While Rufusabc is more than capable of defending himself, let me interject. 1) His first point was that if the ROC (or state HS association) require you to do something, you are better off doing it. In general, I agree this is good advice. So, in NJ, HS refs are required to read a statement. He says you should, forgetting that most states aren't NJ (thank god) and don't have a pre-written statement per se, but a more general sportsmanship must be mentioned requirement. 1a) Declaring that NJ HS officials should read the statement, does not mean that Rurusabc was advocating for an extended lecture period at the coin toss. 2) Second, he states that reading this formal statement makes disciplining the coaches easier. While there is some pushback on this, I would suggest that any mention of sportsmanship at the coin toss does make disciplining the coaches easier--and the more thorough the mention, the easier. For the same reason that giving a card for PI is easier after a verbal warning, or calling a foul for holding just after saying watch the hands #7 is easier, or removing a coach is easier after Ask and Tell,. Its a warning, it lays down the law. Its always easier to discipline after a warning. This seems like just human nature.
High school associations do a lot of requiring. And I fault no one for enforcing the requirements. That said high school associations are very political and if push comes to shove they will likely say you should have chosen the path of least resistance because then they wouldn't have had to get a complaint call. It's a fine line.
@jayhonk - I have no problem with any of that, in fact I agree with it all. The part that bothered me was the line "...are there any other rules you would also like to ignore?" I didn't like the implication that a rule was being ignored and the further implication that by not reading it we aren't doing our job when we have no such requirement. This is why I went in the direction I did.
I agree. "Required" is an interesting concept, in high school soccer in particular. What happens if the referee doesn't? Who is going to know? Well, the captains, but the administrators don't care what they think and the chances they will complain are REALLY small. I mean, infinitesimal. The coaches? That's an interesting angle because this makes it appear that the referee is the person in charge here. Whether we are or not isn't the issue. Perception is reality and quite a few coaches have this rich fantasy life that they are in charge, not just of their players but also of everything at the game, especially if they are the home coach, at least "everything" that their AD will let them get away with, which is usually quite a bit because the AD is more concerned about gridiron football, buses and parents. So is a coach really going to complain that the referee didn't read the statement about sportsmanship? Maybe only when they are trying to redirection attention after they've been carded, particularly a card of the cherry color, and their boss, the AD, is asking why the coach has embarrassed the school by getting ejected. Time out for a non-violent war story. Our state has an award for schools that are "ejection free" for the year. There is also an 'all sports' award, with points for teams progressing to the playoffs, etc., which has a deduction for every ejection, coach or player. My alma mater has won the award in the largest schools classification for almost 20 years. They have failed to be ejection free several times in the last five years or so, because of boys' soccer. Now I don't do my alma mater's games but I've know the AD for over 25 years and he's an in-law of several of my friends. When the school's player or coach gets a red card, I can be sure that I will get a call or e-mail from him, asking me to explain/justify what the referee did. This discussion only leads me to further appreciate the modification of NFHS rules that our state has adopted, that the coaches do not get invited to the coin toss. The referees can shake their hands, get the roster and ask the magic question separately. So the coaches don't know if the referees read any sportsmanship statement to the players at the toss. It also reminds me of the time, about 30 years ago, I was playing in the men's league. The 2nd world referee came back to us after he checked in the other team and announced "They say you dirty cheaters. You play fair or I card you!" Just for the record, we'd never played the other team before, ever.
At a drop ball, "Let the ball hit the ground. I'm going to drop the ball here. Do not kick the referee. (They usually look at me or chuckle as I am dropping the ball)"
If the atmosphere is relaxed and I hear "Good call, ref!" from a player, I'll sometimes reply, "I make one good call per game. That was it, glad you liked it." That usually gets a chuckle.
I was doing the center of the tourney final for a boy's U18 game. It was one of those plays where two players and the ball all came together at the same time, and the ball went off of one of their thighs and out of bounds, but I couldn't tell which one. My AR was behind the play and I was right parallel with it it so neither of us had a good look. We looked at each other for a second and I just pointed a direction. We were doing water breaks, and at the second half's water beak, one coach was in my ear about the missed call. Of course, from his position down the sideline, he had a perfect view and felt it should have been his team's ball. After letting him vent for 15 seconds I finally said, "Look, we are three quarters through the championship game. If the only thing you have to complain about is a throw-in call at midfield in the first half...then I am kinda OK about that." He quietly walked away.
Even after putting in all these years as a referee, I can not fathom why throw in direction is ever a bane of contention, and especially at the center of the field. How many contentious/debatable throw ins ever result in an immediate scoring opportunity?
While I agree it most likely makes no material difference in the match, when the referee crew misses anything especially like the one described by @Schlager when it is obvious to everyone but us (and it happens to all of us) then it adds to their perception that that we are missing "everything" and it's all going against them, even the throw ins. Last touched by isn't really as subjective as a lot of the stuff we call (or don't) so more so than the throw in (which doesn't matter) it's the "we missed it and its going against them" that they are on about.
I use that one as well, although I usually say "Let the ball hit the ground, then kick the ball and not my, or the other players, shins please."
Totally agree with all points. Prior to my "favorite line" I did explain to the coach how the play was directly away from AR1, so he didn't have a view and I didn't have the best view either. I apologize for not being the the best possible position, but I did the best I could based on what I saw. Then I told him that I was OK if he thought that was the worst call out of all of the calls that I had made that day.
This is why I love reading Law5's posts-- He's got a story for everything! Me, I can't remember whether or not I had a game last night, much less anything noteworthy about it.
"There are three rules on a drop ball. Number 1, don't kick the ball until it hits the ground. Number 2, don't kick each other. And number 3, most importantly, don't kick me."
Oh, I had one! In my first or second year of reffing, average level, U14G. Throw in at the half line to Red's best player. She takes two touches and hits a bomb from at least 35 yards, maybe 40, that goes upper 90. Green coach, who had been giving me a hard time all game, goes ballistic, claiming that I just cost them a goal. I was dumbfounded that he would make such a ridiculous claim, but, being inexperienced didn't know how to respond. So, I just let him vent. About a year later, in the middle of the night, I wake up with what I should have said: Me: Coach, remove your players from the field. Coach: What?! Me: Take your team off the field. Coach: Why? Me: If a throw-in at midfield automatically leads to a goal, then your team is not qualified to play at this level. (...remembering that this was not high level play...) I was happy with this imaginary conversation for a couple of more years. Did I say this one really (no, really) stuck in my craw? Ultimately, I realized that the proper solution was to go back about 30 minutes earlier, and nip his whiny complaining in the bud.