If you know the numbers of the players on the back line but don’t know which player kept an attacker onside, you just say the number of one of the players if the coach asks. They might yell at the wrong player, but they’ll stop yelling at you.
I've had some wild assignor stories. 1. UPSL assignor assigns a premier playoff match 4 days before KO with all grassroots crew. He no longer assigns that division. 2. Second UPSL assignor assigns the same 3-5 people every match including himself as the CR on the first season assigning that club ... for their playoff match. 3. The same assignor then assigns a referee the following season after he forgot to red card a player (2CT a la Graham Poll). He no longer assigns in the UPSL. 4. National Assignor assigning their Regional Emeritus buddies 3 USL2 whistles despite other Regionals in the other needing them for evaluations/practice/etc. 5. Assignors assigning non licensed referees 6. Assignors assigning themselves the top U19 games weekly in the middle and then their son. The list goes on. I assign myself but I would never think about pulling the crap they pull.
A friend told me how, back in the day, a college assignor would assign himself with a married female referee. The game involved overnight travel. He booked one room. When she, later, decided to stop cheating with the assignor, he stopped assigning her to any games. I once heard of someone in another state who became an assignor because he wanted access to the list of referees. He wasn't actually assigning any soccer games and had no interest in doing so. He was an insurance salesman and figured that teenage referees were driving themselves to their games so he could sell them car insurance. The state stopped giving out the referee list to assignors unless they actually were assigning a USSF affiliated league or tournament.
High school soccer is a joke, none of the ridiculous stories that get posted here about what happens in the games or with assignors/schools even surprise me. Not soccer related but HS sport related, the girls lacrosse season is in the playoffs now and the assignor had to send out an email reminding refs about professionalism when talking about players and only referring to them by their school name and number, not by their appearance or any physical characteristics. I remember this email also got sent out last year or two for HS water polo regarding the girls players in particular as well. I don't know what the hell is going on with the referees here being a bunch of creeps. I gather it's because so many of them are old guys who probably interact with and talk about the girls like they did when they were in high school themselves back in the 1970s when girls were treated like crap, it's crazy.
HS Soccer is less than 1% of my experience and hesitate to say negative things since it appears many here also NFHS referees (and enjoy doing the games) but I could be doing this another 30 years and still wouldn't understand the culture. I can't speak for the whole state but only for the 30 mile radius around me and the folks I speak with. What I described yesterday is normal behavior here. One of my partners last year gave a double-straight red card and then proceeds to pull both coaches together after the match and tell them "There was only 10 minutes left in the game and I didn't want any more issues....I'm am not going to report the red, ok". The coaches didn't look surprised at all. I've only seen something like this happen in a USSF sanctioned event once.
TWIAVBP. I've never, not once, heard of a case of a HS referee in my area/group agreeing to not report a DQ. I've heard stories set elsewhere, but they feel apocryphal. If a coach approached me after the game to try to lobby me to downgrade a red, I'd shut it down and suggest that if the coach continued in that line, I'd be obligated to include those details in my game report. I have had USSF coaches (mostly adult amateur) lobby to get me to not report a red. I have that same conversation. Stop now or it will go in the match report. Pretty much every game I do is recorded/streamed. There's a record of me issuing that card.
Do you think this attitude about red cards stems from NFHS not understanding (or understanding but really crafting rules with nuance) that a red card does not automatically equal foul play/bad play/bad kid? I can't recall if it was this thread or another but when everyone was talking about the gravity with which schools, AD's and NFHS treats reds, that maybe they didn't understand that not all red cards are treated equal? Or maybe that is my perception and it is wrong? A second yellow for a SPA or DTR or something "tactical" after a UB or vice versa that results in a red and sending off, is not the same (again in my mind) as a straight red for VC or dissent or saying the magic words. Similar to a technical foul in basketball for subbing into the game without checking in versus pushing a player violently. "In the book" they both are scored the same but how you got there is a different matter entirely.
1) My first-ever assignor years ago got canned by the club league he assigned in and then proceeded to hack into their website and delete assignments. After a lawsuit was filed against him, the daughters proceed to email the referees with a bunch of nonsense. A great way to get introduced to officiating. 2) Just last week I was in my neighboring state for a rare night game where on the adjacent field, the local assignor gives himself a U17 EDP match where he's standing at midfield for most of the match and one of the AR's did not complete his certification and using a fake badge. At least two of the regular posters here will be familiar with the area I'm referring to. Some things never change.
I did HS for a year. Scheduling was tough with 3:00 starts not close to me and a day job. I would not have considered for a second not reporting a red, and never had any sense anyone would. I find the whole possibility utterly bizarre. (But we did not report cautions at all to anyone.)
