Backbone Support for Volunteer Refs

[Sandcrab Margarita]

Howdy. I posted this in the Ref forum & after thinking a bit think it's only sporting for this community to have its whack at it.

Best,
Sandcrab

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Hi all,

I'm a member of our local AYSO Regional Board of Directors, & a question came up at a recent meeting, & I think this group is in a fine position to help us craft an answer.

How do we help freshly-minted volunteer refs exercise their authority to send off coaches?

We have a huge problem with turnover among our rookie referees. Obviously, one of the catalysts for them leaving the ref ranks is the tension coaches create during games. We are constrained in that we can only use unpaid volunteers for all positions within the Region, so we are dealing too with volunteer coaches, who have widely varying knowledge & interpretations of the LOTG. (Safe bet: Law 11 is a mystery.)

In our initial training course, we discuss the authority granted in the LOTG for refs to manage coaches who stray from the technical area and do not behave in a responsible manner. That's book learnin', though, & it doesn't count for much when an inexperienced ref encounters a disruptive coach during a match.

We've discussed using cards with coaches, to reinforce formal cautions, & we've discussed other means to let coaches know formally that their behavior is out of bounds with the LOTG and AYSO rules & principles.

Any suggestions? What hasn't worked for you?

Much Thanks,
Sandcrab

PS No, I've never sent off a coach, but I have issued several formal cautions. Each one has resulted in a complaint about me to the Region...

[goyoureddevils]

Every adult "newly minted official" that I have run afoul of had little or no idea of what they were doing... now if you're talking about kids who should be encouraged to not take abuse from adult coaches, you have my suppoort. But if you are referring to the overnight geniouses that I keep running into at large tournaments, then no thanks.

... okay this sounds bitter, let me give an illustration. At a rather large holloween tournament with my U13 boys team, we played our first game in the premeir division against a team from Louisville. When the game got the slightest bit physical, the center who admitted before the game he was new, began to call every little touch on both teams. After a particularly rediculous one that left the other team's coach and me looking at each other in disbelief, I told my very frustrated players to continue playing hard and let the ref blow the whistle if he had to but not to back off the intensity one ounce... to which the center turned and yelled at me "Don't contradict me!"

When I replied "No offense, but you can't tell me how to coach my team. I just want them to play to your whistle." He stopped the game, walked over and got nose to nose with me, and threatened to throw me out if I contradicted him. Now I hadn't yelled at him, hadn't told my players to be disrespectful, hadn't even encouraged my players to break the rules.... just told them to play on and accept whatever fouls he blew but not back down.

The field marshall was stunned, the opposing coach was stunned, and worse of all the kids were stunned. The game devolved into kick ball for about 15 minutes as the players of both teams were all scared half to death to touch each other.

So, if you want to encourage these rookies to throw more people out, this is going to be one of the results you're going to get, and I for one am not going to support such an effort. Just like coaches and players, some referees suck at what they do and will never "get it". Those that do and stick around will move up the ladder as they deserve, those that don't probably didn't have the personality for it to begin with.

As for helping young refs deal with difficult coaches, that should be the purveiw of the board/director/game day administrator/ect to confront bad behavior when it happens. As the director for an academy system and league, I stalk the fields on Sunday like a freaking predator, looking for parents and coaches who are leaning too hard on a young referee! I nip that in the bud right away, and then talk to the ref afterward to make sure they feel supported and understand what happened. The thin skinned one's still quit, but for those that just are unsure of themselves, this approach works well in giving them the example of when bad behavior meets/breaks the standards for punitive action.

[Sandcrab Margarita]

Your points are very well taken, which is why I cross-posted into the Coach forum.

One of the things we are trying to avoid is exactly the situation you described, using an inexperienced ref in a highly visible game. The answer, of course, is to keep as many refs as possible from dropping out of the program after their first tussle with a coach.

I'm not going to attack or defend your or the ref's behavior, since I think we agree that this situation is best avoided altogether.

Thanks for your input; I'd love to read more!
Sandcrab

[rca2]

How do we help freshly-minted volunteer refs exercise their authority to send off coaches?

The league should not be expecting the referrees to police the coaches. The league should be doing that. Hopefully, there is an experienced coach as the director of coaches. Someone should be establishing groundrules for behavior, either the board or the director of coaches. The rules should be communciated at the start of the season and enforced by the league.

[goyoureddevils]

rca2

That's exactly the scenario I'm talking about. As the director of the program, I take it upon myself to police my coaches and parents, as well as the behavior or the players on game day. We have rules for each of these three classes of participants codifed in a Conduct Contract, handed out and explained at the beginning of each season. In addition to that, I also take it upon myself to be the good citizen/director for the young referees that are contracted to work my games.

If my coaches, parents, or players behave badly, it is on me to deal with them... and also upon me to make sure that the referees and their assignors know want to keep working for my program.

[Sandcrab Margarita]

Someone should be establishing groundrules for behavior, either the board or the director of coaches. The rules should be communciated at the start of the season and enforced by the league.

We have all that. Still, the Board has determined that CRs are not sending off coaches when such an action is warranted, & our supposition is that the CRs are intimidated in doing so, even in cut & dry situations. "Enforced by the league" doesn't do much during a match, so are you suggesting we incorporate more comprehensive match reporting, so that problem coaches can be brought to the attention of the commissioners in some manner by refs too gunshy to do the deed during a match?

Thanks,
Sandcrab

[Twenty26Six]

Unfortunately, even the best DOCs tend to let "loud' coaches get slack on this. I try to be as cool as a cucumber on the sidelines. It's very seldom I let a ref get under my skin, and I only talk to them at half if I can manage it.

[rca2]

"Enforced by the league" doesn't do much during a match, so are you suggesting we incorporate more comprehensive match reporting, so that problem coaches can be brought to the attention of the commissioners in some manner by refs too gunshy to do the deed during a match?

No, I am suggesting that the league have officials out on game day observing and enforcing policy.

[Sandcrab Margarita]

No, I am suggesting that the league have officials out on game day observing and enforcing policy.

We have those at every game. They're easily identified, too, by their yellow shirts. They're called referees.

Seems to me that the opinion is that a rookie ref is somehow incapable of observing & enforcing policy, so now we're in a bit of tail-chasing.

Nevertheless, I've picked up some opinions as grist for our mill. My thanks to those who posted.

Sandcrab

[goyoureddevils]

I think that what we are saying sandcrab is that the officials in the yellow shirts are there to adjudicate the game... not represent the league administration. Get board memebers or a designated game day administrator to police the coaches like I do.