An interesting thing happened today. After six full size field lines Saturday, my assignor moved me off five full size field lines Sunday and onto six 7v7 solos, none older than U9. The forecast called for scattered thunderstorms during game four. It never rained a drop. But because of the forecast, I wore some American football officials turf shoes a friend turned me on to. They work great on wet grass. But on dry grass, they grab a little too good. During game three, I ran faster than my coordination allowed, my cleat grabbed grass, and down I went, hard on my right knee. I was able to muddle through the last ten minutes, but it started swelling up. As I iced it, the coaches suggested they get a parent to referee game four. The parent was up for it, as were the coaches. I notified the assignor, and all was good. I gave the parent a whistle I haven't used all year, and away he went. He kept the whistle in his mouth, and his foul recognition wasn't bad. But he never played advantage. A few times the ball would squirt free and the fouled player's teammate would dribble down the field, but he would still blow the whistle. At halftime, he came up to me and said "That looked so easy when you guys do this. But, man, it is harder than it looks." Toward the end of the game, one coach told the other coach "I think we need to have some scrimmages and let our parents referee about ten to fifteen minutes at a time." The other coach said "Especially our more problematic parents." I love their idea. Between the ice, rest and ibuprofen, I was able to do the last two games. Both rather lopsided and mostly at one end of the field. Now I'm considering taking off until August.
So, after around 20 games this spring, all AR to this point, mostly 11v11 games, I got assigned a couple centers yesterday, U12 NPL games. Even though they ended up being 2-man (1 AR), they were fairly successful. Admittedly, my first game was a bit rocky at times (in my own evaluation), I eventually settled in and the experienced ref (who was really helpful) felt I did a really good job. One yellow and one PK in the first game, both pretty textbook calls. Naturally, the opposing coach on the PK, who made a point of telling us he was a certified ref, loudly protested the call (among others). Second game, after the game was over, the losing coach made a point of telling me that I cost his team the win. Late in the second half, his player clipped the offensive player in the heels from behind. Nothing reckless, but a definite trip. Resulting free kick ended up being a goal and the game finished 4-3. Coach insisted that the opposing player tripped over the ball, which I'm sure from his angle, he might have thought. I was AR1 for his team in the first game of the day, so I heard him whine all throughout that game, so it wasn't unexpected.
"Then you know what you are saying right now is wholly inappropriate and you will stop right now." Any more, and caution. "That's enough, you need to go back with your team right now." Any more, and caution.
Once again, this reminds me of something that happened to me, many years ago. Small college women's game, visitors from a time zone away. Very experienced referee, may have been the USSF SDI, IIRC. After the game, the losing, visiting coach comes to the crew to complain about how the referee 'cost them the game,' yahda, yahda, yahda. He throws in "I'm a professional referee and....." The referee stops the rant and asks, "Oh, so you know me?" "Never seen you before and ...." "Then now I know you're lying to me coach and we have nothing more to say to you." And with that we walk away. At that time, the only professional soccer league in the United States in the lifetime of any coach or referee had been the original NASL. The referee had refereed in the NASL. As we walked away, he said, "I still have the list of referees. I'll have to check to see if he's on the list." I wasn't going to bet that he'd find the guy's name there.
Men's O-58 game yesterday. A few high clouds, temps in the mid-60's and we're on turf, so no mud, after the wettest and coldest spring I can remember. Had a good conversation with the manager of one team who had been on the state adult association board when I was also. All of the players had their player card and there were no write ins on the roster (i.e. no last minute adds to the roster.) We had to hold up kickoff for a few minutes while guys were greeting and just chatting with guys from the other team that they hadn't seen since before Covid. Everybody was just happy to be back out playing again in nice weather. There were three fouls in the first half and two in the second, not counting the hand ball one guy committed just so we could stop and check on an opponent who had made a clumsy attempt to win the ball and ended up down on the turf. The time seemed to just fly by. 3-6 final score.
Yesterday I practice-ran the 4K interval part of the Regional fitness test (75M run + 25m walk -- 40 times; on a set pace). I did not die and made it through the 10 laps (paced myself with the audio file). I recognize that at age 49+ (not posting my real age), I *can* still pass the big-boy fitness test if I want to (I will admit my knees hate me today).
I refereed a U14 youth soccer match this past weekend (in one of the worst divisions in my state's travel soccer league). No major problems!
Previously, the league had open, O-30, O-40 and O-50, with multiple divisions of each. Some of the O-50 teams were aging, guys who had played together for 20 or 30 years and they didn't want to bring in new guys to their team or push out older guys who still wanted to play. So the initial impulse was to add O-60, but some of the teams had guys who weren't quite 60 yet. They tried allowing O-60 teams to have some players who were up to two years less than 60, but later they realized that was kind of stupid, so they just relabeled them O-58. Starting last fall, they added a separate O-65 age group, playing 7 v 7 on some of the smaller fields. The oldest guy in the league is still playing O-58, though. He's 90.
