Another idiotic HS rule

The guy brags "I know a lot of rules." What an absolute hideous jerk. His is the hollowest of hollow victories.

Chalk this one up to a maniac flipping out over a rule that should never have existed in the first place. Bracelets don't give you any kind of advantage, so they shouldn't be illegal.

swofford11 wrote:

It is a stupid stupid rule but it is the rule and until someone changes it the other coach has every right to enforce the rule. Stopping blaming him for following the rule book.

He doesn't have every right to enforce the rule. He's a coach, not an official. He does have every right to bring the violation to the attention of the official. No one is debating this. Being within your rights does not mean that everyone has to accept your actions. Just as he has the right to complain to the officials, I have the right to think that he is a douche for doing so. A right is not an obligation and it was his choice to complain. I think that most coaches would have made the opposite choice.

Irving S. Black of Connecticut HS track and field loved these idiotic rules so much so that now there's a track meet at Trinity College named after this guy who not only pointed out these stupid things but did it in a manner that produced emotional trauma in kids

THE Irving S. "Dickhead" Black Invitational

Bear of Bad News wrote:

swofford11 wrote:

It is a stupid stupid rule but it is the rule and until someone changes it the other coach has every right to enforce the rule. Stopping blaming him for following the rule book.

He doesn't have every right to enforce the rule. He's a coach, not an official. He does have every right to bring the violation to the attention of the official. No one is debating this. Being within your rights does not mean that everyone has to accept your actions. Just as he has the right to complain to the officials, I have the right to think that he is a douche for doing so. A right is not an obligation and it was his choice to complain. I think that most coaches would have made the opposite choice.

Like I said it is obviouse that a lot of people on this thread have never coached high school track.

If they had they would understand at EVERY meet, with more than three teams at it, half the coaches there are looking for these minor rule issues that are stupid just so there teams can bump up a place or two.

I'm so paronoid now that I will line my kids up before each event and check out everything before they walk into the clearking tent. The kids just don't pay attention to these stupid little rules because they don't believe someone will DQ them for something so stupid.

At conference, regionals, or state meets coaches are looking for EVERYTHING.

What this coach did was nothing new. It happens all the time. Until the rule book changes they are doing nothing wrong. However, you may think of them as jerks if you want because they probably are but they do have every right to do it.

I had one coach tell me before he got the state indoor 1600 champion DQ'd. If your kid was second and the first placed kid broke the rules wouldn't you do everything in your power to make sure the kid who followed the rules won.

Not all HS coaches are as big a jerks as this guy. Don't become so paranoid you look for idiotic things like friendship bracelets and ask the wearer to remove them. You would be not better than this idiot. Don't let yourself drop to his low-life level.

As was already mentioned. It is his right to follow the rules. It is our right to tell him what we think about him.

swofford11 wrote:

What this coach did was nothing new. It happens all the time. Until the rule book changes they are doing nothing wrong. However, you may think of them as jerks if you want because they probably are but they do have every right to do it.

i don't like your definition of wrong. you can do a lot of things and be well within the rule of law and within your rights. that doesn't mean it's not wrong to do certain things, it just means you won't get in trouble for doing them.

what would this coach do if he saw a woman wearing pants in paris?

d2xccoach wrote:

Common sense, what a concept.

While rushing our son to the doctor, my wife got stopped and ticketed. Took it to court on the common sense concept. Evidently it was a foreign concept in Plano, Texas.

HS coaches can be jerks wrote:

Not all HS coaches are as big a jerks as this guy. Don't become so paranoid you look for idiotic things like friendship bracelets and ask the wearer to remove them. You would be not better than this idiot. Don't let yourself drop to his low-life level.

As was already mentioned. It is his right to follow the rules. It is our right to tell him what we think about him.

I hate to tell you but if you don't look for things like friendship bracelets another coach will, and your kid will be DQ'd at the bigger more high stakes meets.

A few years ago I had a kid Dq'd for face paint which was against the rules in our state at the time. The kid had dyed his hair and a little drop had got onto his forehead. The coach first tried to get him Dq'd for dying his hair. We had to call the state meet director for him, to prove to him that dyeing his hair wasn't illegal. After that he saw the little dot on the kid’s forehead and said that was face paint and the kid was Dq'd. We lost the conference meet by 8 points. This kids had just won the 100 meter dash before being Dq’d. We would have won the meet by 2 points if this coach hadn’t Dq’d my athlete. From that day on I learned my lesson. I don’t take chances when it comes to rules, I might think they are silly but another coach will use that rule against me if I am stupid enough to let him.

The point I'm trying to make is that the coach at this meet didn't do anything against the rule book the other coach and athlete did. What the coach did might have been a jerk move, however, it is a common thing done at high school meets. Why SI is making a big deal out of this is beyond me. Until the rules change coaches need to check each and every one of their athletes for rule infractions or shame on them for their athlete getting Dq'd.

You have confused a friendship bracelet with face paint. You don't understand the difference between the two.

Vermont's addendum to this jewelry rule should be implemented in all of the states that have such a jewelry rule. It's fair and it allows those competing from states that do not have the jewelry rule a chance to correct themselves before a race.

