HS\Coach Liability

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Ok all HS coaches and armchair lawyers (and real lawyers too), lets try this out.

Should a HS program provide all the required equipment for the team?

A HS coach signs a line-up card that states that all of his players are properly equipped. But with every girl on the team bringing their own bat(s) and helmets, and catching gear, is the coach really sure that all of the equipment is legal? What if power-hitter Suzy's dad has rolled her bat? What if swifty Sally has removed some of her helmet padding because by doing so it makes it more comfortable?

Umpires check the equipment before the game for the NOCSAE stamp and the ASA stamp and the general condition of the equipment. But they have no idea whether a piece of equipment has been tampered with.

If a girl were to get hurt by using a piece of their own equipment (defective or legal), should the school be held liable? What if power-hitter Suzy drills a pitcher with her tampered bat?

If a school allows athletes to bring their own equipment, should the school require an affidavit from the family verifying the legality of the equipment?

The cost of equipping a softball team could be very costly. But, we don't see a football player showing up to a game wearing his travel team helmet. If it can be done for the football team, it can be done for the softball team.

Just throwing this out there for discussion. I know there are a lot of "what ifs". I am not Pro or Con on this but I am just looking at the general concept of using non-school issued equipment.

 

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Don't see how a school would be liable for anything if a girl gets hurt by her own equipment. Do you know of it ever happening? Why react to a problem that isn't there?

 

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Nothing has happened that I know of, just pondering and seeing a whole lot of teams that have a whole bunch of kids wearing helmets from their travel team or ones that they bought and had painted. When you look at individual helmets, then that leads to bats and then the fact that the school provides all of the football gear.

 

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I think the football thing is more about looks. They are on the field at the same time wearing their helmets. Think how it would look if they were all different. Softball they only wear them to bat and on base. You hardly notice. Schools barely have the money to do what they are doing now, add the cost of more equipment and it would be passed to us. I don't want that. Only 6 weeks out of the year.

 

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Ten years form now I don't think there will be any school sports. Money won't be there. Taxpayers are not going to keep paying for a few to play sports and parents won't go with the pay to play covering every dollar. Kids will have travel or rec and schools will stick to academics. I'm all for it.

 

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Ten years form now I don't think there will be any school sports. Money won't be there. Taxpayers are not going to keep paying for a few to play sports and parents won't go with the pay to play covering every dollar. Kids will have travel or rec and schools will stick to academics. I'm all for it.

I agree with you there. In Germany, schools are just academics. If you do sports, it is in a private club.

 

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I doubt any liability would be there assuming the equipment is legal according to NFHS (or ASA) standards. Whether a piece of equipment has been tampered like a bat, that could happen if it belongs to the school or a particular girl. I don't think the law would hold a coach or school responsibile for a player grabbing a bat and tampering it. Nobody can safeguard everything 24 hours a day.

Now if a coach had some reason to suspect something, or overlooked a blatantly obvious sign of tampering, then a lawsuit might hold. But as things are now I don't think an affidavit from the family is necessary. You can always get a lawyer to say yes to more precautions, because the lawyer can't get burned that way. But this is why we have such a paternalistic state as it is and it does not serve society well. It's basically the "let's crawl under the bed and lock the doors, and then nothing bad will happen to us" mentality.

 

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At our school the girls are not permitted to use their own equipment, with the exception of their bats. To me it was disgusting to see them have only 5 helmets. For my dd who has her own catching equipment, she was not permitted to use. But the whole sharing helmets is creepy for me.

 

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If someone has a good enough lawyer the coach could get sued because the girl had the wrong color socks on when she broke her ankle sliding into second base with her metal cleats...

If the equipment meets the standards and has the stamps on them, and there is no obvious signs that the equipment is defective or broken than the coach and schools should be clear of any wrong doing..

 

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Interesting ball4life. I know of very few girls that will wear someone else's helment and I can't blame them. Most schools teach them not to share hats ,combs, or anything else that would pass on lice. They no longer have team helments.

 

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In our school district.......at least it had been this way oldest 2 have been out for 3 yrs. plus now. Purchase of school color helmet, sweatshirt, socks was part of what we parents had to purchase. Unless they had already played the year before and already had it.

 

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I'm with ball4life, I wouldn't want to share a few helmets with a whole team. That's pretty gross.

 

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isnt that considered part of the uniform, and all the uniforms are supposed to be alike?

 

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If you are taking about this. http://www.ohsaa.org/members/uniform.htm#SB
Helments do not have to match.

 

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Helmet is considered equipment, not uniform

Individual School may require specific helmet to be worn, but it isn't a HS rule.

 

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I would be happy to buy another helmet..but sharing??? I don't even like she had to share the catchers equipment. I know she doesn't like it when someone uses her own. Thank goodness it is almost over, for this year.

 

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I smell lawsuit $$ when you mandate you must wear someone elses EQUIPMENT to play.
30 years ago this was no big deal and we felt lucky we had 4 helments and the guy on deck didn't have one, if bases were loaded. This wouldn't fly in our school.

 

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I am amazed that we are advocating that each player on a team has to have her own team issued helmet. It is clearly 'gross' to share a helmet. If you are that clean then by all means get your dd her own helmet and then take it with you. Don't expect the high school coach to walk around with 15 individualized helmets.

 

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The coach carry equipment! That is what freshman are for! OUr coach doesn't carry anything but himself. The equipment must be brought from the field to the bus each game and it is the girls responsibility, not that I disagree. But don't think that an upperclassman will do it.

 

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I am amazed that we are advocating that each player on a team has to have her own team issued helmet. It is clearly 'gross' to share a helmet. If you are that clean then by all means get your dd her own helmet and then take it with you. Don't expect the high school coach to walk around with 15 individualized helmets.

When DD was a freshman, she was issued a helmet. She got to keep it thru the summer. She has used it every year since. The school buys new helmets for the new kids each year and they keep them throughout their career.

Now, for this to happen, the school/community needs to have a good booster backing to fund the purchases of equipment and uniforms. If you have no booster support, then it will be a lot harder to fund.