As long as they look at their skills and not the helmets they have on. An honest tryout. Never happen. Easier to give a few bocks and get him on the team.
We have a committed town team and for the tryouts the players are prohibited from wearing anything that identifies themselves as a member of a club team. It is still pretty political...but that is at least an attempt at making it appear fair. If they wanted these recruiting events to truly be as apolitical as possible that might be something to consider. Wearing a 91 helmet to a 91 tryout is one thing. But one can understand how wearing it to an "independent" tryout where some of the evaluators are say from 91 could be seen as an attempt to influence the outcome....and that just leaves people feeling like their kid got hosed.