I always appreciate it when officials from other sports talk with me about officiating. On Saturday, I was pressed into service to work as a solo referee for my son's U14 friendly. The assignor called me on Saturday night and basically said, "Either you do it or the game's canceled". He's one I trust, so I took the game on with the caveat he had to let the other team know the situation. No issues at all - my son's team won 9-0, and no one had any major chippiness. I did call a penalty kick in favor of my son's team, but even the kid who committed the foul helped the other kid up and said he committed the foul. After the game, an older gentleman approaches me. He's the neighbor of one of my son's teammates and used to referee pointyball. He basically said he doesn't understand a lot about soccer, but he was extremely impressed with how I deal with players, communicate, and control the match. He said he watched a game earlier this spring where I worked another of their friendly matches and said he was impressed as well. For me, having officials from other sports appreciate how I'm able to command respect and communicate on the field means a lot. I work very, very hard at that part of the game, and I feel like it helps me when things get tricky during a heated match. The best part of this weekend was getting to be a parent today for their Midwest Conference match and watching them take sole possession of first place in their division with a 6-1 win as my son got a start and played his best game since joining his new club last fall.
Suggestion for next season: If you are refereeing on mothers day, as you are just about to blow the whistle for the start of the match, look into the crowd and yell "Happy Mothers Day!" you will buy yourself at least one half of peace and quiet.
Other best story of yesterday: Tournament. Game 2 of 4. Two absolutely terrible U14 teams. One is even worse than terrible. Game ends 5-0. I know I blew my whistle to disallow for 2 other goals. I don't care. Its the field marshall's job to keep score and max. goal differential for any match is 3. Score is irrelevant. Winning coach comes up yelling at me "this has playoff implications. We scored at least 8 or 9 goals". So I ask him, which was it? 8 goals or 9 goals? since he is obviously so invested in the score. He just said I had it wrong. I instructed him to file a protest with the tournament director.
Any tournament I ever coached at, at most, is like 3 goals max. and maybe an extra point for the shutout. But yeah, reading and understanding rules is a thing that coaches are generally not too good at.
this is one of the (many) reasons I loathe the 10-points per game tournament format. I know it typically gives a way to avoid tiebreakers, but it makes game environments where a 3-0 game is more tense than a 1-1. That's stupid
Had the first really nice weather HSGV match last night. 75° at kickoff at 7PM. D1 matchup against one of the top teams in the area against an up and coming Home side. About a week ago I had pulled my achilles going from a stand to a sprint as an AR in a horrible field where my plant foot fell into a hole. So it has been sore every since and I am in the part of the schedule that doesn't give me time to heal. and getting in my mid 50's it takes a bit longer than usual. Had a double header on Monday that had a 40 minute lightning delay in the middle. All of this had me thinking of hanging up the whistle and not putting my body through this another year. My 2 AR's last night were guys I have reffed with for years and I told them my thoughts and they both listened and said they understood, but there is such a shortage of refs in our area to think about what I was leaving them with. Then the match started, team plays at the local college field on campus with a soccer only turf field. Finals had just got over at the college and you could hear the music from the parties going on around us. Game was VERY organized play and it was so refreshing to be able to officiate from the standpoint of actually knowing where the ball was going. Knowing that if a ball was kicked deep that the defender was going to collect the ball and distribute it to her teammates back up the field so I could slow my pace and wait for the return, and not get caught in the" defender mishits the ball and now the offense has it and I am 25 yards away from play going in the wrong direction" kind of play. Visiting team was controlling possession, but home side was standing toe to toe with them and we go in at halftime 1-0. My leg felt good, I only had to call a few fouls which no one complained about and my AR's felt it was a great half. 2nd half is the same way. Visiting team ends up winning 3-0 with a late goal in the 78th minute. A coach thanked me for a foul call late in the half and everyone leaves the game happy. No coach complaints, no crowd complaints. All positive cheering. Walking to the parking lot amongst the crowd and 3 squad cars pull up lights on, blocking the parking lot. Everyone is standing around and I say "Jeez, I didn't think I had THAT bad a game". That got a bunch of chuckles, find out that a garbage bin at the end of the lot from the dorms emptying out was smoking and the cops just got there before the fire truck. I hop on my bike (motorcycle) for the 1 hr ride back home @ 8:45. the drive is all farmland and as I ride I can smell all the upturned soil from all the tractors still out in the fields plowing them up for the new season. Which is why I love riding my bike to games. The vibrations from the bike help my muscles and the fresh air (even the spreading manure trucks is fine with me) and the dips in temperature as you ride through the valleys and over the hills. Such a great night, it made me think that maybe I will just limit myself a bit next season. I do love the game that much. *steps off soapbox*
A former higher level referee I have worked with had a funny way of letting the coach know they should. I think it was too subtle. Coach comes up before the game or at half time, I no longer remember what it was. He asks "can we sub on anything or is there anything special?" and the referee says "The tournament rules say it is unlimited substitutions." Coach thanks and walks away, the referee turns to me and says "He is too thick to get that".
I made the mistake of volunteering for two games on Sunday. It was a mistake because I worked technical support for voting machines for a school board election on Saturday, arriving at 5:40 AM and leaving at 10:20. It was fine, I had a U13 Boys center at 10 and a U14 Boys line at noon and there were going to be mentors there. At half time of my center, one of the mentors walks up and says, "What are you doing here? I don't have any feedback for you." "I know, I'm just helping out and getting back in the habit of youth games for Regionals this summer." Half way through the second half I look behind the home bench and see a bunch of boys that are my height. Well crap, guess it isn't 14s. It was 17s, and I was absolutely exhausted at the end. The Best part was that Rosendo Mendoza came by at the end and I got to talk about progressing forward and steps I should be taking. Spoiler: I'm doing the right stuff.
Mid 50’s? You got 20 more years to go pal! I can hear the assignor explaining your “absence” next year. “Well, we lost one of the young guys!”