This happened to me one indoor season where I was competing at the Hispanic Games in NYC. I lived in RI, where there was no jewelry rule, so I typically wore a track necklace and put some clips in my hair to make sure my hair doesn't get in my face when I run. When I got to the starting line at the meet for the prelims, an official came up to me and told me about this jewelry rule, which also included no hair clips. As the official saw I was not a local, he let me race the prelims like that (as he held onto the items that I tried to take off before the race) and told me to change it up before the next round if I qualified. From that point on, I never wore any jewelry when I raced. Thanks NYC official!

You can divide high school coaches into 2 categories: those that would chooose to win this way and those that would refuse to stoop to that level.

I know which category I'd want in charge of my kid's team.

Lots of people on this thread are saying basically: this happens all the time and shouldn't be a surprise; therefore, the fault lies with the bracelet-wearer and her coach.

That's true, I guess. Everybody in high school track knows these stories.

But you can do things that are technically within your rights and still be a major-league [expletive]. One of those is filing protests about minor uniform rules that have no impact on the competition. Maybe an official has a duty to impartially enforce all the rules, including the stupid ones (although I might want to argue that...) But this was an opposing coach who has no such obligation to be a win-at-all-costs [expletive].

And his idea is [expletive] also:

If your kid finished 2nd to someone who broke the rules, wouldn't you try to get the rule-breaker DQ'd?

Yes, I would, if the rule in question was using an underweight discus. No, I wouldn't, if the rule was wearing a bracelet. If you can't see the difference, you're an [expletive] too.

On ESPN Mike and Mike in the morning, they are talking about what happened. They also think the coach is a jerk for pointing this out. Amazing that this made it on ESPN radio.

HS coaches can be jerks wrote:

You have confused a friendship bracelet with face paint. You don't understand the difference between the two.

hmmmmm......I do understand the difference but thank you for not getting my over all point.

I was just pointing out an another instance where a coach used a stupid rule to get another athlete Dq'd. This instance taught me to make sure my kids were following all of the stupid rules so I would never be put in this situation again.

The coach of the Pole Vaulter hopefully also learned a valuable lesson. There are many many jerk coaches out there who will use the rule book to their advantage in order to win. So shame on you as a coach if you allow another coach to use the rule book to beat your athlete rather than the competition itself.

Swofford11 wrote:

hmmmmm......I do understand the difference but thank you for not getting my over all point.

I was just pointing out an another instance where a coach used a stupid rule to get another athlete Dq'd. This instance taught me to make sure my kids were following all of the stupid rules so I would never be put in this situation again.

The coach of the Pole Vaulter hopefully also learned a valuable lesson. There are many many jerk coaches out there who will use the rule book to their advantage in order to win. So shame on you as a coach if you allow another coach to use the rule book to beat your athlete rather than the competition itself.

My question for you Swofford, is not what you will do for your own team. You are right to look out for your athletes and to recognize that rules can be used that way.

Would you personally try to get an opposing athlete DQ'ed for a friendship bracelet, or face paint, or different colored tights? Why or why not?

Swofford11 wrote:

hmmmmm......I do understand the difference but thank you for not getting my over all point.

I was just pointing out an another instance where a coach used a stupid rule to get another athlete Dq'd. This instance taught me to make sure my kids were following all of the stupid rules so I would never be put in this situation again.

The coach of the Pole Vaulter hopefully also learned a valuable lesson. There are many many jerk coaches out there who will use the rule book to their advantage in order to win. So shame on you as a coach if you allow another coach to use the rule book to beat your athlete rather than the competition itself.

I think we all get your point. OUR point is that we don't care if this happens all the time. ANYONE who does it is a royal f***ing douchebag, no matter what the rules.

Sure, the coach and the kid should have been on top of their game and made sure she removed the bracelet. It is their responsibility given the rule. The other guy still really sucks though.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

My question for you Swofford, is not what you will do for your own team. You are right to look out for your athletes and to recognize that rules can be used that way.

Would you personally try to get an opposing athlete DQ'ed for a friendship bracelet, or face paint, or different colored tights? Why or why not?

If I am a coach at a meet I don't even look for uniform violations on other teams. It’s not my job to. I just make sure my kids are following the rules. I personally think that some of the uniform rules are just plan stupid. The only time I will ever raise a protest is when I feel an athlete had an advantage or could/did harm one of my athletes.

Now having said that….

As a meet official you better believe I am looking for uniform violations and other things. As a meet official it is my job to follow the rule book. I do not get to pick and choose which rules I don't like and which ones I want to enforce. My rule of thumb is if i've warned you and you still step on the track with the violation then you are Dq'd according to the rule book. Once an athlete is on the track I have no choice but to follow the rule book no mater who gets mad or how stupid the rule is. Call me a jerk for that if you want but as an official I am there to make sure the rule book is followed to pick and choose which rules I want to follow.

As a coach I can't remember any time that I have Dq'd a kid for a uniform violation. As a meet official I have Dq'd many because they ignored the warning I originally gave them.

Now what probably happened at this meet and this is an issue with many meets is when a coach is also an official at the meet. Because there are so few qualified officials sometimes coaches have to be officials at meets where their athletes are also running. In that instance you just hope they are honest.

It seems like all this attention is being paid to the rule violation, but the more concerning question is whether this man is fit to work with and influence children.

This happens all the time, in every state. While it is a lousy way to win a meet, the rules have been in place for years, and every coach and every athlete knows them. So while it is not nice, the girl and her coach were responsible for the infraction.

If you don't like the rule, and I personally think it is dumb, lobby to get it changed. But what the coach did is not unusual.....

I am guessing that all of you think illegals should get a free pass in this country also.