Via Larry Brown Sports:
The topic of paying tribute with uniforms and accessories at the professional level has taken on a life of its own in recent years, but apparently it’s not as acceptable in high school. On Monday night, a Nebraska high school girls basketball team received a technical foul for supporting the Make-A-Wish Foundation. As part of a fundraising effort, the Burke High Bulldogs wore light pink uniforms for their game against Columbus. They were given the tech at the start of the second half.
According to the Omaha World-Herald, Columbus coach Dave Licari brought the issue to the officials’ attention at halftime. Technically, the home team is supposed to wear predominantly white uniforms. Since Burke had not informed anyone of the uniform change before the game, they were breaking the rules.
“It was a total mistake by me,” Bulldogs Athletic Director Kyle Rohrig said. “We had good intentions, but we made a mistake, and then there were consequences.”
The idea for the pink uniforms was the work of Burke assistant coach Tom Law. The uniforms were to be auctioned off after the game with all proceeds benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
“If they thought there was a problem, it should have been addressed before the game,” Burke head coach Luke Lueders said. “To have that happen at halftime caught us all off-guard.”
To have that happen at all catches me off-guard. This is a high school basketball game. At the professional level, players know they are going to be fined for choosing to wear patriotic gear or rocking lucky orange cleats. This was a group of high school students who got together to raise money for cancer research. If the officials caught the rule violation and had no choice but to penalize Burke, that would be one thing. The fact that their opponent brought it to the officials’ attention — during halftime of a high school game — is despicable.
Also from Larry Brown Sports
Giants player apologizes for Gisele comments
Video: Will Ferrell does player intros at an NBA game
Former Patriot to Rob Gronkowski: 'Grow up!'
Original Story:
The Refs should have called the technical at the beginning of the game yes. The Columbus High AD arrived in the 2nd quarter and noticed the uniforms....asked the coaching staff if it had been approved and the coaches asked the refs, who reviewed the rules and threw out the technical. This was not malicious intent.
And the reporting on the subject has been a joke. Report the facts and be a responsible journalist, please! It in no way affected the game and Burke had an extra 2 days to address the uniforms as the game was rescheduled from Saturday to Monday due to the inclement weather.
They took responsibility and accepted the consequences, so why is the media making this such a big ordeal?
Give me a break!
This is high school not the pro's.
As for the technical foul, it was deserved if there was a rule violation and the coach had every right and responisbility to call the violation to the refs attention.
The Burke AD blew it but at least he was man enough to acknowledge he made a mistake in not getting approval before hand for the color. People have to learn that actions have consequences at every level.
Maybe the cause was good, the intent altruistic but the execution was bad.
Rules are rules, just like laws are laws and it's not up to us to decide which ones we like so we can follow only those. The sooner people learn this very simple lesson the better off we'll all be.
o deer bobj999 cant spel eether
1. "Maybe" the cause was good? Really?
2. Execution of wearing uniforms that were just a shade off of pure white. Wash a red sock with your whites!
3. Laws are laws and rules are rules, but when a team wears a light pink uniform, not anything intrusive, for a great cause.
4. Any coach that failed to inform the officials, obviously, did not even think about this being wrong. Because I am sure that coach would never stoop to that level of reporting the other team.
And my last comment: You need to worry more about your responsibility to spelling before firing off to Dottie about theirs! I can't stomach a person who is more worried about spelling than the point being conveyed.
another rules are rules guy? did you ever go 56 mph in a 55? get a ticket? RULES ARE RULES. zero tolerence policies=zero reasoning ability but they were made for simple minds like yours. fortunately the outcome of the game didn't ride on those free throws. any coach that wins a game on that type of technicality probably isn't a very good coach. and anybody that espouses "rules are rules" probably isn't very good at what they do, either. btw-nice handling of that spelling error.
The Refs did not even know about that rule until it was brought to thier attention. The Tech Foul should have been issued at the start of the game, before the first tip off. But to wait till halftime is ridiculous. And the foul should have been issued as a warning at that time. It would be different if the Rwfs knew the rules and made it at the start of the game, but to do it a halftime really crushed the girls and threw them of thier game.
