1. That school sounds like Baylor but I know they allow dancing on campus now so maybe its not. 2. I've tossed the president of a university, too. That's a whole different story, and I'll never go back to that school again. I've blocked myself and don't care if the NISOA/NCAA politics bite me. If I never go to that city again, it'll be too soon.
I often forgot that, just like coaches, I can scratch schools too and the fact of the matter is that after a Varsity Girls coach emailed the entire referee crew, my association president and the Director of Officials for my state's NFHS (yes, Director of Officials, not Director of Soccer Officials).... pretty much blatantly calling me incompetent after emailing the Director of Officials that I was on "multiple scratch lists" (when in reality it was one AD who did it for the entire HS boys/girls middle->high) and I cannot "handle games at this level" when a week before that I did 7A Boys #2 vs 7A Boys #3 in the middle. Literally the hardest game in the entire state because 7A Boys #1 was unbeaten and winning 3+ every game. Or before that was a conference match between 6A Boys #1 and #5 or.... the fact that he, himself, did not scratch me from his list this season (if he truly thought I was incompetent).... not to mention in that email was an underlying tone of cheating... All because they did not agree with my call that the keeper had stepped off her line too early and thus I was responsible for their loss in the PSO. Coaches words. Not mine. So, I just saved myself the heartache and just said to myself, yeah, I'll be removing myself their games for a good, long while.
For me, the bar in High School is quite a bit lower. It's supposed to be an "extension of the classroom," right? Well, coach, if you disagree with the teacher by standing on your chair and screaming your displeasure for all within 200 yards to hear, there will be consequences. I spent about two years issuing 1-2 coach Dissent cautions/game. Funny thing is, I don't ever recall giving a 2CT, as the coaches would pipe down when on a caution. Since then, I've trained the coaches that "here comes that ref that cautions me for yelling, so don't yell at him". Let me tell you, it's bliss. I have partners who say "That guy yells all game, and you come in and not a peep from him. How do you do it?" I was doing a game, and the players were whinging and bitching about every call. I was about 15 yards from their coach, and I said, "Coach, would you be so kind as to tell your players that they don't yell at me because it's your job to yell at me?" He responded, "But <refgil>, if I yell at you, you'll give me a card!" "Exactly". And his players all stopped complaining. Note that this is High School. I do have a different bar in College/Semipro/Youth, where the expectations are just different.
Different? I was 4th on a USL Pro game, abut 15,000 in the stands. Home team head coach comes to me to complain about the referee's decision about something. He isn't yelling, but he's making his opinion known. That might be a reflection of my previously having red carded him in a U-17 boys state cup game for OFINABUS. As we're talking, and the game is going on, a very young assistant coach sitting on the bench starts yapping at me. I turned to him and said, "YOU can't yell at me. HE [pointing at the head coach] can!" Head coach, facing away from the guy on the bench, gets a little smirk on his face and says, "He has a point." I said, "Yes" and he walked away. No further complaints.
Yup, this is a staple response of mine during college season. I probably get it three times a season. A coach got us pretty good once when I was AR1 on a crew and the referee was trying to give it to a head coach a little bit. The coach said "You can't talk to me, but he can" while winking and pointing in my direction. I couldn't do anything except give a sheepish smile. Definitely a "Gotcha" moment for me and the center ref, who was a little bit cocky while on an upward path in the USSF ladder. This ref didn't know me, and I didn't really know him, but I knew enough to just be an AR this game since he wouldn't accept much assistance. The coach helped me out without knowing it. His comment served as an endorsement for me for the whole crew.
Geez...I never experienced any dissent in any of my matches. I'm pretty sure it wasn't because I turned off my hearing aids.
Said to a referee who worked in construction his whole life and is completely deaf in one ear and about 80% deaf in the other. Player: "Don't you hear what he's saying!?" Ref: "Wha'd he say?" Player: [repeats some choice swear words] Ref: "Well, he's going to have to say it a bit louder if he wants me to hear it." [runs to follow play]
Not soccer, but today in a different sport I had a parent tell me after a game that a u12 player was a dirty son of a bitch, and apparently told the coach that the kid was a "f-ing a-hole", so I had his angry mother confront me about what I was going to do about the situation, so that was great.
