No cowbells

1Gensfan

Junior
Oct 9, 2016
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Can someone tell me if it is a vhsl rule that no cowbells are allowed or does the school decide that. Over the years Monacan, Thomas Dale, Matoaca and Meadowbrook ( all chesterfield county schools) have all told me it's a vhsl rule and I couldn't take it in. Just wondering and Tia.
 

mikesalem

All-American
Nov 2, 2009
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Can someone tell me if it is a vhsl rule that no cowbells are allowed or does the school decide that. Over the years Monacan, Thomas Dale, Matoaca and Meadowbrook ( all chesterfield county schools) have all told me it's a vhsl rule and I couldn't take it in. Just wondering and Tia.
Cowbells were not allowed at the championship game last year, but I heard that's a W&M rule. As far as I know I don't believe the VHSL has a rule against them. I know I've heard them over the years at many games. It's probably a Chesterfield Co rule.
 

1Gensfan

Junior
Oct 9, 2016
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Thanks Mike. I know the issue came up last year after the state game, but when we played Matoaca last week the announcer continuously said it was a vhsl rule.
 
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I take a cowbell into JV games in LoCo occassionally....

Cowbells are definitely allowed in LoCo. Most teams in LoCo have at least one parent in the stands with a cowbell. I am thinking it is a school admin issue or perhaps Countywide issue as posited above.
Most likely you have schools with limited passion for their teams and they are bitter that other teams parents and communities are rabid? Of course cowbells are hard on the ears of folks sitting around them; I try not to P.O. the good folks sitting around me at the game with my cowbell....

Hell, last night @ Woodgrove some parent from Dominion brought a frickin remote controlled locomotive horn on wheels and placed it on their sideline on the track.... He did not go crazy with blasts of the horn but he would move the horn quarterly so it was behind their side of the ball!!!!
 
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DinwiddieProud

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Definitely not a VHSL rule for football games until possibly championship games. I'm pretty sure it doesn't apply to semi-finals.

It can be a school, district, or school system policy. In Chesterfield, I've heard it is a school system policy. I don't care for that policy, but more importantly to the argument is that I think it's cowardly for them to hide behind the excuse that it's a VHSL rule. Own it. Let the crowds know why it's enforced.

Besides, and I've said this before, "do you know how may people are killed with cowbells every year at high school football games?"
Well......., none. But, it could happen you know!

At the Matoaca game, a Matoaca parent told us, "you find a way to have fun, and Chesterfield will find a way to outlaw it!"

If they are going to have that policy of " no artificial noisemakers" then let's bar band instruments, too?
 

wikki

All-Conference
Oct 21, 2001
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Can someone tell me if it is a vhsl rule that no cowbells are allowed or does the school decide that. Over the years Monacan, Thomas Dale, Matoaca and Meadowbrook ( all chesterfield county schools) have all told me it's a vhsl rule and I couldn't take it in. Just wondering and Tia.
Not a rule. Cowbells are allowed it is the air horns that are not allowed. Some teams have them and people just want to take the fun out of everything
 

DinwiddieProud

All-American
Dec 9, 2013
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The "uninformed", (being politically correct here), PA announcer went on and on about the the VHSL rules didn't allow them. Each announcement was met with a chorus of cowbells. Perhaps their efforts would be better spent in training their people checking for them at the gate!!!

Or seriously, maybe they should revisit their stupid rules!
 

1Gensfan

Junior
Oct 9, 2016
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The "uninformed", (being politically correct here), PA announcer went on and on about the the VHSL rules didn't allow them. Each announcement was met with a chorus of cowbells. Perhaps their efforts would be better spent in training their people checking for them at the gate!!!

Or seriously, maybe they should revisit their stupid rules!
 

greyfox60

Junior
Jul 30, 2001
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Seems to me like some people will not be happy until the fans sit in the stands with their hands in their pockets and a gag over the mouth so they don't make no noise. As well as players on the field playing one hand touch football, use of two hands will be an unnecessary roughness call.
 