As soon as you turn yourself in for each and everytime you speed, run a stop sign, run a red light, not yeilding the right of way, etc. is when you can get on your high horse, otherwise, leave your opinions at the door.
I suppose you may remember when George Brett had a HR taked away from him because of too much pine tar on his bat. The opposing coach saw the bat and made umpire measure the amount of tar.....it was too high on the bat and the HR was erased. Not all we do is fun, but when it rears its ugly head all we can do is enforce the rules as written. If we enforce it like it is written that is unfortunately our only protection. People who vary from the rules and make their own do not last too long in sports officiating.
Thanks
And CHS has raised over $2,000 for cancer research so who is supporting who now?
Everyone got the message loud and clear about raising the awareness and that was the point of the jerseys! The message was sent and that is why the girls of Burke raised $2,600 for their cause.
Way to go Girls!
It is not about you or I or the coaches it is about the awareness being raised and they were successful... it was a winding and difficult road to get there but they did it!
I disagree with the free penalty, but it was done to cover the refs back as well as make the game "fair" according to the rules.
Forget the color issue - this was a bad idea .
Auctioning off girls uniforms after being worn in the game ?? Who did they expect to bid on used clothing ?( washed "as per Ebay standards")
Sorry but think whole thing smells fishy .
This was not an appropriate fund raiser for a childrens charity !
How demoralizing must it have been for players and students supporting the Make-a-Wish fundraiser to be penalized over a technicality? This alone affected the game.
It's time for society to stop being PC and return to being human again.
It is just amazing to me that so many here were quick to condemn the Columbus coach which, by the way, wasn't the one who complained but instead it was the Columbus Athletic Director.
Hasn't anyone learned yet that in the majority of the cases the media doesn't give the full story? They normally give only enough to cause uproar among those who are quick to abandon logic and jump to conclusions. This is their audience. This is their bread and butter.
It appears that such people's comments are motivated by an intense need to hate to the exclusion of reason and patience. For those inclined to do this, for God's sake, give a moment's consideration to other possibilities.
This article gives a much clearer version of what actually happened.
lets see if the Columbus coach and AD want to make a statement. Keep checking this link.
http://columbustelegram.com/sports/high-school/carey-spread-the-blame-in-jersey-incident/article_48589838-52e5-11e1-8ccf-0019bb2963f4.html
I assume that they did it to raise awareness and bring up the cause to the school spectators. The money was well raised and went to a GREAT charity... the girls did a good job!!
Thank you to all who donated to help those who need the help.
It all comes down to helping someone out, not the game, the coaches, the refs.
We are doing something for charity so let us break few simple rules which everyone else must play by, dosen't wash. It shows disrespect to the school. Declare it at the beginning like everyone else.
It comes down to the real point about the foundation and the girls of the game, it has nothing to do with what people think. The game is done and over with and the Burke girls raised a great amount of money for the foundation. Which is the importance of the jerseys. It was not to punish or harm anyone.
In fact, as recently as the 1970's college basketball had a ban on dunks for that very reason--it's a violation of the rules. Of course, college basketball gave in to the common sense aspect and understood that banning dunks only hurt the sport and removed the ban. It seems that while applying common sense is acceptable in the boys/men's game, it's not so acceptable in the girls/women's.
Tell you what. At the next boys' basketball game, after the first dunk is thrown down, let's see the opposing coach have play stopped and complain to the officials about the rules having been violated. Then let's hear all of you cry, "Rules are rules"!
In some of the games the teams will use Pink Softballs, which technically is against NFHS rules, but Finally we were told to ignore the rule of only yellow balls for functions like this.
I personally, at games when teams are sporting the pink uniforms, using pink balls and other such activities taking place for Cancer Awareness/Research, I personally wear my Pink Ball Bags instead of the uniform requirement Blue, for two reasons - 1 - in honor of my wife being a 5 yr Breast Cancer Survivor and 2 - for the numerous friends, family and fellow umpires who have succumbed to Cancer.
So in closing, sorry to be so wordy, Go Boys and Girls!!
Keep up the GREAT WORK and May God Bless You All, no matter wherever you are!!!
Amen!!!
What IS foul is the Columbus coach waiting until halftime
to try to gain an advantage by calling for the officials to rule against the uniforms. What an embarrassment to HIS team and school.