High school swimmer suffers disqualification over American flag on cap

February 6, 2023

A New Jersey high school swimmer was disqualified due to the American flag on his swimming cap being 0.2" too large for regulations.

Rob Miller, the father of a 16-year-old sophomore swimmer at Morristown High School in New Jersey, said that during last week’s "senior night" game against Parsippany Hills High School, Miller’s son wore an American flag on his swimming cap to show honor to his grandfather who was killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"However, Parsippany High’s coach raised concern over the size of the flag on Miller’s son’s cap. Interestingly, the coach waited until after the race was finished to have the flag measured," reports Breitbart.

The National Federation of State High School Associations Swimming allows the following:

One American flag, not to exceed 2 inches by 3 inches, may be worn or occupy space on each item of uniform apparel. By state association adoption, to allow for special occasions, commemorative or memorial patches, not to exceed 4 square inches, may be worn on the uniform without compromising its integrity.

Miller said officials decided the flag on his son’s cap to be "0.2" too large" for regulations in a tweet that cannot be found anymore, because it's been deleted.

"Blood is boiling. My son was part of a 200 Free Relay to win a swim meet on Senior Night. After the final event, the opposing coach asked to measure the size of the American Flag on his @SpeedoUSA swim cap," Miller tweeted. "It was 0.2” too large according to standards. DQ’d. They lost."

Miller added "the issue is the coach waited until after the swim to get the DQ, deciding to put the burden of a 'loss' on a 16-year-old, letting down all the Seniors that won their last dual meet of their HS careers."

Miller’s son's teammates supported him, posting on the Morristown swimming team’s Instagram that "everyone knows motown boys were the real winners."

Miller said his son "wishes no ill will on the opposing team and just wants everyone to get back to swimming."

"Thanks very much for the support on my son’s swimming DQ. Tough rule with a harsh penalty but we’ll learn from this," Miller said in a tweet. "My son wishes no ill will on the opposing team and just wants everyone to get back to swimming. Hopefully the spirit of this rule can be changed in the future."

Source: Breitbart