I hope this year finds us safely out on the fields again this year, and that the pandemic is a thing of the past. Hopefully this is true by April when the soccer seasons start in earnest in IOWA. Stay safe and Happy Reffing! And to repeat: Stay safe and Happy Reffing! For reference, the 2022 thread is at: Best Story 2022 | BigSoccer Forum
April? Aren't you gracing the great nation of Texas with your presence for some High School games? Those assignors are always earnest.
My daughter moved from San Antonio to Vermont, so my time in Texas is going to be limited. I did enjoy my refereeing days in Texas!
There is going to be an absolutely horrific rain + wind storm tomorrow and I got really nervous that my 5:30P and 7:30P HS games were still going to be going on. Couldn't even call the school because this week is last week of winter break. I cannot imagine the miserable horror those games would be, and didn't believe they would hold them with projected downpours and flooding but you never know. Games just got cancelled whooooooooooooooooooo
Best stories, I know, but the above post had me thinking of the worst rainstorm I ever refereed in. it was about 6 years ago, early Spring, about 45 degrees, and cloudy at the start of the match, and it was supposed to rain, so I was geared up for it. Five, six minutes in, the rain came in and quickly. And, the wind came with it. Sideways rain, and I was soaked on the line in no time. But, we were on turf, so the game went on. The team with the wind scored two goals off corners DIRECTLY. (It was a high level game, too). The wind had to be over 40 mph, and it rained for most of the game. i went on line that night, and bought the warmest waterproof gloves I could find, and I haven’t had to break them out once in 6 years.
My awful rain experience was a bit different. It wasn’t raining when we started a double header in short sleeves, and weren’t expecting it to be bad. By the second game, the temp had dropped dramatically, rain started pouring, and the wind started blowing. And in the second half, drenched through, I was at the end where very little was happening, so I spent most of my time standing still. Knucklehead coach who was loosing was whining it was taking too long for us to record goals—trying to write in a downpour with numb fingers. I probably actually had at least a minor case of hypothermia. Despite changing to dry clothes, I was still shivering in the car for the 45 minute drive home.
Referee'd my first game of the year of 2023. Gave a dissent caution to a captain of a team for complaining to me that his player was fouled. This captain was riding me most of the first half, spoke to him once. Then he continued 10 mins into the 2nd half with just nonsense. The final straw to me was this challenge. It was clear to me that there was zero contact. As I go to check on him, the captain is just yelling how its a foul and how can I not call it in the most public fashion. The cherry on the cake was that his own teammate was stretching him out because he was cramping in his calf (it was cold and wet during the match). I told the dissenting captain that his own player was cramping and here's your caution for all the malarkey. The captain goes "how do you know? are you certain?". I go "absolutely here is your card." Of course the score was 6-0 in the first half... Outside of that my first match of the season off to a good note. Took me about 55 mins to get my referee legs back. Side note** Finally got my assessments back EOY for 2023 registration and I got a 77 and 78! woooohooooo... Also surprised I passed 3 fitness tests last year, with one of them being the national test. here's to a strong 2023!
I've started planning my trips to get national assessments to be able to upgrade this summer. Why is Virginia so stacked with National Coaches (6)?
The plan is for at least 4, 1 here in Houston, 1 in Austin or San Antonio, and 2 out of state. The good news is that there is a local National Referee Coach so it is easier to get assessments from him and since I'm doing it as an AR, I can ask the assignor to put me on Saturday night assessment games (when he's most likely to be assessing). Hopefully I can get selected for Adult State Cup and get a free assessment there. The two out of state ones will probably be near where I grew up so I can crash with and borrow a car from my parents and in Ohio where I have friends from college and I lived for 2 months after making an account here... I'll also note that I got 3 last year, but all were with Texas - South Ref Coaches. If only 3 of them would finish their requirements... "The following individuals still need to complete the requirements and then will be added to the list. Until then, they are not registered for 2023. This list will be updated regularly." Comparing to an old list, 3 are in the 'not complete' section.
