A few years ago I performed civic duty unto the seventh generation and worked as part of a group in collaboration with our township for a new turfed field. HS has had turf forever but this one, in a municipal park, was a brand-new pinata. Sooo many people were aghast at the thought of children eating the rubber infill... Among the presentations we heard was a pitch for coconut husk-based infill, used at that time for things including AC Milan's practice venue. Pitch was that this was more sustainable, cooler, and less noxious than rubber, downside was longevity relative to rubber, especially in a zone of cold/wet weather.
They should have had a machine to groom the turf, smoothing all that out. Probably not enough budget, but even the handheld ones aren't too expensive. Even our local AYSO has one
I usually give a thumbs up as I am running up the line after a goal to emphasize that we have a good goal.
I have worked fields with coconut husk infill. I can't say if it's cooler or not. The fill was clearly different, both in color and texture - it was "sharp edged". No enough to cut/scratch, but noticeable.
I want to retract anything I have previously believed that a dual system is better than running a CR with a single AR. I do duals so rarely that I don't have to deal with them often, but holy crap are they terrible, just had to do one in a HS VB game today. Even with the ref I know who has experience, it still didn't go great. The worst part is having to reorient yourself to get in line with 2LD with dynamic play coming towards you and having to see both the offside line and fouls in the middle of the field. I had to run all the way across the field to my other ref's side to give a yellow that he wasn't going to give. Forget it
About turf fields and grooming. In all the years I have been in and around turf fields, I have never seen one groomed or cleaned. Some of them are filthy dirty.
its not something that happens before game day. My dad use to do maintenance for a school district and said that they do it when no one is going to be on it. they should also be watered down too often (which 90% of school districts don’t do). Bird poop, animal droppings, sweat, tears and other stuff stays on the top… lol
My son went to a Jesuit school. I was impressed when I saw them doing it, as my experience was always that fields were in need of having it done.
Some idiot used to let his little dog run around on the local high school turf field. I scooped up dog $#!+ before games multiple times.
Turf or not, that's a problem. My son's first ever center, he had to have the home coach remove a dead rat from the field.
Last night girls varsity. Team’s best player is aggressive. Gave YC for PI. Later on give opponents FK at midfield, she runs over to stand in front of the ball pretending to fix her shin guards/socks. I go to her and warn her about delaying the restart and to not pull that crap again. Takes a very slow throw in later where I had to give her the LETS GO but I let it go. A few minutes before the game is over ball goes out for their throw in, they leave it for her to come all the way across the field to take it, I’m already pissed. Hesitates for 3-4 throws then drops it to let another girl take it. Boom second yellow. Coach is distraught. Tell her I specifically warned her to not delay again and she pulls that after two warnings. Coach says she will report me, I thank her
Stop the clock, admonish her, and then put time back on the clock. The reverse-tragedy of NFHS is that we can reload the hourglass when needed, and this fits the bill.
Assignor called me asking what happened. I told him exactly what happened and that there were multiple parents filming the full game and they can feel free to look at the entire game to see how many clear warnings this player got. Yeah I always forget about the NFHS stopping the clock. I didn't do that, just treated it like a regular match. Have to remember that.
The only fault I see here is @soccerref69420 seems to brutally honest when discussing his matches where many cherry pick what to say about their own to make themselves look good. Stop the match after repeated verbal warnings? Why??? And then what? "Pretty please, umm...can you throw the ball now madam?". Yes, experienced referees can possibly avoid this situation with man management but after how many verbal warnings? For an adult Christmas Tournament, I issued a second caution in an indoor match. After the game, we had a civil conversation where the player admitted he never got a red card in any match in his career and felt that once he got the yellow card, it was out of the way and felt he could do anything at that point. It's the posters colleagues who let him down who refuse to issue second cautions and give constant "warnings" to avoid describing red cards in Referee Reports or standing out from the crowd by getting a call from the Athletic Director.
The OP of this chat @soccerref69420 had other options. He mentioned she was the best player, he mentioned he spoke to her once and she was on caution already. I think having a high soccer IQ the reason they’re having this person take a throw may be tactical (if she is really skilled) or it could be a delay tactic. Especially, if they’re winning or trying to hold onto a tie late in the match and they wanna run out the clock. his other option is to Stop the clock. Add more time (per his states rules), and public admonish; puts this back on the delaying team. It allows for the other team to look like the bad guy. Let’s both teams know this may be a tactic, he is aware, and defeats the purpose if they’re really trying to delay. It also allows him to manage the technical instead of sanctioning the technical. Granted none of us were at this match he was on. So we don’t know how public his talking to her for standing near the ball. But I’d wager by some of the reactions it wasn’t as public as a clock stopping, holding up the restart and allowing the player to get there and publicly acknowledging he is fully aware of the tactic. Then they wouldn’t try it to begin with… or maybe they would still anyways and they aren’t as smart as we give them credit. just my 2 cents
Like I said I didn’t make a big public display like stopping the clock and all that. I handled it like a regular game. Went to her when she was doing the fake fixing her socks crap, told her I know what she’s doing, cut it out. So clearly she took that as “ok I won’t stand in front of the ball fixing my socks anymore”. And having her take the throw in was clearly a delay tactic as they were up by one both times. I loudly called out her number and told her LET’S GO and then she threw it. Everyone knew who that player was, her PI, and what she was doing after. Then she does the most egregious act after two verbal warnings, yet another throw in delay attempt coming all the way over for no reason despite being verbally warned about that once, coming all the way over to take a throw, 3-4 fake throws, then drops it for someone else to take. Good bye, see ya.
A player crossing the field to take a throw it that doesn't take the throw in is guilty of DR. A player that has been warned twice shouldn't get more discretion. I feel like we talk quite a bit about bending the rules to make the HS game a bit more like the FIFA game. Letting this go would be a player continuing to get away with something because they haven't been punished before. We can always find a way to keep a player in the game, but from this description, I'd say the player earned her 2CT.
I've had 15 HS matches since January 1st. 4 CR, 6 duals, 5 ARs. 6 red cards (two given by me, four when I was AR). 1 DOGSO, 2 2CT, 3 abusive language (including one to a coach). And I've given three dissent yellows to coaches. The good news is that I feel a lot less bothered by this stuff than I did two or three years ago.
And to top it off, I had two more games today (JV/V boys) and the varsity game had a really silly DOGSO red by the GK.