Report: High School Swimmer Disqualified from Race Due to Oversized American Flag on Cap

Swimming
Matt Henry Gunther/Getty Images

A New Jersey high school swimmer was reportedly disqualified due to the American flag on his swimming cap being too big for regulation, according to the boy’s father.

Rob Miller is the father of a 16-year-old sophomore swimmer at Morristown High School in New Jersey. During last week’s “senior night” game against Parsippany Hills High School,” Miller’s son donned an American flag on his swimming cap to honor his grandfather who was killed in the September 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.

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 determined the flag on his son’s cap to be “0.2” too large” for regulations in a since-deleted tweet.

“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 reportedly tweeted. “It was 0.2” too large according to standards. DQ’d. They lost.”

Miller added that “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.”

After his disqualification, Miller’s son’s teammates rallied to support 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 the my son’s swimming DQ. Tough rule with a harsh penalty but we’ll learn from this,” Miller tweeted. “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.”

Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.

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