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1Gensfan

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Oct 9, 2016
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Agreed DP. The guy working the gate last night remembered me from the Matoaca game and said I told you last week cowbell weren't allowed. I asked why I could hear people ringing them inside and he shrugged his shoulders then the police officer told me to return it to my car. My 6 year old son asked me what seemed like 100 times why he couldn't have my bell but others had theirs. Next time I am sneaking it in
 

Virginiahssports

All-Conference
Nov 12, 2001
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Agreed DP. The guy working the gate last night remembered me from the Matoaca game and said I told you last week cowbell weren't allowed. I asked why I could hear people ringing them inside and he shrugged his shoulders then the police officer told me to return it to my car. My 6 year old son asked me what seemed like 100 times why he couldn't have my bell but others had theirs. Next time I am sneaking it in
Sounds to me the visiting team isn’t allowed to have them
 
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DinwiddieProud

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"Allegedly", no fans can bring them into a Chesterfield home game. I guarantee that one or two people complained at a school board meeting once or twice, and the whimpy *** school board, (that probably couldn't tell a football from a golf ball), voted yes on a knee jerk proposal to stop the use of all artificial noisemakers.

I'm sorry. I just get tired of the few telling the many what they can and can't do.
 

wikki

All-Conference
Oct 21, 2001
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Seems to me like some people will not be happy until the fans sit in the stands with their hands in their pockets and a gag over the mouth so they don't make no noise. As well as players on the field playing one hand touch football, use of two hands will be an unnecessary roughness call.
We have a few of those fans at Amherst but they sit to the far left. No problem but for the majority of us that have them, we love it. Amherst probably has the most cowbells of any. Handmade with wooden handles and painted, nice
 

DinwiddieProud

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It's a good thing Giles never plays the Chesterfield schools. We take our train horn everywhere unless the host school gets an entanglement in their undergarments.
Oh man, I would almost pay all of the transportation cost to get Giles down to a game against a Chesterfield school. Those poor fools over there would wet their entangled undergarments.
 
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DinwiddieProud

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Incidently, we have an old factory steam whistle that we are working on. The darn thing has a two inch supply line. Takes a ton of air to operate properly. We are hoping to "appropriate" a high capacity air compressor and a large tank that can supply the volume of air needed. This whistle blowing first, followed by a cannon shot, leading to the siren blast is what we hope to do to when the team takes the field.

We only blow the siren as the team takes the field, and after a victory. The cannon fires when they take the field, after each touchdown or field goal, and a double shot after each victory. Not sure how we would incorporate the whistle other than before and after a game.

Throw in the horse and the cowbells, and those poor people from Chesterfield are probably shellshocked. They didn't realize that attending a football game could actually be fun.
 
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Clarkefan

All-Conference
Oct 6, 2015
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Incidently, we have an old factory steam whistle that we are working on. The darn thing has a two inch supply line. Takes a ton of air to operate properly. We are hoping to "appropriate" a high capacity air compressor and a large tank that can supply the volume of air needed. This whistle blowing first, followed by a cannon shot, leading to the siren blast is what we hope to do to when the team takes the field.

We only blow the siren as the team takes the field, and after a victory. The cannon fires when they take the field, after each touchdown or field goal, and a double shot after each victory. Not sure how we would incorporate the whistle other than before and after a game.

Throw in the horse and the cowbells, and those poor people from Chesterfield are probably shellshocked. They didn't realize that attending a football game could actually be fun.
Every time Clarke scores, we make a cow fart.
 

schoolboard

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Oct 21, 2006
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The "uninformed", (being politically correct here), PA announcer went on and on about the the VHSL rules didn't allow them. Each announcement was met with a chorus of cowbells. Perhaps their efforts would be better spent in training their people checking for them at the gate!!!

Or seriously, maybe they should revisit their stupid rules!

I am pretty sure the P.A. announcer is not saying anything that the Athletic Director did not tell him to say. And if the P.A. announcer is saying things without the A.D.'s permission, time to get a new Athletic Director and P.A. announcer.
 

DinwiddieProud

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And, any mis-information stated by the PA announcer is on the AD, regardless of whether the announcer was using poetic license, or the AD provided inaccurate information.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a big deal regardless of what they say about who's rule it is. I'm basically being cynical about the whole "no artificial noisemakers" rule.
 
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LunchPailD

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Sep 26, 2015
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The NFHS rules book for football doesn’t cover anything about artificial noisemakers as it is an outdoor sport (unlike basketball) and doesn’t produce a ricochet effect off of interior walls. The VHSL handbook also has no mention whatsoever of artificial noisemakers. This decision is left entirely up to the site administrator as to the policy for that specific site, whether it be a school or a state game at a neutral location. The VHSL has in years past set restrictions on noisemakers at state games since they are the site admins for these games.