This has been a rough week for me, from what was a very good 4 months so far on field, so I'll pick only one bad story... Thunder is clearly heard. CR doesn't stop the game. AR2 is near him and verbalizes nothing and just stands there. Coaches and parents and everyone else have heard it. As AR1, I lift my flag and yell his name out. His response was "Yeah, I heard it too, I got it under control!". I stood there for 10 seconds with my flag out yelling "Stop the game, now". After 30 seconds, he's clearly upset and finally whistles to stop the game (game wound up being canceled after repeated thunder and a downpour). In the parking lot, ref is still upset that I threw him under the bus. Kept insisting that the game is only stopped for lightning. This is a guy who is at least 6 years USSF certified. Is the 30 minute thunder and/or lightning policy no longer being taught in courses? Is it the lack of traditional old-school in-person recertification courses making people forget things like this? We know social media made people dumber, so is the soccer field an extension of that? Part of me wonders if he thought we wouldn't get paid full fee since we didn't reach halftime yet (once kickoff begins, you are paid full fee). What is wrong with people nowdays?
I don't know that these sort of reckless dipshits are anything new, but you did the right thing knowing when to insist.
I’d also have a discussion with the assignor. This is dangerous behavior. Clearly not something that should be ignored.
If he wasn't going to stop the game, you should have just run on to the field and grabbed the ball. Say that he's putting everyone's safety at risk, and you will not be part of risking people's well being. Or just leave the field yourself.
Got this under control? Is he Thor the god of thunder? When I took the class in the Stone Age, my instructor said, "It's easier for a team to recover from a penalty kick than a lightning strike." Always stop the game in thunder/lightning!
That was my thought. Tell him, "I'm leaving, and I'll report myself to [whatever powers that be]." And tell the coaches as well.
When I started coaching my kids, which was before I returned to reffing, there was a strike while I was at a place with multiple fields. I called out to th ref, who answered something like “it wasn’t that close.” I was utterly befuddled—not a single game stopped. I should have pulled the team right then, but decided to pull them on the next one, which never came. I raised with the league, and when I started doing instruction turned it into a big deal in training (and there is now a strong slide in the AYSO training deck).
High school varsity boys game, dual system. IIRC, early in the second half, there is a totally unexpected lightning ground strike maybe a mile or two behind me. Whoa!!!!! It was so close that the lightning and thunder were heard simultaneously. Instantly stop the game and go to my car, which happened to be parked just outside the stadium fence. Everybody else heads for the gym, except for the visiting team. Their coach decides to keep his players on the field 'warming up.' I not only noted this in my game report, I called the assignor on the way home. She informed the visiting school's AD. The coach was not rehired.
I love this channel and I recommend its compilation videos to young refs trying to figure out the line between reckless and SFP
IST is a very funny channel, but it is horrible for teaching. I don't like to usually criticize refs, but those refs are borderline incompetent with how they are clearly afraid to give red cards out in these psycho adult amateur men's games.
They don't want red cards. The one time I gave multiple red cards for similar shenanigans in a similar ethnic league was the last time I centered that league. Didn't matter that was the 2nd multi red card game in my life, not that the assignor knew that.
Oh god no not as a teaching tool for what the referees did in the clips! But as a teaching tool to show what intense/violent challenges look like at the adult amateur level, where things look scrappier and slower than we are used to seeing on TV, it has a place. They're good to pull a clip and ask the referee to identify considerations for careless/reckless/excessive force. Preferably with the actual sanction chosen by the referee in the clip edited out!
I can only assume he did not get a clear view of the first 2 footed studs up attempt to destroy the striker. Otherwise, how can the goalie stay in the game? As blatant a RC situation as I have ever seen. And I am stunned there was no brawl when he did it again.
You can tell from the immediate whistle and long talking to he gave the GK that he saw exactly what happened. He just didn't feel like making problems for himself in a 4-0 game where the contact was luckily pretty minimal and it could be argued the game didn't need a red because he avoided a mass confrontation. I'm not terribly familiar with the assigning process for this type of game, but here's how I imagine it goes if the first tackle is deemed SFP: League Official: What the hell happened? White Manager: (pissed about losing the game and his keeper) The call was bullshit. It was a totally normal tackle. He didn't touch him. LO: (knowing his bread is buttered by keeping teams happy) I see, that's concerning. WM: (Repeats every other grievance from the game) LO: We'll keep that in mind, thanks for the info Most LOs who haven't seen a video will assign a degree of credibility to the manager's whining, which means the referee is dinged. Whereas this conversation never happens if the referee deems the tackle nothing (drop ball restart as played) and even if the LO hears about the tackle, he figures, "if the ref thought it was ok, it's not a big deal". The red team won't be in the LO's ear in a game they won 4-0.