Thursday, February 03, 2011

We Are Transitioning From Green To Black

The black ITA shirt will now become the standard. The referees will wear shirts with "Referee" on them and the umpires will wear black shirts with just the ITA logo. Cost for the shirts will remain at $23.00.

The ITA coordinators from around Texas have listened to your input and have made a new step to transition from our green ITA shirts to the black ITA shirts beginning this season. Noone will be required to have the black shirt this year but it is available for those who want it. Hopefully the transition process can be complete in two years so there will be no undue financial burden on anyone.

We all heard from everywhere that the black shirt was the preferred shirt (This should also remove anyone's fears that we were wearing "Baylor colors.") so we decided to start the process. The new black officials shirts will simply have the ITA logo on them and no other designation. The black "referee" shirts will still be available for anyone to order on the ITA apparel website. You can also order the green ITA shirt for officials if you prefer. The shirts will still be available in men's and women's sizes.

The ITA apparel website is located on the top right of the blog under "ITA Apparel." The change on the website should be complete this week but we would recommend that you CALL YOUR ORDER IN during this transition time.

The windshirts and jackets will all remain the same since they were already in black. The one difference will be that referees will wear the black caps and the umpires will wear the khaki caps. They are all available on the website. There is a link on the website to "Referee" and one to "Officials" to make it easier for everyone.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at: rmtennis@yahoo.com

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

A black shirt in the Texas sun?

The blue and red of the USTA shirt is hot in southern summers, black shirts would be a furnace to roast in.

Why not a white polo, cooler.

Or is roasting in the sun a part of the penance to be an ITA official?

jl said...

I won't have a problem with any officials wearing either ITA LOGO color; green or black for my matches.

jl

Anonymous said...

Won't the black be quite warm under the Texas sun??

RM said...

In regard to the heat, I do know that Myron, Vickie, and I all were both green and black last year and could not tell a bit of difference between the two other than the fact that we got a lot more compliments on the black shirts.

Just our opinions though and you know what they say about those...

RM said...

As far as I know the only Div. I school that has green and black for their colors is University of Hawaii and they just finished their only trip to Texas this past weekend. Maybe this way we won't offend anyone...

Black is Back said...

Most ITA matches are worked wearing jackets and by the time it gets hot, the ITA season is over.

Maybe the referees need to pass out pacifiers for those that complain about being too hot. Or better yet, don't hire those officials that complain. It seems like there are a few officials that do nothing but complain and make it bad for the rest of us.

Personally, I like the black shirts. I bet the Women's coach down in College Station will be jumping for joy he doesn't have to see any more green, until Baylor comes to town and kicks butt.

Anonymous said...

A&M never adopted the green shirts anyway.

Any word on whether or not they will use the black shirts?

RM said...

I have no idea what A&M will do but their big gripe was that the shirts were "Baylor colors." Now that that argument is moot, they should use the black ones--but then who can predict what will happen in College Station...

Anonymous said...

Maybe the new coordinator in College Station will go with the new shirts next season.

$ $ $ said...

Yeah, this is just great!! More costs to the officials to get more shirts. And then we will have to get the new Big 12 shirts sometime soon too. $ $ $............

RM said...

Let's see...

The new black shirt costs $23 and you can spread it out over 2 years...

The Big 12 stuff will cost a whole lot more--but they make a profit and we don't. You also make the big bucks working Big 12 matches.

I would recommend wearing your green shirt until you can save up $23 and then it won't hurt so bad.

Anonymous said...

What's the scoop on the shoes and socks? Still going with the black shoes and black socks?

RM said...

Black shoes and socks look even better with the black shirt and black belt.

What's Up With That said...

Who appointment Randy the ITA uniform guru?? This sounds like a pretty unilateral decision to me.

We already have a self-appointed ITA guru out in California; please, let's don't get another one.

Birdie said...

Are there a lot of little birdies around. I sure hear a lot of cheap cheap cheap cheap sounds.

It amazes me how many cheap people we have officiating tennis. Is it because they are poor and homeless, or that they work lots of pro tournaments so can afford to eat, or is that tennis just breeds cheapness?

Anybody know the real reason?

RM said...

If by "unliateral" you mean that it was a decision of the coordinators (minus one) from around the state you would have it right. I only write the blog and send out emails...

Besides that, I get to wear my black shirt the vast majority of the time so it was really a non-issue for me. I was just doing what I heard people wanted us to do.

Calm down and enjoy your new black shirt if you aren't too cheap to buy one...

Wally said...

After all the discussion here on maybe moving to a Black Shirt, it sounds like the 'Ad Hoc' committe is back in business. Tell me that ain't so.

RM said...

There is no ad hoc committee in the ITA arena. That joyful experience belongs solely to Bruce Sampley.

There are however 6-10 coordinators who coordinated on this issue. If we had taken a poll I imagine it would have been 99% in favor of the new black shirts.

Buford said...

Well, I only graduated from A&M and am not very good at math, but I can tell you this much, you can never get 99% with 6 - 10 coordinators voting.

Anonymous said...

Why not just start a poll and see what kind of #'s show up?

RM said...

Not bad math for an aglet... At least you understand the principle.

Eeyore said...

I like that idea of a poll on the black shirt. Let's get it going.