Girls Swim Team disqualified for Shaving

What about tweezers?

..."The reason why the NFHS institutes a no shaving on-site policy is to protect the swimmers themselves from possible blood transmission or, in general, doing full body shaves in high school locker rooms, which would maximize the possibility of unsafe practices like sharing razors."....

The rule does have good intentions but taking away a title is ridiculous.

I would like to know how they found out that one of the swimmers shaved on site? A swimmer from an oppossing team tell on her?

It would be pretty easy to get DQ's for this, youd be in the showers, which is what you usually have to walk through coming out of the locker room to get to the pool. So anyone from another team or an official could have seen her.

And it's a pretty easy rule to follow, and the athlete should have known better as well as the coaches and the rest of the team.

What is not in the article.

the official was actually suspected of peaking at the girls in their lockerroom.

He DQ'd them ten minutes later.

50c wrote:

What is not in the article.

the official was actually suspected of peaking at the girls in their lockerroom.

He DQ'd them ten minutes later.

I hope he is brought up on charges and fired.

50c wrote:

What is not in the article.

the official was actually suspected of peaking at the girls in their lockerroom.

He DQ'd them ten minutes later.

7/10

I agree with the rule, the reason behind the rule and the end result. The girls on that team should have been aware of the rule (coach should make them aware), and if you break the rule, you are DQ'd. Seems fair. It IS fair.

joho wrote:

..."The reason why the NFHS institutes a no shaving on-site policy is to protect the swimmers themselves from possible blood transmission or, in general, doing full body shaves in high school locker rooms, which would maximize the possibility of unsafe practices like sharing razors."....

The rule does have good intentions but taking away a title is ridiculous.

I would like to know how they found out that one of the swimmers shaved on site? A swimmer from an oppossing team tell on her?

Sanctioning the coach is wrong. If they decide that the coach is responsible for allowing this illegal shaving, then what they are saying is they want coaches supervising girls when they're in the shower or toilet, to make sure they don't shave. Hmm. Really? Otherwise, how can the coach be blamed for not stopping it?

It's always amazed me how out of line with all other sports the penalties in track and other racing sports are. I played football in high school. I would have had to literally attack someone to get thrown out of a game. A 15 yard penalty is pretty much the worst you're going to see in a typical game.

If the people who wrote the rules for track were in charge of football, players would get tossed out left and right. A holding penalty would result in ejection.

out of line penalties wrote:

It's always amazed me how out of line with all other sports the penalties in track and other racing sports are. I played football in high school. I would have had to literally attack someone to get thrown out of a game. A 15 yard penalty is pretty much the worst you're going to see in a typical game.

If the people who wrote the rules for track were in charge of football, players would get tossed out left and right. A holding penalty would result in ejection.

What else are they supposed to do, add 5 seconds to the offending runner's time? What does that do to the kid that wins by 25 seconds?

nordicmama wrote:

Sanctioning the coach is wrong. If they decide that the coach is responsible for allowing this illegal shaving, then what they are saying is they want coaches supervising girls when they're in the shower or toilet, to make sure they don't shave. Hmm. Really? Otherwise, how can the coach be blamed for not stopping it?

The coach was a woman, so there's not an issue with them being in the locker room. In fact I'd be surprised if a coach or assistant wasn't in the locker room just to make sure all the athletes were getting their act together on time. When I swam clubs or college coaches and assistants were in there all the time making sure people were getting to their events, had their gear, weren't doing something stupid like walking out with a bracelet or watch on, etc. In college the head coach was male but there was a female assistant and male assistant that rode herd.

That said, the whole DQ and suspension seems over the top. Now many moons ago when I swam fast enough to worry about shaving we were all electric because blades were a hassle (and not nearly as butcher free as today). That was pre-AIDS and all that, so guys would use the trainers clippers for the first pass and a regular old Norelco for the rest. Yes, we shared it. Gals were mostly shaved already (though not as uhh, thoroughly as today) so they'd buzz down with the Norelco. I wasn't in there to witness but I'd bet they shared one from the trainer too.

nordicmama wrote:

Sanctioning the coach is wrong. If they decide that the coach is responsible for allowing this illegal shaving, then what they are saying is they want coaches supervising girls when they're in the shower or toilet, to make sure they don't shave. Hmm. Really? Otherwise, how can the coach be blamed for not stopping it?

A Coach should:

1) Make the rules clear to athletes.

2) Have earned sufficient respect from the athletes that they take his/her directions seriously.

Why is that so difficult?

Yup, it's really simple because teenagers ALWAYS do exactly what their parents, teachers and coaches tell them to. A high schooler is old enough to held responsible for her own actions. So long as the coach made clear what the rules and expectations were, I think she did her job.

As for being in the locker room generally supervising, that's different from following kids into areas where privacy is expected, like the shower and toilet stalls. Also, you are presuming heterosexuality and you shouldn't when it comes to female gym teachers and coaches.

Flagpole wrote:

I agree with the rule, the reason behind the rule and the end result. The girls on that team should have been aware of the rule (coach should make them aware), and if you break the rule, you are DQ'd. Seems fair. It IS fair.

I wonder if anyone has ever caught anything as a result of shaving prior to a swim meet?

Are high school swimmers more likely to catch something than say Olympic swimmers? It isn't a rule there.

Is it just a rule so that people like Flagpole can go on a power trip and disqualify people and look important?

Stupid rule, even more stupid penalty.

Not completely relevant here, but I just want to chime in and point out the HS in question is Centro's alma mater.

The team wasn't DQed. The swimmer who violated the rule was, so the team lost her points and dropped to third.

swimming like T&F has a fanatical group of wannabees who coach and officiate to fill some long lost fantasy. they believe they are the glue that holds the sport together. they care more about THE RULES than they ever care about an athlete.

its all about THEM and their RULES. slowly destroying the sport from within.

SoTiredofThisSh*t wrote:

And I thought the "uniform" violations of T&F were ridiculous. Looks like Swimming has a cousin in the wings.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/maryland-swim-team-retroactively-loses-county-title-because-153508295.html

officials should get a life, get a brain, get fired, salute Mussolini, buy and wear a nazi uniform, sorry they probably have one all ready.

really, people that are offended should chase down the responsible officials, speak their outrage and lobby for their removal.

by not reacting you are in effect supporting these kind of fascist activities.

Absolutely ridiculous DQ.

If the rule was about PERFORMANCE and gaining unfair advantage, then Flagpole would be right: rules are rules, and a DQ is in order.

But this rule has nothing to do with performance. It is about SAFETY (and safety outside the field of play, to boot).

If shaving down in the locker room/showers (which any swimmer has done dozens of times)is actually a SAFETY risk (dubious), then the the appropriate remedy should be about SAFETY, not performance. A letter to the coach and AD would be appropriate. Disqualifying an athletes from an event as if she had used PEDS or false started is absurd an unrelated to the issue.

This is what happens when the grown-ups in charge of kids' sports have less common sense than the kids.