I believe the guys who've been doing NFHS matches much longer than me would do a better job explaining this. A double-yellow is not reported. My understanding is that a teen serves a mandatory two-game suspension regardless of what the red card is for. I'm sure we'll agree there's a gigantic difference for a DOGO than there is for SFP or VC. I will have to go with the assumption that they don't want to understand the difference and it's easier for them to give the same suspension for all involved. As a result, referees ignore clear DOGSO offenses and simply award a yellow card or worse...they don't whistle the foul.
First, "NFHS" has nothing to do with how red cards are handled after the game. The big "F" stands for federation and NFHS is very conscious that they are an organization made up of the member state associations. How ejections are handled after the game is the job of the state association. Each state has their own policies about ejections, other forms of misconduct, etc. Second, like the rest of us, I have read the reports on here of red cards being given but not reported. We do have a tendency to think that all "high school" is just the same as what we've experienced in our local area. YMMV. There certainly is variation amongst the states in how much soccer knowledge the state administrators have. I have the advantage in my state that the Executive Director of the state association played soccer when he was in high school. I refereed a couple of his games. Finally, I have never been solicited to not report a card of either color. We have repeatedly told referees that you must report all cards. If you decided afterwards that you were wrong about giving the card or the color of the card you put that in your game report. IIRC, we had a high school referee some years ago now who was caught not reporting a red card. I think the school called the assignor to appeal the red card and there was no red card on the game report. The referee's certification was then cancelled.
That sounds like a good way to get a whole town or school's worth of people after you with torches and pitchforks. I, personally, think the mandatory sit-out for a yellow is rather silly. Again, we know here, not all yellows are because some kid is too aggressive, late tackles, or dissent. A tactical foul or a little gamesmanship of delay is part of the game and carries, in my estimation, sufficient punishment via the card. Maybe NFHS doesn't get that a card is actual punishment and not just a signal of wrongdoing. Playing "on a card" changes (or should change) how you play (provided you care about not getting the second yellow).
I believe you mean red card and not yellow? There is no yellow card accumulation (at least here). There was a post here a year ago that another part of our state started to informally track yellow cards and don't recall what the punishment was for a certain number achieved, but it's nothing professional such as reporting offenses online on Kitman Labs, Assignr or Usofficials.
This is one of the few differences in USSF and NFHS I am good with. I understood it once I became a high school referee. In club/academy soccer, if a coach knows their kid is hot-headed and needs a "cooling off", they will substitute them immediately and talk to them to avoid a second yellow. At the bare minimum, they'll keep the player on the field but tell him to be smart. A HS coach simply won't do it and that's ONE of the reasons you have the mandatory rule. If someone disagrees here, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
In my area of Upstate New York, there is yellow card accumulation. It is supposed to be that a player is suspended for accumulating 5 yellow cards in a season. However, the schools are supposed to self report the yellow cards. The referees report all red cards and the reason for red cards to our assignor who contacts that school's AD and the local section office.
At the beginning of the club season, you know who the pains in the asses are real quick. When they get a yellow, the automatically do the school thing and run off the field and you have to remind them this is not school.
I agree - but using my son during his HS career as an example, his coach handled yellow cards differently depending on the situation as well. A yellow for dissent? Sit down and cool off. A yellow for SPA? Most of the time, he would go directly back to the center line for check in at the next substitution chance. There is no requirement for a player to sit out any length of time - they just need to sub out and can go right back in at the next opportunity.
That first 90 minute match at 2 PM after a long season of 80 minute 7PM kickoffs is brutal for them. I swear that half the time it was on the first day that it hit 80.
I agree with you where in my experience, 60% of the times the players are ready to be subbed at the next stoppage, which might be as short as 30 seconds for the next throw-in. For a high school player, that's all they need for a coach to say "chill". I'm ok with the mandatory substitution outside of dissent for reckless plays as well. In many cases, no matter how good your man management skills are, they need to hear it from their coach to play under control or they're on the path to getting tossed.
I often comment how club players have very little fitness. After many weeks of cold, cool, snow, rain game days, we are due for high 70's this weekend. Players will be squashed down by minute 70 this weekend, especially those leagues with their limited sub policy. Also, at this late stage of the season/school year, older teams only seem to have 12-13 players maximum anyway.
Referee under police surveillance after dramatic Celtic penalty call - ESPN Beaton's decision to penalise Motherwell midfielder Sam Nicholson for handball in a stoppage-time VAR review allowed Celtic to cut the gap on Premiership leaders Hearts to one point ahead of Saturday's title decider.
good...throw the book at him: Man, 19, arrested after Scottish referee John Beaton’s details leaked online - Yahoo Sports
The SFA’a statement [emphasis mine]: Strong words. It really must be said that the media environment is not responsible. They try to drive engagement and that’s it. And it’s a shame that there are some formal top-level match officials who engage in this nonsense as well.