letting you play?

 

I understand that NFHS is just playing it safe with the communicable disease scare that grips the country but aren't we forgetting these athletes are jumping into a pool full of chlorinated water. For the amount of blood that would/should occur from shaving, it should be medically impossible to transmit anything I would think. It doesn’t affect me one way or another but it would be nice if cooler heads would prevail on issues like this.

That being said soccer is completely different. They aren’t playing in an atmosphere filled with a sterilizing agent and if they are bleeding or have blood on them, transmission of disease is entirely possible, thus the serious reaction we take to blood.

Finally I feel your pain on the earring issue. I have been that bad guy more times than I care to remember but until you have seen an earring have to be surgically removed you can never grasp how serious an issue it is. Probably why when I teach clinics I stress this issue more than most would think is necessary.

 

Remember, they are all doing a full body shave in the same locker room, and there is the temptation to share razors. It may be overkill, but it's not a particularly onerous rule.

 

Swimming and wrestling have notoriously stringent rules about what you can and can't do in a locker room before the meets. Two reasons: the health of the participant and the liability issues that could arise if you don't regulate the health aspect of it. For swimming and wrestling, you are talking heptatis outbreaks, staph infections, and for wrestling only, dehydration, seizure from rapid weight loss, etc. Yes, those Yahoo idiots need to STFU and quit sensationalizing something when they can't see beyond the trees.

 

Hey, can you shave my back?

 

My son just finished up his senior year of swimming in Ohio.

He shaves the night before the sectional meet at home, and yes I do shave his back, (never had this issue on the golf team when I was in High school) We are well aware that no shaving is permitted at the pool.

His coach, about my age, does remember a time when the whole team would shave prior to sectionals at the pool in the locker room, with about 15 other teams. But this is no longer permitted.

I agree that there are too many articles on the internet accusing officials of simply doing their job.

Mark.

 

Not saying the policy makes sense, but as a certified NFHS official I view this discussion a little differently than what has been posted so far. I wonder, with the current perspective of schools, if anyone has considered that a razor in a 'Drug and Weapon Free Zone' could be partially why this policy exists? After all, there is enough chlorine in a badly maintained pool to kill of just about anything in the germ a bacteria spectrum.

 

This is the type of rule that the NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Council recommends to the relevant rules committee, based on their medical background. So we're talking here about a reporter who thinks he understands the transmission of communicable diseases better than doctors. Yeah, right.

 

I think they are concerned about players sharing razors in the locker room and becoming infected there. The chlorine in the pool will not help.

 

At least the shaving rules seem to have some basis in the health & safety of the participants. Unlike, say, 3 pages of detailed description of size & placement of lettering and side panels on basketball jerseys.

 

This same crap we take on our annual NFHS soccer exam. Can the GK wear a number on the front or does it have to be on his/her back?..... I DON'T CARE, as long as you have a number. Speaking of soccer uni's, this is going to be a real interesting thing come next fall. All white home shirts and white socks for the home team. I know of many teams that wear their away colors as long as it doesn't conflict with the visiting team. I understand the point in trying to reduce jersey issues, but come on this has never been an issue for me in NFHS games for over 10 years.

 

If you're the uniform guy, you need to know where the numbers go and how big they need to be. You also need to know what colors to wear at home and away. There will be some short term issues, but in a few years teams will wear all white at home.

At least NFHS tries to be clear on their rules. Look at all the discussion that goes on due to the vagueness of USSF laws, i.e. the toe-over-the-line offside discussion now ongoing.

 

Then leave that shit for the schools. As a ref, how does that test question show my knowledge of the game? People complain all the time about the quality of the refs and refs are getting tested on where should the GK put his number. What does a GK's number placement have to do with actual game and foul management, other than to determine the number when it goes on the card or injury report?

 

Just a backup, on the exact language you used.

The all white shirts and socks rule come into effect "next fall," as you said, but that's not this Fall. In other words, the rule doesn't start until Fall 2013. If your state doesn't play in the Fall, implementation is two years away.

As far as referees are concerned, see Rule 4-1-1h "When an illegally uniformed team is unable to correct the situation or can not verify state association approval of the uniform, the game shall be played. the refeee must, however, notify the state association following the game."

There's no reason for a referee to make this into a confrontation.

 

But why should NFHS have to do this kind of stuff at all? The usual kinds of competition rules (home wears light, away wears dark, home changes if there's a conflict, shirts must be numbered [somewhere] at least 6" tall) seem to handle just about anything. We need to be able to distinguish teams and identify players, that is all a uniform is for. The lesson NFHS seems to be putting across is how to be unreasonably picky about some things. Sigh.

And yes, I coached HS soccer for 7 years. Annoyed me as a coach, and I'd hate to have to be the ref who has to report it.

 

Don't forget to not let players wear stripped or tie-dye socks!

 

They have the rules because somewhere somehow a coach, parent, player, ref or some other person has made a stink and has used the laws to ther letter rather than in their spirit.

Example: I did a post season match on an extremely cold night. Visiting team shows up and insists making the other team change so they can wear their long sleeve light gray uniforms. (normally they wear blue when away) The home team had to send the parents to their homes to get the away jersey's because since there was a conflict they had to change. Technically correct but a dick move on their part.

 

Agreed it was a poor move by the visitors - but shouldn't the home coach be concerned that his team didn't have both colors ready? When all the U-littles show up in red jerseys, I really don't care - we put pennies (sp?) or t-shirts on one team and away we go - but at high school and higher club levels, the best way to avoid dealing with someone playing mental games (gotta change jerseys) with you is to be prepared...

 

I hear what you're saying and I agree but fact of the matter is these are high school kids and you could threaten them with bodily harm and they would forget, and no coach in post season is going to bench a player for not having a jersey. If you can find a whole team of high school kids responsible enough to always bring two jerseys more power to you.

 

You get what you clearly communicate, expect and enforce. I coached a boys select team from u9 to u14, then managed the same team through u18. Every game each player had both home and away jerseys at each game.

Maybe once a season did someone mess up. Then that person did not play until their uniform showed up.