High school boys game. I'm about to call the captains out for the coin toss when the middle stand of lights on one side of the field starts dropping sparks then the whole side goes dark. "*tweet tweet* Captains! Bring your coaches!" "Coaches, are you okay with playing with half the lights out?" "Yes." "Yes" Two minutes later we're about to kick off and the trainer, along with the "Administrator's Representative" come driving out on the field in the golf cart and the rep say's, "Do you want to wait a few minutes while we try to get the other two lights on?" Me: "The coaches said they were okay with it so we were going to start." [funny face from the Rep] Me: "Are you telling me to wait until the other lights come on?" Rep: "Yes. Its just that it is a liability issue." Me: "Okay, as long as you are telling me that's what you want." Me (to the field): Alright guys! We're going to wait for them to try to get the other lights on. Grab a ball and knock it around. 5 Minutes go by... one light on one stand has turned on. Rep: I've talked with the admin and she says that if you want to play, you can. By the time I confirm with the coaches, 4 of the lights out of ~30 are on. The rest of those two stands did come on a couple of minutes into the game, and it is a good thing too. With the dense fog that came over the field the second half would have been difficult to justify with only half the lights.
Last fall I was cleaning out the basement and found, among a number of other interesting things, a bottle of 30yo Springbank in a lovely wooden presentation box. Thirty years old, mind you, when it was bottled, sometime well in advance of my wife buying it for me for my birthday back around the turn of the century. I looked it up on the internet and found it was now worth about $2500. The bad news was it had been opened and maybe two or three drams were gone, so I couldn't donate it to a charity auction and get a nice deduction for it. The good news was it had been opened but only two or three drams were gone, and as I couldn't donate it to a charity auction, we threw a party and drank it. I mentioned that story to a bartender the other day and he said "Next time you're cleaning out your basement give me a call and I'll be glad to come help."
Everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it. Seven games worth $190 all cancelled due to unplayable fields. Better than being on the fields in the rain, though.
Good thing the four games today in Smiths Station were cancelled. Tornadoes came through the area. As of this typing, 10 deaths including an eight year old.
Sorry to miss the Iowa Terry Vaughn Academy - but not the weather. I have been to about a dozen Iowa referee academies. I came back from Texas four years ago for the academy and the weather. My wife is much happier staying in Texas until the midwest thaw. We were both much happier staying in Texas and refereeing in reasonable weather this weekend.
Saturday was the first track meet of the season, women's and men's pole vault for small college meet. Sunday was my first soccer game of the season. 37 degrees, sun out, but windy. I realized that I had not put a pair of gloves in my bag but a former ref on one of the teams loaned me a pair. I wore the Ref Store shirt for the first time and one of the players wanted to borrow it. I told him that I didn't have one in his team's color. Men's O-58. Red team had two absolutely perfect assists. To the other team. At one point, we're in midfield, near the touchline, and I'm trying to get out of the way, so I take two or three steps off the field. The guy with the ball passes it to me. I guess he was just looking for black shorts. Gave a PK when a defender fell down in the area, near the edge. He sees the ball going just over him, so, while still lying down, he reaches up and bats it down with his hand. His teammates tried to argue that he should have been called for dangerous play instead, because it was a slide tackle. (The league rule is that all slide tackling in O-40 and above is to be considered dangerous play.) They didn't argue very much, though.
Tell him I'm like an AR. I only assist and don't actually make decisions. He needs an Admin. In all seriousness, if this is an issue for him send a PM to @Ismitje .
I finally got my password to work!! It was in my yahoo mail spam folder (which I haven't checked in 6 years since I use gmail). Good to be back The best part was when I took out my phone to take a photo with the bigsoccer referee site on my phone, I opened my phone and @uws22 saw that I already had 2 browser pages open to bigsoccer
Oh no, I should have kept reading; I re-set the password and sent it through @uws22 to pass along, so now @coreyrock is gone again. Temporarily I hope!
Speaking of Safe Sports, USSF is one of only three USOC members who do not publish the names of those who have been disqualified for criminal offenses. By contrast, I get an e-mail about monthly from USA Track & Field with the name and home town of anyone who has been suspended "pending appeal" from coaching, officiating, competing or administering. Although no reason is given, you just Google the name and see the disgusting things they've done. So why doesn't USSF, USYSA, AYSO, USASA publish the names of the offenders?
When I woke up on Sunday morning for my DA games, it was 66 and sunny. When I got to the games, it was 55, sunny, and windy. When I started my center 6 hours later it was 50, 20 mph wind, cloudy, and the sun was setting. I don't know if I'm getting a lot better at predicting where the ball will go and therefor not running as hard as often or if the end to end wind just kept the game from going back and forth very much, but I didn't sweat through the mid weight under armor I was wearing. I know a number of you want to say, "Cry me a river." but there is a reason I don't live by my parents and in-laws in Chicago or in Ohio where my wife and I went to college. Additionally, I'd be happy to host you in late August for some games on turf.
Two HS varsity games last night, inner-city smaller school divisional rivals, a lot of the kids obviously knew each other. Some handbags in both games. Boys played first, then girls. By second half of girls it was about 30 degrees with 10-15 mph breeze. I had on everything I own including my windbreaker under my jersey, and I was still cold. Most of the kids were out there in shorts and jerseys. Girls went to KFTM.
Sounds like your fault - conditions like that, it's your job to bring it home and find a winning PK in the last 2 mins. (and before anyone has a bird, I am joking. Mostly).
Oh I was tempted. Sorely. Several times. In fact, constantly. But worse yet, I think I gave the PK that resulted in the tying goal. Does that establish my integrity once or for all, or what? (Silently cheering on breakaway attackers and silently cursing when their strike goes wide of the mark doesn't count -- does it?)
My daughter's game Sunday morning went to KFTM, and I joked with the refs that they didn't do a good enough job avoiding it... Only us refs get the joke...
Fortunately the HS districts we service all chose to take the tie and get on the bus. Unfortunately playoffs start in a couple of weeks and that means the possibility of free soccer. And based on my personal experience that happens about 1/3 of the time, no matter how hard we try to avoid it.