The topic of paying tribute with uniforms and accessories at the professional level has taken on a life of its own in recent years, and apparently it’s an issue in high school as well. 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.
H/T SI Hot Clicks
