Restrictions on eye black (NFHS)

[MsDinosaur]

For example, they frequently interview the head coaches between innings standing in front of their dugout and you have mostly non-starters right behind them wearing all kinds of crazy outfits, masks, makeshift "rally caps" and singing and dancing right behind the coach. IMO, it's become an epidemic and takes away from the integrity of the game. Gorilla masks and horse heads, really????

Oh, I don't know. Yes, it's a little silly, but it seems pretty harmless and the girls are having a lot of fun. I really liked the photo bomb I saw a while back where two players crossed behind the coach carrying a pole with another player hanging from it, mimicking an animal who'd been caught on a hunting trip and was being carried back to camp.

I also see it as a way to get some insight into a coach's character if they realize something's going on. IMO I want to see wry tolerance or slight amusement, the coach should neither join in like a goofball nor go off on them like a jerk. Gosh, it's tough being a coach, now along with everything else, they have to behave just right on camera too.

 

[CJ D]

I think it has gone to extremes because all the major conferences in softball (SEC, PAC-12, BIG10, ACC, etc.) are now showing these games on national TV and everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. For example, they frequently interview the head coaches between innings standing in front of their dugout and you have mostly non-starters right behind them wearing all kinds of crazy outfits, masks, makeshift "rally caps" and singing and dancing right behind the coach. IMO, it's become an epidemic and takes away from the integrity of the game. Gorilla masks and horse heads, really????

Super serious question....how many times this week have your yelled at someone to get off your lawn?

 

[smddad]

In our district, the rule is simply that eye black has a function--to help glare. If you are drawing stripes, those are not for glare, so they are not allowed. The district over, they allow one vertical stripe.

What's the function of huge hair bows? Seems excessive. The don't need all that to keep their hair out of their face.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Super serious question....how many times this week have your yelled at someone to get off your lawn?

Ha...I thought the same thing. RT I was picturing you in boxers and long black socks yelling at the neighborhood kids to turn down their darn rock n roll music and to get the hell off your lawn.

 

[Rocketech1]

Fair enough but there is a time and place for everything and wearing a horse head mask in the dugout and mocking your coach who is being interviewed on national TV seems totally inappropriate. We want women's sports to be respected and than players make complete mockery of the hard work and discipline they have performed for years to get to the national stage and they act like 10yos. If you want women's sports to be taken seriously than you need to act appropriately. Chanting and cheering great, but when you're wearing bananas on top of your head and your teammate has on a gorilla mask as a rally cap in the 1st inning, the coach has lost control of the team IMO. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

 

[smddad]

Uh, this is NHFS not college; no bows here. No kid wears one, so not sure the rule. But there are rules about hair bands and earrings in HS, too.

They all wear them here. Had a discussion last night with the head NFHS official for our area on this and he started laughing about the extreme overreaching rules some people like to put into place.

This has nothing to with safety or the game, it's simply because someone didn't like it and wanted to control those who wear it. Nothing more.

 

[Comp]

Every year the NFHS test has 100 questions on it and it absolutely amazes me how many of them deal with the umpire being the fashion police rather than officiating the game. Between the uniform, hair adornment questions and score keeping questions, Im not sure they are really worried if the umpires actually know the rules of the game. Last I checked umpires do not keep score and have no reason to know how many innings a pitcher has to pitch to be the winning pitcher, what the score of a forfeited game is or what constitutes a passed ball vs a wild pitch.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I saw an umpire recently make an 11yo untie her shirt. She had gathered it and tied a knot in the back. It was at a local rec league.

In HS, an umpire made my DD turn her visor to the front. She was the pitcher and she wore it backwards. One also threw out her batting helmet, because it wasn't one major color. This was back when girls wore those airbrushed helmets.

Some people take being an umpire, just way too seriously.

 

[Comp]

Speaking of helmets, as you may be aware many of the different rule sets have made the mirror helmets illegal. Everyone knew what was coming next, apparently we had umpires throwing out entire teams helmets because in their opinion they were too "shiny" even though they were not the mirror finish.

 

[MTR]

I saw an umpire recently make an 11yo untie her shirt. She had gathered it and tied a knot in the back. It was at a local rec league.

In HS, an umpire made my DD turn her visor to the front. She was the pitcher and she wore it backwards. One also threw out her batting helmet, because it wasn't one major color. This was back when girls wore those airbrushed helmets.

Some people take being an umpire, just way too seriously.

Amy, they are rules. Umpires do not make rules, NFHS & NCAA rules are more coach-initiated, not the umpires or admin. The umpires are paid to enforce the rules and as much as people mock the silliness of some of the rules, many will be the first to point out stupid little things like this at a game. After all, anything for a win, right.

Stupid issues raised by coaches include:

Her pants are optic yellow; mirrored sunglasses are distracting my batter; she is putting the wrong foot on the pitcher's plate first; she didn't present the ball; the coach touched her; she turned, she HAS to go to 2nd or be out; yada, yada, yada.