They'll never get that scholarship if they don't start early enough Last year I was mentoring at our club's rec league one evening when a young ref turned an ankle, so I end up covering his second game - 1st grade boys. Had a player do exactly this. Explained it the first time, walked him back out of the center circle the second time and stood next to him with one arm extended out in front of him as I blew for kickoff a third time. Pulled my arm back as soon as the ball was kicked, the kid rushes in, swipes the ball cleanly and dribbles past everyone and takes a shot right at the keeper, who ducks. I love little kid soccer.
When I was president of a competitive youth club I helped found, we had a day care center contact us. They paid some of our coaches to come "show the kids a few things." We called it our "U-4 program." We were only half kidding.
At last night's adult co-ed game site, getting ready. Two players walk up from the parking lot and one says, "It's going to be a tough game if the ref is stretching."
They have referees for U6 matches?? In my area U8's maybe get solos. U10's have solos now (depending on the affiliation of the league). U6s are like exclusively refereed by coaches
Just for this event. As the link I provided showed, this was an event of not just soccer, but also archery, baseball, basketball, track & field, gymnastics, karate, softball, swimming, tennis, and much more.
This is why I never say "Play on" to signal advantage. Most of your average referees out there use that phrase to convey that there was no foul.
Recently had a great example of exactly that. Similar age, also girls, we're far enough into the game where we know green's only chance to score is if #6 gets to bring the ball up the left flank and weave and dodge defenders on her way towards goal: any play that involves a set defense is going to end up in a turnover. So there's a foul deep in green's defensive corner, CR is looking right at it and calls it... as the ball sails over his head towards #6 standing by herself on the flank. If he'd waited, she had her chance: she would still probably fail, but they were much better off than a deep set piece.
For newer refs: "play on" should never be used for anything except advantage. If you've been saying it to mean "no foul," please stop!" There are lots of good alternatives: "clean tackle," "not a foul," "keep going," "not deliberate" (for non- handling). Even "play" or "keep playing" are best avoided if you can (though not as problematic as "play on)." And for youth refs, I would strongly encourage saying both: "Advantag! Play on!" It is good for educational purposes to tie the two together and help educate -- especially since "play on" is misused too often, if you just use that you may have confused players/parents who think you were saying "no foul."
I'd suggest that the opportunities for advantage are greater than 1%. Note that I didn't say something stupid like 50% but it's more than 1%. I always remember the time, in a high school varsity boys' game, a player gets tripped in front of his own bench, but the ball squibs off to a teammate, who takes off dribbling on a 40 yard run. The tripped player is yelling for a foul so his coach tries to tell him about the concept of advantage and why he (the coach) did not want me to call a foul. Sweet!
I believe Stanger was saying a foul in the defender's penalty area is hardly ever advantage-worthy. Not that all fouls are 99 to 1 not likely to warrant advantage.
Sunday mornings I still play in my old guys league. We qualified for the semi-finals and had to travel about 1.5 hours for the match. During the regular season, the league employs a single referee. As a central defender, you take a great deal of risk trying to use an offsides trap during the regular season. The playoffs use a 3 person crew. First half I am calling my defenders to step up and I am watching the AR2 who keeps a tight line. The ball is down at our opponents goal for a corner and I decide to have some fun with the AR2. From midfield, I step back 15 yards and he keeps the tight line. I step up and he moves. I step back again, look over at him smile and give him a thumbs up. He laughs and shakes his flag at me. All is good. Second half late, our opponent is pushing hard to get a score. I am maintaining a line and having my defenders step up. I see the AR1 10 yards behind us. He is in the game but not "in" the game. I call out and he saunters up. Another tight line and I see he is still far behind us. I call to him again. The third time I call my defenders and he is till 10 yards behind us. I call out, " Hey Line-O, where's your second to last defender?" He looks and assumes the position. I've had to implore your AR's to find their defender as a Ref, but, never as defender....
Especially true at HS games. I am always way early to the match, and I always get a good warmup in. Especially if my partner on the dual is, how do you say, not up for it? Coach after coach always says the same thing. I have never seen a ref warm up!
I have certainly had to warm up between the JV and the Varsity games. As an AR, I've had to warm up at half, since I spent the first 40 minutes standing on the midline.
I've had to warm up during some JV and varsity games in cold weather. Dual partner: "Why were you running back and forth over there?" Me: "To stay warm."
Not what we "hear," but last night's co-ed game, one woman is wearing the white socks that not infrequently have a team name or mascot's name embroidered vertically on them. Hers said "Beer."
I was looking back on the social media posts from the official Region account to see if any of my referees were photographed and noticed a comment below the "Champions Crowned" post - Funny how home team girl U15 ended up with local refs most games AND won..... hum.... those folks should buy lottery tickets!!!#luckyduckies Yeah "local refs" at the regional Presidents Cup competition. My eight hour car ride begs to differ.
I cannot tell you how many times I have been accused of Homer-ism. With the names of some of the clubs now, I genuinely have no idea where any of the teams are from.
That reminds me of Futsal Nationals where I was assigned a meaningless game between StL and KC. The tourmanent was in KC and I am from StL. KC won on a PK that I called and one of the StL parents stormed off the court screaming "Those F*(k!ng local referees screwed us again" This was U12G game and needless to say I reported the parent to the tournament authorities.
This happened to me all of the time in Oklahoma. Either a Tulsa area or OKC area team would complain about a referee from the opposite city. Meanwhile I was from neither and my 'home club' hadn't had a team in one of the two competitive state tournaments my whole time there.