You can see a list online of what states have national ref coaches? Anyway, Alabama has 2 National Referee Coaches, with 1 of the coaches that was appointed to the 'Director of Referee Development'. Very exciting. Then, Alabama got a new SRA recently and both the newly-appointed State Director of Assessments and Director of Referee Development resigned. It was good too the SDA also assigned the adult league in Huntsville and it was easy to get assessments. Very unfortunate. I'll be heading out-of-state (probably to Memphis) to get my adult assessments done.
In the Learning Center, if you hover over "Info" at the top and click on "Resources", there is a wealth of information documented there. Alternatively on smaller screens there is a hamburger menu to click on in the top left corner. Page 4 has documents for 2023 National Assignors, National Referee Coaches, and National Officials.
When you factor in Maryland, it’s more like 8 ;-) Dittmar and Conlee are retired MLS/Pro ARs as is Fereday in Maryland. Also, DC gets lots of people who move to the area from elsewhere. Ed Marco moved from PA and Iwaizumi is a retired FIFA from Japan. DCV used to also have Brendan Barry who is a retired Irish Fifa and now based in FL. Chuck is simply a bad ass former National Ref who has been a National Coach for years. Roslund is a Maryland based former National and Mort is a national coach based in central VA.
Holy cow, thanks for sharing. There's a ton of material here that I wasn't aware of...and I thought I was somewhat computer savvy! Also, best of luck with your assessments!
I, finally, got around to summarizing my 2022 games. 92 total games. A big drop off from 2021, which, IIRC, was 136. However, due to 2020 Covid shutdowns, we had two high school seasons in 2021. 32 USSF, 48 high school, 12 college. All but two of the USSF were adult games. 34 referee, 24 duals, 43 AR, 1 4th. Total career game count stands at 3,543. I gave 28 cautions and three send offs. These include cards given by dual partners on high school games, all of which were, IMHO, fully justified i.e. i would have given one if they didn't. 20 cautions for UB, 5 for dissent, 2 for persistent infringement and one for incidental foul language. All three send offs were for violent conduct. Of these cards, only one, for dissent, went to a coach or bench personnel, specifically the trainer in a varsity girls game. That's 28 cautions in 58 games where I could give a card. Two of the send offs were in high school (both in a JV boys) and one in men's O-50. I also did six assessments and I was assessed once.
My 2022 was a tale of two seasons. 64 USSF games in the spring, 52 NFHS games in the spring. 29 USSF games in the fall, Of those only four state league games. One I requested of another assignor, and three where I filled in for another referee. This spring I am assigning a tournament a little smaller than the fall one. Plus U12-U14 state league games. Hopefully I won't have too much competition with the high school assignor.
NC adds at least five more and if you're in Southern Virginia, a trip down to Raleigh/Durham isn't too far.
HSGV game. I expected a mercy rule game that would be over at halftime. Not only did that come to fruition, but I was supposed to be an AR and the other one didn't show up, so it was a dual instead and I got an extra $22.50.
First games of the year yesterday morning. U16 (center) and U17 (AR) Girls Academy matches in our full-field indoor facility near Des Moines. Given I hadn't worked a match in five weeks, things went well. Definitely a bit sore as I haven't been running while starting a new fitness program (the cardio is more HIIT-based), so I know I need to get some more running in. Was able to head off a persistent yellow by noticing the same player coming through the back twice in 10 minutes, which is often something I don't do that well. So overall, good start to the year.
Had a few good interactions with a usual hothead varsity boys coach last night 1. looking down barrel of a potential dual, he agreed with me that CR+AR is a superior option to a dual. I’m really thinking of trying CR+AR instead of a dual on the next opportunity. But our third the CR got there anyway 2. CR gave YC to his player for slide from behind. He started yelling how “he got he ball”. I was standing right there so I said “hey coach, I have no opinion on the foul but if he calls a foul there he’s gotta give a yellow”, he immediately stops yelling and tells me “oh yeah I see the perspective, but I thought he got the ball”. I just said again “yeah, but you know if he calls a foul he’s gotta go yellow”, he says “yeah you’re right” and then all is calm The Lahozian method works
Now we just need Lahoz to travel to Tibet, find his enlightenment, come back and write a book and raise a new crop of referees with the "Lahozian Method."