I think whomever wins the NCCA championship should be gifted an Australian slouch hat with the school's logo and be mandated to wear it for next season.
Relaxed baseball hats are perhaps the most functional item there is. Don't forget their service in wind, rain, and snow. Indoor meets I wear one from the bus to the track, then take it off. Plus how you wear it can give a message. Pulled low over your eyes gives that serious look. Pushed back can give a mellow image.
wooly hats are an acceptable alternative during XC season, provided a sufficient standard of crustiness is maintained. If you don’t look like a disenfranchised 1930’s dock worker it upsets the local ecosystem and the pack start fighting each other.
I think [whoever] wins the NCCA championship should be gifted an Australian slouch hat with the school's logo and be mandated to wear it for next season.
Hmm. Having spent years in the Pacific, and decades Stateside, I have to say that every single non-Aussie (whom I've known) that wore the slouch hat was an asshole. No exceptions.
Coaches are almost by definition simply older people relative to the subjects of their work: younger athletes.
Narcissism and insecurity lead them to hide their balding/grey heads in the workplace, spaces which are generally showcases of people in their youth/prime. (A period that is very much in the past for most coaches.)
See Salazar and his ever-present hat. Classic example.
I started coaching college athletics when I was 22. It was a way to help distinguish myself from the athletes. I looked younger than quite a few of them.