Ref shortages this year

Probably the best thread for this: Our college assignor e-mailed the membership today, offering a newly scheduled JV men's game on a Wednesday, dual. 6 a.m. kick off! That was the only time the schools could get the field. He filled the crew in 16 minutes.

 

Who...would get up for that?

 

I bet he offered a nice bonus for taking that one. only way I can see someone signing up for that. But I know plenty of old timers and young referees that wake up really early to workout that would slot into a match for the right price.
Myself included.

 

This HS assigning season (my first) has been quite the year so far, and we are about at the half way mark. I am down about 25 referees than would be needed to let some guys rest. It’s a grueling year for anybody doing varsity 5-6 days a week. I have about 2,200 games to assign between HS and middle school. I have had everything thrown at me. I really thought I would be doing this a couple of hours a day in the season, but it is non-stop daily from the time I finish working out to game time. We have busing delays, covid shutdowns, teams that cannot field enough players that day. But, outside of a handful of guys I could do without, my corps of refs have been outstanding.

plus, I really never realized how much refs suck up to the assignor.

 

I've left the house at 5:00am CT to be at the field by 8:00am ET. I would indeed much rather leave the house at 5:00am CT to be at a game five minutes from the house.

 

I would. i'm up anyway and usually at my desk by 6. So go pick up a game and get to work about the time the sluggards get it? Sure, why not?

Also, the nice thing about early games (think the 8am games at tournaments) is that the players are too sleepy to get dumb. Generally a very low foul/no cards game.

 

I always prefer to work earlier games. Not only is it cooler, but the second games of the day are when players are tired and start to do dumb stuff. Plus, given I place pretty strict limits on my time when my kid isn't playing, I can work games in the morning and then have the rest of my day to do other things.

 

No bonus but our standard game fee if you blow the whistle is $150, plus mileage.

 

Dang...time for me to move.

 

Serious lack of dog pics here.

Cheers, Mi3ke

 

I don't mean to sound arrogant about this, but we're only a month into the season and I'm starting to get frustrated in my games when I have ARs who are clearly not prepared for the level of game but the shortage means they will get them and I can't suggest they not get them in the future.

Today was an ECNL weekend and I had ARs in a game who didn't bring a watch, didn't bring pens, weren't recording scores in a book, didn't know the sub rules, poor mechanics, basically I couldn't trust their calls.

When you're doing a certain level of game, even if it's youth, you expect a certain threshold of refereeing that you're used to in games of that level, and when you don't get it, it comes back to bite you even more because the players/coaches blame the center ref for everything the AR does anyway. I think my frustration will turn to anger in games soon

 

Are they new refs (of any age) or just people with one year of experience repeated multiple times?

If they're new try to pick out one or two things for them to work on. It sucks to have competitive games with inexperienced refs, but at least there's hope that they improve and continue reffing.

With the latter group...well I can't really help you there.

 

Did some ECNL games this morning, really great kids and it was quality play and a lot of fun. They're also my last games as a referee for awhile, I'm putting reffing aside and enjoying some of the other aspects of life.

 

It was some youth refs. Didn't ask for their experience but probably a few years at most. Of course I know newer refs and youth refs in particular will be less reliable and new adult refs usually at least get some basic stuff down, and when I'm with newer refs I teach them the simple things.

But it's just frustrating in general to be a doing a decent level of play match where you will be challenged at least a little bit, and having ARs where your first impression from them is that they don't bring a watch or a way to back up the score before you even get into the game, then suffer through a game of really terrible performance. There's only so much I can tell them when they keep getting a 100% obvious throw in direction wrong, basically just "please pay attention to the game"

Maybe it's just me being entitled and elitist.

 

I think this is why its so important to have a pregame with them. Even if it goes out one ear and the other. You know that going into the match. Im sure you probably knew when they roll up there before the game with not the right equipment.

 

Six 7v7 games Sunday. All U10 girls and younger. With new shoe inserts, a high of 80 and a lot of cloud cover, I was surprisingly OK physically after the fifth game. Mentally, not so much. White team player kicks the ball ahead toward the midline and chases after it. Red player grabs the white player's arm, slowing her down. I blow the whistle and said "she grabbed the arm." Red player smiles widely and I jokingly said "look at that guilty face." A different red player set the ball quickly and takes a shot on goal, missing wide. There was a fence right behind the goal line, so the keeper didn't have to go far to get the ball. The keeper sets it and quickly takes the goal kick. Only after the goal kick was taken did I realize White should have taken the free kick, not red. I let play go on, much to the mild complaining from the sideline as White was already down field. I made it a point to focus more and slow down the restarts, making sure I got them right. Hopefully getting them right. Not sure I did after that.

 

At that point, that was all you could do. Once you allow a restart, you can't go back and fix things.

 

Landon was, of course, not an angel on the field, but interesting perspective from him in an interview with The Athletic. While he isn't specifically talking about ref issues, it certainly relates:

Do you think you’d ever want to coach your kids?

I mean, I don’t know. I have a huge problem — and I only have experience with Americans, I don’t know if this happens all over the world — with American parents and coaches of youth soccer players. That’s a hill I would die on: it drives me crazy. I guess the point of saying that is that if my children were in that environment, and I saw that happening, but (having me coach) was an opportunity to have it not happen, I might do it. But I don’t have a burning desire to babysit seven-year-olds.
​

The full interview is at https://theathletic.com/2870906/202...wing-for-mls-jobs-and-his-role-in-u-s-soccer/ It is behind a paywall, but there might be a one article a month free, I'm not sure.

 

Prior to this year I had dimissed 3 coaches in 9 years. In just the last week that total has increased to 5. Tonight's game had the bonus feature of being confronted by parents while leaving the field.

I have a game tomorrow and thankfully it's my last of the year - it just can't end soon enough at this point.

I made the mistake of agreeing to take over as our local club's recreational league assignor this fall. That season ends Saturday. 42 games and at this point 20 of them have a referee. Shortage you say?

I hope the rest of you are having a better week.

 

no, we aren’t. A local small town middle school league has been run by the same nice man for 52 years. Monday was the first day in the history of the league where the police were called to break up a fight among the parents. 8th grade girls….

Already this week, we have had referees confronted at their cars, coaches completely out of their minds, and players disrespectful beyond belief. Season is half over.

 

Do you guys think this is directly related to the ref shortage, like are you having to be alone in games where potential missed calls that an AR might help with are leading to coach/player/parent outrage or something?

Even using solo or the dual system (don't ask) a handful of times and regular three man I haven't had issues, but this is the highly competitive youth/ECNL/NPL level. Although the worst ref experience I've had in a number of years was this year in a lower level tournament U17 boys match where they were more interested in hitting each other than skilled play (or more likely they were just unable to to do), and with the shortage I had a completely useless AR who I think had a hand in it going bad. Players, coaches, parents, everything was getting bad. Had to completely lock the game down and ruin it in the second half, it pained me but it had to be done.

 

Tonight no, it was a 9th grade boys HS game solo assignment and those have always been solo as long as I have been working HS. Earlier this year in a club tourney yes, lack of AR2 in a final was a direct cause of problems.

 

Assignors in our state are emailing referees to fill spots for the numerous Columbus Day tournaments, even though they closed their availability on their Game Day Officials account.

These are the very same assignors who 10 years ago wouldn't even tell you how much you were getting paid on these tournament invites. Their response would be "You should be doing it for the kids!". ‍

I don't feel bad for any of them as they are part of the problem.

 

I've decided to do the same. Don't know how long awhile is going to be, might be indefinite.