There's a ref around here that has that in his pre-game. "If I come over to you and ask you a question that ends in ', right?' the only acceptable answer is 'Yes.'" Then there's no risk that someone overhears your "no matter what I say" preamble.
"Duxbury boys’ soccer team seeks answers regarding crowd control after postgame altercation at state final" Probably behind a paywall: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/sports/duxbury-soccer-brawl-state-championship/ At the (mostly public) high school soccer finals over Thanksgiving weekend, all held at the same venue, problems arose during and after one game. The games were played at Doyle field in Leominster. I've never seen the place, but it seems to be a town park with a stadium used for (at least) high school football and soccer. After "the Division 2 boys’ championship, about 50 fans rushed the field and started a melee that left at least two people bloodied and raised questions about the security at MIAA state championship games." The losing team's "players said they also were physically harassed during the game by [opposing] fans who were too close to the action." The lack of security "allowed fans to elbow and spit on players who were taking corner kicks and performing throw-ins." One of my favorite passages: "Fans attending football championships at Gillette Stadium cannot access the field, nor can state finals hockey fans get to the ice at TD Garden. Security guards keep fans contained at Tsongas Center during the state basketball finals. At all three locations, patrons are screened by metal detectors. There were no such barriers at Doyle Field, which hosted two title games Friday night, along with the four Saturday." Is this last bit a complaint that a high school stadium in a small city doesn't do much crowd control? Or that soccer finals are at a small-city stadium instead of the professional (Gillette, TD Garden) or college (Tsongas) locations for the other named sports?
I wonder how many MLS or USLC fields are used for state championships. The Revolution play in Gillette so there's no smaller option for Mass. but in Colorado DSG Park is used for the state championships so this wouldn't be an issue.
Ohio uses the Columbus Crew's old stadium, which is still used for concerts and other sporting events.
For the first time this year, Kentucky did both the boys and girls state championship matches at Lexington Sporting.
Michigan HS Finals were held at Grand Ledge High School. It appears to be a stadium setting, so fans would be separated from the fields just as they are for football. Of course football finals were at Ford Field (home of Lions)
NYS are held at high school (or sometimes college) stadiums, but they are fenced and there are security people at every gate/entry point.
Red Bull Arena was used for several sectional state championships. However, they oddly used the "reverse diagonal". I don't know who they're saving the field for since the Red Bulls were eliminated from the playoffs.
Oregon has four different classifications, so eight state championship games. The larger schools are now at a stadium which has hosted FBS level college football games, where the stands start one floor above the field. The smaller schools play at a large nearby high school, where the stands start two stories above the playing surface. I have attended the state championships for 20 years and we have not had any crowd v crowd or crowd v players post game incidents. The first year or two at the large schools' venue, we had students from the winning school coming down onto the field to congratulate their team. That made it a problem to do the medals and trophy presentations. We solved that problem by providing separate locations well off the field for both teams to meet their family and friends after the presentations. The way it is set up makes it extremely difficult for fans of one team to go to the other team's area. We have a few uniformed security guards but they are not involved with the postgame stuff. The schools are required, through their AD's, to provide two or three staff people to keep student spectators in the stands, because they know who the potential trouble makers are. Oh, and the officials are escorted from the touchline to their locker rooms both at halftime and at the end of the game.
Grand Ledge HS was new this year, wasn't it? For the boys finals, in the fall, they used to be at multiple sites, really just high schools scattered around. The times I did it, there wasn't any extra security or infrastructure that I could tell. The girls finals, in the spring, are held at Demartin Soccer Stadium on Michigan State's campus. They also do softball and baseball championship games at MSU's stadia at the same time, so it's a beehive of activity. Ford Field over the holiday weekend was: Thursday, Lions v Packers Friday, 4 HS Football Championship games (Divisions 8 (smallest), 6, 4, 2) Saturday, Michigan State vs Maryland football Sunday, 4 HS Football Championship games (Divisions 7, 5, 3, 1 (largest))
I attended one of the Division 1 semifinals (Manning Field in Lynn) and found that there were a lot fewer staff than there seems to be for semis/finals in NH. There were only about 3 people to check tickets and maybe 2-3 more to run the concession stand. There might’ve been a cop present, but I don’t remember for sure. And that was it. Maybe in NH there aren’t that many more staff present, but it generally feels like there is, and they have stuff like radios. The organization of the MIAA semifinal felt amateurish in comparison.
