Finally got COVID-19. Got it Monday with symptoms (headache, nausea, stomach ache) starting last Sunday. Gosh. This just stinks. I've already missed 1.5 days of work.. looking at missing Wednesday, too.
First friendly of the fall season (and first game I've done in six weeks since I had to fill in at the last minute on an NPSL game). U15B with an MLS Next team vs an ECNL team. Definitely better quality of play than anything else I've done at that age group. Game went okay for the most part. But the one play I want back came on a FK just outside the 18. It was borderline SPA, attacker got squeezed in between two defenders and fouled by one of them, but I decide not to give a yellow. Attacking team (white) doesn't appear to be in any rush to take the kick. Defending team (navy) has a wall about two yards from the ball. So I'm assuming we are having a ceremonial restart and I say wait for the whistle and point to the whistle. A few seconds later white plays it short out to the wing and starts dribbling toward goal. "We never asked for ten!" Well, shucks, I guess you didn't. I think I'm usually aware of a team looking for a quick free kick, but I wasn't anticipating that one. (Oh, and did I mention it was 90 degrees, heat index around 100, and I had two more games after that one?)
It doesn’t matter. Once you become involved, it is now a ceremonial restart. Lesson learned. Move on to the next one.
Joaquin Sample Coach Mike Hickmon. Yesterday, he was shot and killed at a 9U game in Texas. He was shot because some adults were mad at a referee, got into an altercation, and one of them pulled his gun and killed Coach Hickman. High School and Middle School Football starts this week. Travel and park ball is in full swing as well. Before you walk into that stadium or park, I need you to say the following words: IT AIN'T THAT SERIOUS Your son is going to do some good things and some bad things. Your son's Coach is going to make some great calls and some questionable calls. The referees are going to throw flags for penalties that you don't see, and keep their flags in their pockets for things you think are pretty obvious. Despite all that.... IT AIN'T THAT SERIOUS I promise you, the entire experience will be better if you commit to screaming as loud as you can when your team or son does something great, and being as encouraging as possible when the opposite happens. Praying for all my coaching friends as they embark on their season Mike Hickmon: How a 43 year old Coach was gunned down following an argument between parents» GhLinks.com.gh™
A referee I know got me into trying refereeing for high school water polo. I have never even watched a second of a single water polo match in my life and my first scrimmages are tomorrow. All I have is the rule book and a few foul clips I watched online. This is gonna be so bad I can't wait.
With any luck, it will be like refereeing lacrosse, meaning none of the parents know the rules either, so there will be a lot less arguing (at least from parents).
This was quite a traumatizing experience. They tried to have me whistle a quarter in a boys JV match first and it was basically like watching a U8 rec game, just mass of humanity splashing about, I had no idea what was going on. Reading the rule book did nothing to help me in actual game action and any mechanics or anything went out the window. Requested to just watch the rest of the games (JV/V B and JV/V girls) and learned a decent amount, but learning anything from absolute zero is "a decent amount". I probably felt like how youth refs feel in their first soccer game, except for water polo I had no idea what the hell to even look for, at least people who start reffing the major sports have some idea of what they are looking at. The very experienced ref who was training us even told me that this game is really hard to referee if you've never played. Never played? I've literally never even watched a second of it before today.
Well, we're into it now! Yesterday was the first day permitted for high school games in Oregon, some regular games, some 'jamborees.' My assignments were to a jamboree, three 30 minute games, amongst three teams. A total of one goal scored amongst the three games. One first year coach didn't know that he needed a roster. The first game had three injuries in just 30 minutes, one the back of a head hitting the turf. Ninety three degrees and that's the air temp, not the temperature on the turf. We did water breaks in all three games, running clock. Elsewhere, a coach who had two players with possible concussions took the team off the field after the second one, blaming the referees. That is a HUGE sportsmanship violation under our state's policies, but that's for higher ups to deal with. And in a JV girls game, the home team's coach got cautioned for a player with ear rings and, a few minutes later, one of their players got cautioned for a bracelet. I mean, how hard is it for the coach to tell the players, "I don't want to see any jewelry out there" before the first game?
