One of my life goals is to be as sharp and active as @IASocFan is at his age. Given how I feel anytime I work a match on FieldTurf, I’d say the odds of that happening are not good at all.
It will be two weeks past my second vaccine shot on Monday so of course Tuesday I'm running a line on a 17 girls national premier league (whatever that means) match. So today I found my ref bag stored in the basement. All my jerseys, shorts and socks that have been zipped up in that bag for the last 18 months are currently in the wash, and all 6(!) of my whistles are currently soaking in mouthwash. What I didn't find is a 2021 badge. The 2020 one was in there with no velcro patch stuck to the back. I'm pretty sure they sent ones for this year, didn't they? It's a good day regardless.
6 WHISTLES! That's a question for the group. How many whistles do you own, also how many do you actually take with you to games?
I have eight Pearls for the small-sided games to match whatever t-shirt/jersey I wear. Yellow, green, blue, red, black, orange, white and pink. I also have an Acme tornado I link to the Pearl as my "Dang it, I said stop" whistle. I have a Classic in case I am on the next field over with the only other referee in my association who also uses a Pearl as his main whistle. For full size duals I have a Fuzion linked with another Tornado. I take them all in case someone needs to borrow one or in case I have to change fields. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Don't have a spare whistle when yours goes to lunch. Take Lauren Bacalls advice to Bogart and put your two lips together and blow!
I have a Kakapo and an Acme 635 (the "train whistle") as my two primary whistles, and I always carry a Fox 40 on a wrist lanyard in my back pocket in case things hit the fan.
I’m not sure what whistles I don’t have, other than the Valkeen. My usual favorites are the Fox 40 mini and the dolphin (which I think was the precursor to the Valkeen. For multi-field sites, I’ll often with to the Pearl or th Acme Tornado (the one that looks like a bent piece of chewing gum) for their very different sound. From time to time I use one of my other dozen or so. I keep my whistled clipped with two together to make it easy to hold. And I keep a spare pair in a pocket.
I probably own about a dozen of various types. All of them live in my kit case but I take two Acme Tornados onto the field with me, the colour depending on my mood, the surface, and what I'm wearing.
i used to own about 10. But, it’s down to about 5 now. Two on my person at a game. I had one knocked out of my hand on a deflection once and it exploded. Reached into my pocket and pulled out the back up.
Of the 6, 2 are well used fox minis with CMG and finger grips, 2 are well used fox sonic blasts also with CMG and finger grips, one is a lightly used fox 40 classic on a finger grip and one is a dolphin on a flip grip that I think has been used just once. Come to think of it the dolphin has gone through annual sanitization more times than. it has been used in a match.
Saturday evening I had a maintenance assessment scheduled. At 12:50, I realized I had a missed call 5 minutes before from my assignor for the game. I listened to it, and it said something along the lines of, "Don't worry Bill I got you an AR for your assessment tonight. He's not a [NC referee] or a [Regional on AR track], but he'll get it done for you. Give him more instructions and you should be good." I was so confused to the point that I looked at Game Officials to see the refs still the same. So I pulled up my email and got two emails. One to the ultra trusted group of refs. National Assessment Saturday @ 6pm One of the AR’s had to cancel for [DaytonRef] assessment tonite. If you can help cover or know someone who’s qualified to run a Premier line, let me know soonest.The second went to the entire assigning group. Need a strong AR for a 6pm game at [game site] tonite!!! Email or text me if available...this is for a National Assessment! UHHHHH. Good news is that I never had time to freak out. Good news is that my adult game assignor thinks I'm going for my national badge, I guess I should start getting my ducks in a row because as of Saturday, I was not making plans to upgrade. AR1 called me a bit later confused asking if this was a national because the assessor was not a national assessor. Good news is that I passed. Side note. Unfortunately one team didn't have enough at game time but the opponent elected to give the grace time to get to the minimum number and I knew that we could push the start time a bit because there wasn't another game after ours. I passed, but I don't think the game was worth very much, 75 max, so while it was good enough that I don't need another to maintain for 2022, I'll definitely be getting more so I can have a wider selection of assessments.
