Uniforms

[Rob Graff]

I'm was going to avoid this debate on what rules are to be enforced. It's a tempest in a teapot. But I find I cannot. Do coaches really not want the officials to exercise some judgement at our level of play? I cannot believe anyone is asking that. Compare contrast officiating of a youth game where ANY touch of the stick to the head is a foul, with the "brush" call at our level.... I'm very happy that officials are not automatons. BUT NOTE - I do expect officials that are excercising their professional judgement to do so identically on both sides. Action X, if not a penalty on my opponent, should not be a penalty on my team. And, I know that the two officials on this discussion (Lax Ref and LaxFan 25) are very good at using judgement and applying the standard eqully to both sides.

To respond to the matching gloves argument, I point you to the following site:http://www.syracuse.com/photos/orangelacrosse/ It may ask for your zip/year of birth and gender to get in. But once there you can view pictures of the Syracuse team. You'll note that they DO NOT have IDENTICAL gloves. Some are wearing Flights, some are wearing exodus, some might be wearing Defts, but I'm not sure on the last one. The point is - the versions are all orange/white/blue in differing combinations/shades. I'm pretty sure that Syracuse didn't get hit with an equipment penalty. Note that none are wearing green gloves.

[John Paul]

We have made our policy very clear to officials and to our Board (the policy came from the Board, so they all know this). I should have been more clear in my post. I was trying to be brief, which is obviously not my forte.

Anything clearly visible - uniforms, gloves, helmets, sweats, etc. - must follow NCAA rules.

Anything underneath that is only visible briefly - compression shorts that show when shorts hike up, tucked in tees, etc. - we enforce strictly in the post season.

There is no inconsistency there. We've tried to be clear. I would love to see us enforce the rules strictly in this regard, but some of our Board has been reluctant to do that. I don't want to see us enforce them just so we all look pretty. To me, it's one step toward team organizational strength that must be taken in order to prove readiness for MCLA membership.

The other issue is field regulations. I think we are all getting a better handle on enforcing those, but for a time it was being handled the same way ("if it's OK with the other coach, we won't call anything on you"). Illegal goals, lines, etc. directly affect the game.

As for safety in cold weather, to me, again, this is more of a readiness issue. If you're a cold-weather team, or you're playing a game that you know may be played in cold weather, then prepare before the season by making sure your team has sweats. (Although, coming from Michigan, 22 degrees does not necessarily warrant sweats for safety's sake. That's balmy this time of year.)

[Sonny]

We have made our policy very clear to officials and to our Board (the policy came from the Board, so they all know this).

It seems that this "policy information" still isn't filtering down to the "rank and file" officials consisently and accurately. Different areas of the country are handling these issues in a variety of ways, even after 10 years of USILA/USLIA/USL MDIA/MCLA play.

That being said, officiating is a service industry. Officials provide a service (for a fee) to teams & conferences. Those "writing the checks" can and should mandate policies as they deem necessary to benefit and improve the entire association nationwide. (That's the view from my keyboard.)

I guess the ultimate decision should it be feasible for an official to cancel a game if a team showed up on game day without the appropriate uniforms or matching equipment on game day.

[LaxRef]

We have made our policy very clear to officials and to our Board (the policy came from the Board, so they all know this).

It seems that this "policy information" still isn't filtering down to the "rank and file" officials consisently and accurately. Different areas of the country are handling these issues in a variety of ways, even after 10 years of USILA/USLIA/USL MDIA/MCLA play.

I can confirm that I've never before heard the "undergarments not stirctly enforced until the post season" rule before, and I've been doing MCLA games for 7 years. Well, USLIA and now MCLA games. And I have a tendency to remember this sort of thing.

BTW, whenever an exception is made (e.g., allowing a goalie to stay on the field in a JV game after getting a slash penalty because the game is running-time and there is no backup goalie), I think it is extremely important for the officials to make clear that it is an exception being made for special circumstances. Otherwise, when the same thing happens in a Varsity game the coach thinks the goalie should be allowed to stay in because "That's what happened the last time." This same thing applies to undergarment issues: if it's being let go in the regular season but not the post season, the officials should be pointing out to the coach any such violations so there are no surprises in Dallas.

Oh, and FWIW, I was in no way suggesting that I'd let an MCLA team play with mismatched jerseys, shorts, gloves, or helmets. In fact, I'm the one who submitted the suggestion to include "shorts" on the list of things that had to match. Up until just a few years ago, there was no rule requiring matching shorts at the NCAA level. I believe that there is still no rule regarding shorts in high school, but the compression shorts have to match!