Ten years ago was asked to do a men's college club game. The local team arranged the officials. Supposed to be a 3-man crew. Showed up, no other officials. They'd apparently cancelled at the last minute. The (much larger) university they're playing drove 4 hours for the game (college club, so no money to fly or anything like that) and both teams ask me to please do it solo. Stupidly, after emphasizing to both coaches and captains that I'm not going to call any OS if it's remotely close, and suggest that without ARs I may miss something, I agree. I recruit a couple of likely club assistants and ask them to help/indicate only with flag up if the ball is completely over the touchline. I'm sitting behind the home team bench tying my shoelaces before the game when I hear a couple of players describing to each other how they "fool" referees with hidden shirt pulls, etc... So it's going to be one of those games already. The home team from the local college is horrible. They're outclassed, and they demonstrate it with stupid fouls. And of course, both teams are 15 years younger and faster than I am, so while I'm doing pretty good by predicting where the play is going, any big boot I'm sprinting to catch up. And of course, everything close to OS, both sets of fans are complaining about, but I'm not going to call something within a foot when I'm not lined up where I can be sure either way. Three YCs later, middle of the second half, I'm just outside the PA, the ball is crossed from the left-side (about midway from the edge of the PA to the touchline) to the right-side of the PA before a defender can chase him down. I turn in anticipation to watch it land amidst the crowd of players, defender heads it out for a corner, and then everyone stops playing and is looking back across the pitch. The attacking team, which happened to be the home team, starts yelling for a foul and a card. I look back and the attacker who crossed the ball is on the ground and a defender is about 4 yards past him. Doesn't seem particularly hurt, just upset. To hear the home team tell it, long after the cross was played, well after the play, the defender caught up from behind and tripped him. According to the visitors, no contact, attacker tripped on his own and the defender avoided him. I haven't seen a thing. With ARs, they'd at least have a view across the field behind the play. I was in "good" position for the plays on the ball, but out of position to see the outside behind me when the play was inside the PA. I suspect there was most likely a foul, maybe even a YC-worthy one, but I tell the teams that sorry, I can't call what I didn't see and I don't have an AR to help. Game deteriorates further. Home team is already down 4-0 and now everything is a complaint and they're looking for trouble. 1 RC for SFP and 2 more YCs before I blow the final whistle. There was most likely a foul. In retrospect, maybe I should've called it, just based on the reactions and the slim evidence I had. But I hadn't seen it, so at the time I didn't call it. That may be the worst foul I didn't call. Still think about it at times to wonder if I did the right thing. I've since moved, but I doubt the home team would've wanted me to do another game for them, despite all my cautions about the issues in me doing it alone. They lost, probably I missed an obvious (if I was looking) call. But lesson learned: don't do college club games solo. Really, don't do higher-level/faster games solo. Just say no. Nothing good comes of it.
Tonight I did my first real water polo matches, a full fixture of boys and girls JV and varsity. JV games four 6 minute quarters, V games full 7 minute quarters. Made $250. While I definitely felt more confident calling things and didn't completely fall apart (my more senior partner helped a lot), the level of chaos and ambiguity in this sport is extremely frustrating. I have to say, I am happy to get back to the friendly confines of my soccer schedule this weekend which includes a U19B comp I will have to do dual due to a shortage, an adult rec solo center, a U17B comp CR, and a U17G comp CR among a few others.
Working a big tourney in SE PA. Game next to us we hear a ruckus gong on. After our game we talk to the crew and they gave a coach a 2nd yellow / red for dissent. Long story short - the coach was not on that teams roster (was just helping out another team in his club). And of course his next game was on our field and the tournament said he could coach because since he wasn't on the other roster he didn't really get a red card. Love the support.
If he's not registered with that team/on the roster, then he's not allowed to be on the sideline anywhere I've worked or coached. Prior game becomes irrelevant.
Not clear to me whether this guy was helping out *and* the only coach, but if he was solo and not registered, well, that game never happened.
That reminds me of a story….U17 girls game, I am a late arriving assistant referee coming from another site. Get there at 5-8 minutes before KO. Referee has another match someplace else and time is tight. He decides to drop from 45 to 35 minute halfs, and talks the coaches into it. Later the visiting team coach gets red carded for disputing the game losing penalty decision. (He was right!). The red carded coach then is unable to coach his other girls team in a State Cup match in the afternoon, which his team loses. They then protest the state cup result on the basis that the early game wasn’t a real game because of it’s length and the SYRA agrees!
A few leagues and tournaments around here allow certified coaches (even managers in a pinch) from the club assist with other teams when needed. Why stop the kids from playing because their usual coach is not there? In this instance though, another coach, or certified adult, should have been required to fill in for the red-carded coach. The fact he was allowed to stay is ridiculous.
No, children should not have fun. Joy is counter to what we referees strive for every game day. For no one to go away happy!
He was not solo on the first game, Just another coach on the sideline. The funny thing is half of our game cards didn't have any coaches or rosters listed on them. So how are we to know?
When I get handed player cards, the only thing I check is the name and number (quantity) of coaches. If there is one card and one coach, I've got a pretty big hammer. Also, FWIW, areound here a coach from the same club filling in at tournaments is not uncommon. I don't get why he is filling in as an assistant. But kinda hard to argue that he wasn't really there!