I was very briefly a ref in my early 20s. No specific story but all I’ll say is. It’s freaking difficult. If you’ve never put on the goofy outfit and ran the sideline or diagonal, it’s hard to know how tough it really is. Probably because you rarely get feedback other than the coaches and parents yelling at you saying you did a shit job. When that’s usually not true. So it’s hard to gain confidence.
Laughlin is a seeping, fistulous boil on the ass of soccer. He has chased more promising young players out of the game than I can count.
At one point in my life, I thought about making a book about all of the ridiculous things I've seen in my 20+ years of reffing. The top award would have to go to this time that I was reffing a tournament out at Spindler when it had been raining for like a week straight. The fields were full of standing water and at halftime of one of my games, a U11 coach came sprinting at me (the center) with hate in his eyes. He got about halfway to me before he slipped and went both feet in the air before falling on his back. He got up and muttered something along the lines of "you need to do better" and then sheepishly slinked back to his team. The whole time I had to bite my tongue to keep from cracking up hysterically.
For the longest time, he required refs to pick up their money in his little shed compound after the games. I told them that I didn't want to deal with having to collect money after a match in case the parents/coaches wanted to harass me or my ARs after the match. He told me that was their policy and basically to pound sand. I went back to MOSSL/BPYSL and told them about what was going on. Amazingly, they(Xtabi) had money waiting on the sideline before the game next time I was out there.
I contrast him with a guy like Nick Robert's. Not everyone likes they guy but you never heard a.word.from him about anything. One.time I missed a call, badly, and at the half my AR told me about it. I trotted over and started to apologize to Robert's and he just shrugged and.said " happens, mate" and went back to coaching A real pro.
The Serr story reminded me of one for @kgilbert78 Same tournament, girls 13's or so. Really good OP team coached by a very Germanic woman. Great game, two strong teams. I always loved doing elite girls games; the toughness and focus is remarkable to see close up. Anyway, partway into the second half one of the OP girls gets whacked, hard, and goes down like a rock. I'm thinking she may be seriously injured so I immediately waved the coach on. The girl is on the ground sobbing, which I figure is good because it proves shes' still breathing. Coach Brunhilde trots over, stands next to the girl on the ground and ignores her completely. Never says boo. Instead she starts calling players over and giving them playing instructions. At one point she has 3 or 4 girls gathered around listening to her while this poor girl is still on the ground although the sobbing has subsided into sort of whimpering. I tell the coach that she is on the field to provide assistance to an injured player only, that I can't allow her to hold a clinic in the middle of a game. She completely ignores me like I'm not even there and goes right on doing her coaching thing. So I rustle up my stern, authoritative official voice and tell her that she will have to leave the field unless she cuts out this little soccer class she's holding. She fixes me with cold, steely Germanic contempt and says "You're a cabbage". Then turns and walks away. I've been called lots of things over the years but that was a first for cabbage, and I'm guessing that it wasn't a compliment.
Sure are a lot of refs/former refs around here. Archer, DnD, KCbus, 110TYL, Footyref. I know I’m missing others. Who else?
How difficult is it to become a hs or college ref? From what I have seen it couldn’t be all that difficult [emoji12][emoji849]
I've never been an OHSAA ref, and don't really have any desire to. Too many 2-person crews which are a recipe for disaster with a field full of testosterone-filled teens. I have no problem running a U19 game with a full 3-person crew.
Dad is sort of a soccer ref legend up here in the Stark County area. @TownKrier refs down in your folks' neck of the woods.
Pipa and Gaven's birthday today. Celebrate with this goal! Two #Crew96 legends. Happy Birthday wishes to Eddie Gaven & Federico Higuain! pic.twitter.com/p3gGHg6fCt— The Crew (@ColumbusCrew) October 25, 2019 Bonus awesome white jerseys for @LaMacchia
I can't recall why I got into the HS thing but I did very few games. That was right around the time when the OHSAA decided you had to start giving hand signals to explain why you were blowing the whistle. The countdown clock, all that other crap, I could put up with but a referee using hand signals to explain calls to idiots who didn't understand soccer anyway was farther than I was willing to go. In any case, you'd show up to work a game with some old turd who had never actually watched a soccer game in his life. A lot of these guys take all the tests, get qualified to work, like 10 sports - literally, no exaggeration - and work 3 or 4 or more days a week calling every sport in the book. These guys literally have trunks full of referee suits. Swimming, track, volleyball, golf (golf!), tennis, bowling, you name it. These guys wouldn't know a soccer game if they landed in Old Trafford. I wanted nothing to do with it. Plus, they make you attend this yearly meeting where equally clueless morons tell you stupid shit about a sport they don't understand. Life is too short.