I’m pretty sure that my count is at 13 states right now. However, that’s probably where it will stay. I don’t travel nearly as much as I used to.
I thought about trying to do some reffing while traveling this summer. I wasn't sure how feasible it would be and whether it'd be worth the hassle of tracking down assignors, bringing my gear, etc. And the weather--oof. I was in the Dallas area for work a few summers ago and from where I was staying I could see a soccer complex with games going on in the middle of July. 100+ degrees? Not my ideal soccer weather. Is it reasonable to think that in a typical metro area a grown man who's a grassroots ref could show up for a weekend and get a couple of U-whatever games in (even if there's not a big tournament)? Alternatively, what would be the biggest tournaments in June-July that would be most likely to need refs?
Quick technical question. But is it all states or soccer states? i.e. WNY, ENY, Cal-North, Cal-South? I imagine it was more just the states.
Congratulations! Bill would never assign me even a weekend tournament when he was a local assignor. Glad to see you moving up. I wish you well.
I don’t know about the biggest, but check out the USA Cup in Blaine, MN. International competition, international referee crews.
Refereed or assessed in Oregon, Washington, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, Massachusetts and (not a state) British Columbia.
I'll be up there during the week of July 13 for that event! My son's playing with his Iowa East ODP team (even though we are now living in Des Moines, he's finishing the summer out with his East team), so I'll be picking up a few games around his schedule. EDIT - I have heard from others the pay isn't great, but still want the experience of working the event.
The u10 game was solo, but all the players knew about the build-out line, so absolutely no issues in the 9-2 game. One of the rules I (and some of the players) didn't know about until yesterday was no heading in u12 games! The girls were u12 so familiar with heading. I did have two heading calls on appropriately headed balls. :{ I also had some dangerous plays, possibly because they didn't want to head or play with their chests.
I thought it was U11 and younger that did not allow heading. AFAIK, heading has always been allowed in the U12 games that I worked.
Depends on the state. In Georgia heading is allowed at u12. In Alabama, all small sided games, U12 and under, heading is banned.
Around here it also depends on the league. Some with combined age groups (u7/8, u9/10, u11/12, etc.) banned heading in u11/12 to minimize legal risks for coaches who might ignore the ages of their individual players in regards to heading. Some allow it. Makes for fun inter-league matches when their respective leagues have different rules.
It definitely won’t be the same without international refs/teams, but it should still be a lot of fun. I hope I’ll see you there!
The problem was that for the tournament, u11 and u12 were grouped together. The teams I refereed were u12 but they were put in groups with u11! It would have made more sense to me to ban heading for u10 or u12. Here u11 and u12 get frequently mixed.
I recall reading something about the Laws modifications saying that when a player commits *an offence* against an "outside agent," it's a drop ball. I'm still wondering what an "offence" would entail. Sliding through the legs of the parachutist?
I did a U-12 scrimmage on Saturday that featured the best sportsmanship I've ever seen. One team was preparing for an All-Star tournament. The other team was thrown together to help them. The coaches and I agreed beforehand that we'd do kicks from the mark afterwards, no matter the score, just to let them practice, In fact, every player took a kick. Everyone thanked me profusely, and the teams posed together for a photo. Here's where I'm still questioning myself: For some reasons, tons of players on both teams kept trying to trap the ball by raising a foot up near waist level. I wound up whistling twice when the boot got too high, but I found myself wondering where the line is. I could see a different ref blowing the whistle 10-12 times during that game.
I think the high boots are a result of the ban on headers for younger kids and coaches not working hard enough to teach players the various ways to trap a ball that don't involve the head or foot. Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast rule on when something becomes dangerous play. It's particularly hard with players of different sizes. Waist high on one player might be chest high on another. If the shorter player bends to head the ball you can get a dangerous situation where it's not clear who created the situation.
I believe this was designed to remove the specter of a DFK for tackling a pitch invader or some such, when they limited misconduct FKs to offenses against participants. So the offense would be VC, but there would be no FK from it.
Since I don't have much to talk about in terms of games, the best thing is I've made some progress on eliminating the terrible referee sock tan line that impacts so many of us.
Last week, I had three solo AYSO games in a row, and then after a 2 hour break, I was AR2 for a USSF youth game. It was sunny here all day, and because of the genetics of my ancestors, I usually turn red quite quickly when I am outside for an extended period of time. I made sure that I put on sunscreen every break. I did pretty well and wasn't sunburned on my arms or face at the end of the day. However, I forgot to put sunscreen on my knees so they were as red as my referee shirt at the end of the day.