Glad to see adult league teams and players are just as reliable in other areas for showing up on time and taking games with a bit of seriousness. I thought it was just here. Around here. 7:00 start means refs show up at 6:55 and halfway wonder if they are in the correct place. One team shows up about 15 minutes later and the other team 5 minutes after that and announce they will only have 9 at most. Warm ups then begin ignoring the center ref's 'request' to start the match. Match finally begins after the center has bled 5 minutes off the 1st half time. Its ok, neither team wanted to play 90 minutes anyway.
Heh. One of the "ethnic" leagues that used to exist hereabouts, if the team showed up with not enough players, they had to pay the refs, pay the fine, and reschedule. But it they just didn't show up, there wasn't anyone to pay the refs, effectively saving that ~$70 (I think it was 60/40/40 at the time). So teams would hang out in their cars in the parking lot, texting until they had enough players. Then they'd all get out, get dressed, warm up, check in... As implied, that league no longer exists.
@cleansheetbsc & @RefGil : That is a problem in other leagues but the league I was working has the rule, "Game Time Is Forfeit Time [...] An opposing manager is not required to do so, but, in the interest of sportsmanship and in consideration of exigent circumstances, may consent to a grace period of up to 15 minutes" If the referees don't get paid, we get a check in the mail from the league pulled from the performance bond put up at the start of the season and the team that was there get their money back from the late/missing team's bond It really keeps the forfeits down. Additionally, the minimum to play is 9 so you aren't likely to get a lopsided 7 or 8 vs 11 that is a pointless game.
For our main men's league, we have a 15 minute 'grace period,' but the clock starts at scheduled kickoff time. For the women's league, game time is kickoff and if one team doesn't have enough players present and checked in at that point, there's no game. And the referees are paid by the leagues through the assignor, so we never have to worry about getting our money. Very rare that we have an adult league game cancelled because a team doesn't have enough players. I've seen teams with as many as 22 players on the roster, apparently with an assumption that at least four of them won't show up, because no more than 18 can play. We used to have two teams, with the same name, one in the men's league and the other in the women's league. They'd usually get their games scheduled for the same start time. After the game, they'd meet up at some beer and pizza place and tell their spouses how great they'd played that day.
Yes, this league has those rules too, but still, this is the way it goes. Usually, there is no forfeit, yes, we get paid, but getting any game started is like taking an unwilling toddler to the dentist.
Our local adult league has a rule that clock starts at game time. (We used to have a ref who everyone said started the clock when he got our of his car). At five minutes the team with enough players to start gets a goal. At ten minutes they get another goal and at fifteen it's a forfeit. Most of the time it's clear that a forfeit is coming. Occassionally one team is short a player or two and they are madly trying to convince other players to show up.
We used to have players sitting around in street clothes up until about 2 minutes before the game. You couldn't tell who was there to play and who was there to watch. Then they'd strip down to their underwear on the sideline to change right before game time. It was very common to run 38 minute halves to keep the 4 games that day on schedule. The league eventually didn't like us as referees (partly b/c of sticking to schedules but also b/c of following the real Laws as opposed to those agreed upon at the bar) and turned to their 'own referees' who had some sort of badge but I'm not sure it wasn't just made at home.
Wow, and USSF expects us to work those types of games if we want to upgrade. Hopefully none of the leagues y'all work now is like this, because it sure sounds like the Wild West.
these are the best leagues to learn to manage adults. Granted ymmv in some leagues. You’ll have really good games and you’ll have games where 9v10 at kickoff and no one wants to be there.
I don't think my state has a single USSF compliant adult league. I've seen one 11 v 11 adult men's league, they used dual refs. No player cards or rosters. A local immigrant community realized that the teams were always short, so they would come and hang out at the field looking to fill in if needed. I think those guys got 3 games a day. One time the assignor called me and said "No one reported the score to your game last night, who won?" And all I had for him was "Well, the team that had four guys in red shirts, four in orange and three in black had two goals. The team that had guys in green shirts, white shirts, and blue shirts had one goal. I think the game was supposed to be purple versus yellow."