That made me chuckle... A number of "MBB" posts on here came to mind last fall when I was asked about working the only local adult outdoor league (recently affiliated with an out-of-town ussf league)... "When do they play next? I'd like to come check it out first." "It's fairly low-level, you'll be able to keep up with play. And the pay isn't awful" "Those aren't the elements I'm wondering about..."
Well, my games at the mentoring tournament got cancelled due to flooded fields. No games for me this weekend
Wow, didn't see this one coming. HS varsity girls, the second game of the night. A good, well-coached away team scrapping hard with a very good, better-coached home team. Away feels aggrieved for a number of reasons, high among them my flagging a PK against them as AR1, but the simple fact was they were outmatched, and the game ended 4-0. As I learned, late in the game the away keeper had taken vocal exception to the center's having complimented an attacker on a spectacular strike from about 25 yards out that looped over the keeper and into the far upper corner of the net. "Referees shouldn't talk to the players like that." Huh. (Cf. our recent conversation on this topic in the Premier League thread.) So, game ends and our ref crew gathers on the far side of the field to walk to the cars together. This keeper comes loping over towards us, body language to my eyes pretty much thanks-for-the-game-ref. But in fact she goes off on the center again, "You shouldn't have said that to that player," etc. OK, not so good. But then she, who happens to be Asian, says to the center, who happens to be a big strapping middle-aged white guy, "And you were probably being racist." Yikes. Center goes, "Whoa, whoa, whoa," has both hands to his pockets, red in his left, yellow in his right, I'm thinking "red red red." But he opts for the yellow, says "One more word from you and you're getting sent off." She opens her mouth, he says "One more word," she closes it and stalks back across the field to her team. I say "That was an automatic red for me." "Yeah, maybe." "But then you would have had to write a report." "Heh, yeah." "What was it about?" And he explained the earlier exchange about his good word to the scoring striker. "That was weird." "Yeah." Replaying it on the drive home I'm thinking I'm glad that wasn't me. I would have dismissed her for sure, and then I would have had to walk all the way back across the field to tell her coach "Coach, I walked all the way back over here to tell you I had to red card this young lady because she saw fit to come all the way across the field to call me a racist for complimenting her opponent on a great shot." And then I would have had to write the damn report. And then I think, but I kinda wish it had been me, because she really needed that red card. Weird.
Well, my wife disagrees. "You don't know what kind of pressure that child is under. I'm glad he only gave her a yellow."
Our HS report is on line, and the last time I used it, it took about 10 minutes to put together. Then, we need to call the Principal’s office the next school day to tell him/her what occured. Not writing or filing a report (not wanting too, also) is just sloppy and lazy. If that player had found herself in front of me, she would have been told to stop, and then red carded when the rascist comment was made. Automatic 2 match ban.
I think the scenario is a bit of a warning about how we talk to players--if we issue compliments, we have to be careful that they go to both teams to avoid the perception of bias.
I will admit that the thought “Do I go yellow and 2CT here or straight to red for SFP and write the report?” has gone through my mind, but that crack from the GK is a red for me and it’s not even close.
I would’ve told that goalkeeper to go kick rocks. I probably would’ve made the argument “well it was a good shot. And you made some good saves too GK.”
She's under the kind of pressure where she needs to understand glibly throwing out accusations of "racism" is NOT ok. By letting that slide, no favor was done to this snowflake.
I'm both saddened and a bit nauseated after reading that. Can only speculate on the sources, but she's obviously of the mindset that she can do no wrong on several levels... Parents/coaches/everyone are doing youth a great disservice by encouraging it. Oh, and straight red.
Red card, for that? In a playoff/championship game if she says the same thing during the game after the compliment was given 10 minutes in, you all are sending her off? Red card is going way overboard. She's a HS kid. Game is over. She let in 4 goals and heard the referee say good shot to the attacker after one of them. Didn't sound like she was hostile. Have a conversation with her. Doesn't seem like something to get all defensive about.
That is just a perjorative term. She went to find the referees. She called him a rascist. She’s gone.
First full-field 11 v 11 center of the calendar year, U14 boys game. Before the game, one of my ARs and I met one of the parents from the Nebraska team who recognized my AR's blue NISOA windshirt and identified himself as a USSF grade 6 and NISOA national referee (I have no reason to doubt him at all). So we absolutely nail the game - three cautions (one USB/retaliation, one PI, one SPA), a number of great offside/no offside calls from my crew, and two PKs called (one where my AR2 and I called it at the exact same time in his quadrant). Following the game, both coaches and several parents of the losing team complimented our crew on the game, particularly our communication with players and my complimenting of my ARs on good calls. One parent said he hadn't heard a center support his ARs so vocally during the game and really liked that. On our way to our cars, the referee sought me out and said after I told him I was a Grade 7, "You absolutely need to get your 6. Your ability is way above that of a 7." I'm not planning to do that since the only real reason I have my 7 is to add credibility when I go to out of town tournaments where my son plays, but that felt really good to have a fellow referee recognize what I also felt was a very strong performance this early in the season.
I refereed yesterday. 38 degrees, wind howling at 25 with gusts to 40. I took today off, bright sunshine, light winds, 55 degrees. Yep.
This is reminding me of the conversation I had with a middle school assistant coach just the other night about whether "cheat" applied to a referee was OFFINABUS. (Longer story, short version being I had caught the word behind my back coming from the general direction of the bench.) "Y'all might want to moderate the language over here. Calling a ref a cheat is an automatic red card." "Come on ref. That's not vulgar language." "Doesn't have to be. It's offensive insulting and abusive language and an automatic dismissal." "That can't be right. That's not offensive." "Really? If I called you a cheat, you don't find that offensive?" "No." "Huh. If I called you a thief, would you consider that offensive?" "Yeah." "But not if I call you a cheat?" "Not in a game situation, no." "Coach, that's an automatic red in any game I do and the same will be true for most referees. You might want to look it up." "I will." And it was only on the way home I remembered that only a couple of years ago a considerable number of Atlanta Public Schools teachers actually went to jail for ... cheating. It also reminds me of a U13 or 14 tournament match years ago when a kid walked up to me after the whistle, looked me in the eye and said "You f***ed up the game ref." "Is that so. Well at least you won't have to worry about that happening to you in the next game."
Happened to me years ago too. U16 Girls. Tying goal ruled out for a foul on the ‘keeper. Fairly easy call, actually. Losing player seeks me out to tell me I was the worst effin’ ref ever. Red card. They had to wait a couple extra hours to get her card back as it was the last game for them. The coach sought me out and begged me to rescind so they could travel home. The Ref Assignor/Admin was in on the discussion, and backed me.
Let me ask a question, since you said you were walking to the parking lot. Say you don’t have your cards or equipment on (I personally take off all gear except for shorts) do you just tell them you’re dismissing them? How does that work?
If you take the time to put everything away before leaving, she would have found you earlier than the parking lot. And since this was a HS game, our state TELLS us to leave immediately after the final whistle.
My local association had our biannual meeting tonight. We lost 100 referees from last season, including five high school referees. We only added 25 referees from the entry-level class (we usually add 50). Right now we are ok, but we will be in big trouble a few years down the line.
This is one of those that I thought I knew but looked it up just to be sure (I'm less and less confident of my vocabulary every day, irregardless), and ended up saying "Huh ..." biannual [bahy-an-yoo-uh l] |adjective occurring twice a year; semiannual. occurring every two years; biennial.