In a move that the NFL and its uniform police would be deeply proud of, the Illinois High School Association enforced a national rule on uniform designs and assessed a technical foul on North Lawndale High School before their game against Champaign Centennial High.
Unfortunately, the game was the Class 3A semifinal. The margin of victory turned out to be the one made technical foul shot by Champaign Centennial. And you thought your kids’ Little League uniforms were expensive.
The IHSA insists they have been warning North Lawndale about the uniform matter for two years (and two different offending uniforms) and finally pulled the trigger at the semifinal because they have more power at the state tourney level.
On the other hand, North Lawndale and its coach don’t exactly dispute the claims but seemed to believe they had temporary dispensation. Still, they wore the same uniforms for today’s third-place game despite having legal uniforms back in Lawndale and got another technical called.
Also, one of their players allegedly cheated on a math test, but his mother sued the school to keep her son eligible for this tournament.
9:03 pm on March 21st, 2009
North Lawndale dealt with a lot of problems this year.
They were up 10 points in the 4th quarter and blew it. The technical didn't cause anything. Their turnovers and missed lay ups did.
12:22 am on March 22nd, 2009
Hurt, thanks for the clarification. These writers made it sound like a different scenario had taken place.
4:30 am on March 22nd, 2009
ha @ you both.
2:50 pm on March 22nd, 2009
wear the proper uniform. they had, chose not to wear it, so they deserved to lose. it is their own fault.
dude got caught cheating on a test?
how do you NOT know how to cheat and get away with it?
deserve to lose for being stupid.
9:25 pm on March 22nd, 2009
I agree that the technical did not cost them the game. A one point defecit with 36 minutes left to play is hardly a deciding factor.Having said that, I don't agree with the call IF they were not warned. If they were aware of the rule and had been warned previously then the refs cannot be blamed for making the call.They must enforce the rules to preserve the integrity of the game.Bad rule? Maybe. I can kind of understand the intent though. If the teams are allowed to design without peramiters the jerseys could get rather ugly and distracting.