Tournament ended. I got many compliments from my referees on my communication (had to do everything manually) especially with schedule changes and delays, and also for how evenly the games were distributed and located in the 7 field complex. The biggest referee controversy, outside of the referee assault, and outside of perceived inconsistency of actually calling slide tackles, was a ref giving a player a SFP red card for a slide tackle challenge they did on the grounded goalkeeper. The team was very upset because the rules say slide tackling is a yellow card and there was no provision added that says "at the referee's discretion", "a minimum of a yellow card" or something similar. The tournament director took multiple trips from their players on Saturday, and the complaining continued into today so she had me handle it when she had to leave the situation after getting extremely frustrated. I proceeded to go into our extremely detailed method of judging challenges with mode of contact, point of contact, shape of body, speed, and force. I also brought up the IFAB app to read the specific few paragraphs where they discuss serious foul play. By the time I was finished, their eyes were glazed over and they said that it's not fair that I'm going to be so "technical" when talking about refereeing because I wasn't there. All I could do was laugh.
After last weekends tournament they asked me to assign for another coed adult tournament in late June. The mid 70s regional emeritus who got assaulted in last weekends tournament was the first to sign up for this upcoming one lol
Just wrapped up my duties both on field and mentoring/observing at the Iowa boys and girls soccer state tournament. For the fourth straight year that we’ve had tournaments, every match had a mentor on it. We also have had a lot of younger officials get their shots to step onto the big stage. I had the privilege of mentoring a girls 3A (largest class) semifinal this afternoon where three of the four officials were 25 or younger. Last night, we had a stretch of time where we had a “fog bowl”. Here’s a photo from the 3A boys semifinal I observed last night. First time I’ve had that type of fog impact a game.
question: How many HS matches did the under 25’s do during the HS season? Asking because we have some unwritten rulesin my area about parachuting in for finals.
They were all “full time” during the season in their various areas of the state. None of them were, say, national/PRO referees who never worked high school. Our PRO2 was mentoring/observing all week.
That’s great! I have tried in my last two years to get younger folks on bigger games. It’s availability that kills them.
And we have a 21 year old as AR1 on the 4A boys title game. This kid is the real deal, and he’s like a little brother or like an older son to me. I’m thrilled that he’s getting this assignment.
I had the honor of attending USASA Region 3 championships this past weekend. It was a pleasure to reunite with friends, make new friends, and learn from national referee coaches. My favorite bit of learning: As an AR, have a short word to say to yourself. When it is likely you will need to pivot and run for a through ball, start saying it to yourself (stop when you turn or the through ball is unlikely). As you continue to do this, the thinking of the word will start to trigger your fast twitch muscles in advance of you turning to run. This will make your transitions faster because your muscles have started to move before your brain tells your legs to go.
That’s me and my word when it’s the 75th minute and I’m caught in the defensive third when some 18 year blasts a ball the other direction on a route 1 play and I’m caught flat footed with no hope of catching them and when the inevitable foul happens.
Men's O-65 last night. First time I've done a game in that division of our men's league. Lots of guys I haven't seen in a long time. All happy to see me and I was happy to see them. As I'm walking up, one of them says to me, "Good. We've got a real referee today. Those young guys just aren't very good." I responded, "Well, they just don't know how old guys like us want to play." 40 minute halves. Game played cross wise on half of a gridiron football field, so no markings for a halfway line, goal area or penalty area. 9 v 9. Kick ins, no offside. Well, I should say Law 11 was ignored. Nobody much cared if the ball was still rolling a little when it was kicked on a free kick. I called four fouls in the game. I quickly realized that this was a game where having a pretty good sized paunch was an advantage, because they would just let the ball hit them there and it would fall to their feet. This was pretty much walking soccer. During the game, one guy says to me, "I remember you from when I was coaching college! I said that face looks familiar.'" After the game, a guy who had arrived for the next game comes up to shake my hand, big smile. He's about 6'3" with a west African accent and he's ALWAYS smiling and laughing. I once did a game where he was playing and it was in a steady rain, temps in the low 50's, and Don is still laughing and smiling. I think I've only called him for one foul ever and he never complains.
I use one profanity as part of my "be ready to go" phrase I say to myself as AR. I use another, or a string of others, in this scenario.
1. Final game of the season tonight. 2. Father's Day, oldest son got me the magic line spray. As a grassroot referee, I am prepared to use it only doing U-10 games.
I sent off a player for 2CT where the second caution was for UB - handles the ball in an attempt to score a goal. The score was 1-0 for the opponent, a CK came in to the far post and he stuck both his hands above his head to smack the ball. I don't know if it went in or not, it was close. When I hit the whistle, his bench starts losing their mind celebrating. He was off the field before most of his team knew that they hadn't scored. AR1 asked him as he walked off if he had really done that. The player admitted it and AR1 encouraged the player to tell the bench what happened.
Glad to hear it. Always thought the Grassroots label was silly. Always made me think of grasshopper (for those old enough, Kung Fu show). I don't know what was wrong with the grade 9.8.7 labels. And I still don't like that a newbie ref and I share the same level. As an assignor, distinct levels would be more helpful. As it is, I have to lookup every single new refs details, instead of having an at a glance distinction.
With all the rights and privileges thereto appertained. Otherwise, I *never* get to use the word appertained.