One of my co-workers and I occasionally talk about soccer and refereeing. Earlier this fall she said her nephew was going to get certified to ref, but he was too young to take the class yet. Came back into work after Thanksgiving break and I got an email from my co-worker that has a screenshot of the South Texas Soccer Referees website with my mug smiling in the picture at the top banner.
So here is my annual Best Story of the Year. I greatly enjoy reffing AND assigning and mentoring. Love getting paid to exercise. And getting paid to assign is not too shabby either. I post this partially to brag, but also to inform that it is possible to make decent money in youth sports reffing/assigning as a part time side gig. I continue to work my full time job, which I have held for 26 years now. In calendar year 2021, I earned just under $27K for reffing and assigning. And I continue to volunteer assign/mentor and field coordinate for my home town club. In total, I reffed 176 matches, from March 5th to November 13th, earning an average of $67.67 per match. 52 HS/MS 27 summer HS 38 premier (15U-19U) 10 adult men 13 youth (rec, comp, cup) 1 college club 35 lacrosse I assigned approximately 1400 matches, earning almost $15K 1 large tournament (~400 matches) 4 town clubs (1 volunteer, 3 paid) 2 small premier clubs 1 adult league It's a lot of work, but I really don't mind doing it. Season is just over and I am already jonesing for some soccer stuff to do.....
On the topic of homepages - the Washington State associations that use Ridgestar often have photos on their home pages. Those photos were no doubt uploaded by assignors past and are of various ages - but also sometimes it seems like a bit more editing would be in order? Refresh https://www.ekcsra.org a few times and you might see one in particular (though it may reflect how people feel about referees...).
That was the FIRST one that popped up for me! I didn't recognize the company, but a search shows that is hilarious. And if you can't laugh at jokes made at your own expense, life can be dark and dull
I was, finally, completing my recert work on line Saturday. I'm going through all of the on-line training and what pops up but a picture of my daughter. She was standing next to Marge Domka and looked like a midget compared to Marge.
I'm questioning the one with two referee's back turned talking to the a coach while the third has his hand down his pants and apparently looking down there as well. I have to assume he's in the middle of tucking his shirt in, but the timing of the shot is not the best.
Got my first-ever 4th Official duties this Sunday in a 1st round playoff... NISA Nation... PPL League. Should be around USL League Two play or similar they say. Any tips?
I understand the sentiments but it would piss me off to miss out on game experience/ref camaraderie/money. What point is this supposed to make to the teams?
The point is pretty clear to the teams, coaches, players and parents. “Your behavior is unacceptable. Right now we are cancelling two weeks of games. Keep it up and it will be more.”
you’ve said this in other posts how you’ve had no weeks off since summer. This sends a message to the teams that if they want to allow this type of behavior or put up with it. What they care most about “playing the game” will be taken away. with the current referee shortage I’m sure you could find elsewhere to go work. If game experience and $$ were super important. Or if you wanted camaraderie you and your comrades can find an alternate activity other than communicating non-verbally on a soccer field.
I think it's assumed that there would not be games over the weeks of holiday break. The referee assignments may have already been made. I could also see where they made this decision to maximize media coverage. While I would think a sudden and mass decision like this on short notice would have the shock value the media often craves, making a big deal out of not having referees for games in the upcoming weeks would generate time to have more media coverage.
Those who are the problem won't see this as a result of their behavior. IMO, if you want this behavior to stop, eject more spectators & coaches when they cross the line. Set up before the season that if a team has an ejection, they must pay a fine (escalating) before referees will be assigned to future games. Then you just have to figure out how to prevent someone from causing a problem for another team. Example: Team A & Team B are playing. A parent from Team C, thinking they're "smart" starts heckling the ref acting like a supporter of Team A. Team/Club A gets penalized. Sure the parent is kicked out of that game, but what does he care?
Officiating U10 boys at a new indoor facility today that uses the LOTG with a few modifications for their boarded field ... Red team has the ball at midfield and attempts to pass the ball but it hits me and goes to a blue player. I stop play and award a drop ball to the red team. Before I drop the ball, I say to the red player, "I am going to drop the ball at your feet. You can do whatever you want with it." I drop the ball, the red player dribbles a few feet, and shoots and scores. Then I reply, "Well, you can do anything except that."
Believe me, I absolutely understand the reasoning behind it and it makes plenty of sense. And I would be 100% behind it if the clubs had to pay the referees for all the cancelled games, which they absolutely should given that their behavior is so poor that games are cancelled en masse. I'm not saying people do this strictly for money, but most refs definitely factor the money in, especially to the youts, and this is almost punishing all these refs for spectator behavior, and potentially also punishing teams in the club that have no issues with behavior. Like my above point, money really is king and I think your idea is a good one, but we could take it one step further. Maybe a conglomeration of posts above. Just spitballing here - If one spectator kicked out, all of that team's spectators are kicked out for the rest of the match and all the spectators receive whatever match ban the OFFINABUS send off is. In our league, the coach also receives a suspension for any spectator misconduct even if he had nothing to do with it like if a spectator out of nowhere yells F YOU REF, but I don't know if this is universal. Club also receives a fine. - If a member of the staff is sent off, the match is immediately abandoned (and the league will mark these as a forfeit), a fine is issued, and maybe the team even has to automatically forfeit their next game or something.
Personally I think those ideas are too extreme. You're punishing everyone for the actions of not just a few, but just one. Come down on the person causing the problem. If you fine the team/club, I can almost guarantee they're going to make THAT person pay the fine. IMO the problem like trying to get a toddler to stop doing something. "Johnny, don't do that. Johnny, stop. Johnny, I mean it. Johnny, you can't do that." It's all lip service and if Johnny doesn't get any consequences, he's going to keep doing it.
Sometimes, those who did nothing wrong need to be part of the punishment. Those people will then either shut the idiot up or tell the club to ban the troublemaker. I can assure you if my parents’ sideline was ejected because of one guy and I couldn’t watch my kid play, my first call on Monday is to the club director to ask what’s going to be done with the person.
I’m not a fan of game terminations for send offs. The problem is it puts more pressure on the ref and makes it less likely that bad actors will be tossed. That makes it counterproductive. (The same is true, in general, for clearing touchline s of spectators—the hassle of managing that event would make many refs very reluctant to take the path. That said, I very much do support leagues letting refs (and coaches!) know that the league expects coaches and parents to be sent away for misbehavior and the league will back and support. And there should be escalating sanctions for successive events by a team or individual.