I disagree. Using the captain works at all levels IF YOU CHOOSE TO MANAGE PLAYERS. There are captains and there are leaders on each team. Identifying players that their teammates follow is always helpful to the referee. Acknowledging those players and their role is helpful. I've told captains that I no longer consider them the captain and will be speaking to the leader on the team before. It usually shocks the captain so much that they turn it around and exhibit the behavior that got them selected as the team captain in the first place; and that's helpful. Then the other leader I've just "appointed" carries a new 'pride' about themselves and helps with his team. This is a way of "managing players". It doesn't always work but try something and don't be so obtuse to think that only cards work. Police don't use the same technique on every single speeder. They have warnings and citations and sometimes check the license and go. Teachers don't use the same discipline on every student equally. Supervisors don't manage every employee the same. The goal is to get the outcome that you want from a player; not just flashing colored plastic cuz a book says so.
In Maryland, they shave held the soccer finals on one day, at the same venue. Originally, it was at a high school that had lights (yes, back when I was in HS, there were only a handful of high schools that had a stadium (stands on both sides) and lights. The teams sat on opposite sides of the fields and the fans were expected to do the same. The stands were up one 'floor' and access was via a ramp at the end. As others have said, the schools provided administrators, but I always saw a few uniformed police officers (usually near the ramps leading to field level). Currently (not sure how long ago), they moved to a local college that has a stadium which made it almost impossible to get to the field directly. I haven't heard (or seen) any situations like described above with fans attacking opposing teams. That can scary real quick.
My son used to play a Memorial Day tournament at UMass-Amherst campus. A couple times, they played in the football stadium which had a regulation soccer field, so that's an option. Boston College's soccer field is no more than a big HS field.
We got the final results of the fall season card tally in my occasional adult coed league. Of course that’s me on top. 11 total games reffed, gave all of these cards in 7 of them. Whoops
Suspected embezzlement at Indiana SRA. https://fox59.com/news/indycrime/in...lf-a-million-in-funds-hoping-for-prosecution/
Doing MLS Next Fest event ... I do a fair number of U13 matches for ECNL & MLS Next for the local clubs, never have much trouble. Today with U13s - Had a kid yell, "Did you see him ********ing foul me?" as AR. Had a kid hurl a ball into his opponent's face. Had a kid tell his opponent to "shut the ******** up." Had a kid yell at me, "You've got to be ********ing kidding me" after he didn't like a call. Had a coach tell me I ruined their game and cost them a first place match - this is after he was tossed during the match and returned post game to confront me. Had a GK kick a ball as hard as he could into a crowd of celebrating opponents. Had three parents (over 5 matches) behave poorly on the touchline and get tossed. What the is wrong with people? I heard more cursing from U13s today then in 6 months of U17-U19 matches. To be fair most of the coaches / parents / kids I interacted with across this event were fine, some of them very nice. But the outliers ... good grief. These are 12 year olds!
It's going on more than we know. It's just that these folks wee too stupid to leave a paper trail. If you've ever wondered why certain folks stick around in certain positions that are supposedly "volunteer" in the state office, now you know why. For the money we're all paying for the annual recert, does anyone know how much USSF gives to the respective state offices? Outside of non-publicized grants, that's all I can think of. If the amounts that USSF gives back to the state offices is substantial, it would explain the large amount since they have no significant expenditures since in-person training ended about 7 years ago.
USSF gets a fixed amount. The state association then decides how much they will charge. Sometime after I was SRA, we had a couple of people hired to shuffle paper, etc. for the SRC. They tried to get the SRC's funds. Somehow, they convinced the SRC that they needed to form a new organization as a 501(c)3 non-profit instead of a, I think, 501(c)4 which is specific to Olympic sport organizations. (I may have the code section wrong, but I'm too lazy on Sunday evening to go look it up.) They claimed that this would allow the SRC to accept donations. This was totally bull. No one ever donates money to an SRC. The new organization had different directors than the SRC! Now all of the registration fees etc. were going through this new organization. Unfortunately for them, the adult association's office manager figured out what they were trying to pull. The President of the adult association, a big firm lawyer, sent them a letter that said, in effect, you are trying to steal these funds, so get lost. They accused the adult association officer manager of fraud for something unrelated to refereeing, but that didn't go anywhere. Under the USSF by-laws and regulations, the SRC has certain specified members and only one of them was on the board of their new organization. They are now gone and the SRA that was there is also gone. But it was a close call.
In youth sports, you have a Treasurer who maintains the books where his/her checks usually need a second signature. When I ran a large youth soccer program, we had a CPA who went through our books and did all necessary reporting. Who is handling the finances for each state? I only hear the titles "SYRA", "SRA", "Director of Development" and "Secretary". Even in the mob, there is more transparency of what goes on behind-the-scenes.
The U13s and U14s have been at a different field complex than the U15-U19s. At the older age groups' complex, things have actually been pretty smooth and professional from what I've seen.