http://www.npsl.com/21546/?fbclid=IwAR2lE3SRsmljGwhmC-iw8-HvJn1RJcgBE04jkZ4NxJ68CIMPCRqjjWiq3wA NPSL is proud to announce the 2023 NPSL Referees of the Year. The honorees include Devlin Creighton (West Region), Steven Shidla (Midwest Region), Casie Anderson (South Region), and Balvir Cabrera Garcia (East Region).
made a big mistake today, my first game of the HS season. Went to my gym for my regular 6:00am workout. Its CrossFit, so some weightlifting, some gymnastics, etc. Workout usually doesn't go more than 10-20 minutes. Usually doesn't hurt if I have to do games. No, today's WOD was "Four-mile run for time". Not usually a problem, except my game today was at 10:00am (schools don't actually start class until next week). Luckily it was a JV game and only ended up being an additional 3.25 miles. Been shoving calories into me since I finally got to work at noon. In pre-game, I was talking to one of the coaches. I find out his father and I started at the same job on the same day almost 30 years ago, before he was born. His dad was at the game. I ended up catching up with him in the parking lot for 15 minutes after the game.
First actual high school varsity game of the season with white playing purple and using a dual system. White player has the ball in the center of the field but closer to the goal that his team is attacking. He is tripped by a purple player, but he maintains control of the and continues to dribble down the field. Both my partner and I yell and signal,"Play-on!" at the same time. The player goes on to score. Over our mics, we both say, "That was awesome."
Cortisone shot in the foot this morning. Now I'm really ready for the season (both refereeing and playing).
A junior college an hour and a half away was hosting a big HS water polo event today for schools that are quite a distance away so they can knock out a handful of leagues games on a Saturday to avoid traveling a long distance on weekdays. 7 total varsity games 1030A first game, 430P last game, 7 total hours. $104 per game. That's how you do it. Soccer you would need what, 14 hours to get 7 games?
Physically yes but water polo is extremely mentally taxing. I actually feel more tired after a 4 game HS WP set (boys and girls JV and var) that's over the same timeframe as two JV-varsity soccer games because of the mental strain. Although surprisingly there is a bit of a physical aspect that comes from standing on a cement pool deck under the sun for hours especially when you have the glare from the water that you have to stare into, although sunglasses are fine to wear. It's not cardiovascularly physically demanding like soccer but there is something physical there. It might just be because I'm still new and this sport is so hard
I had the honor to be selected into the referee academy at Austin Labor Day Cup run by Ismail Elfath with Kyle Atkins, Corey Parker, and Carol Anne Chenard. It was oppressively hot and I felt bad for them. They don't do day time games any more and CA spent all of Canadian summer in Sydney winter. I didn't get any feedback on things I should do differently, so that's good. I did get tips on what I should be thinking on the many counter attacks I saw (eg "yellow - distance", "red - DOGSO" etc). The theory sessions were good too and they even had AR specific instruction!
Our HS water polo region has rule where if a coach receives a yellow card (same reason as soccer), they have to remain seated for the rest of the game except for timeouts and end of quarter/half. Can you imagine how much better the soccer environment would be if this rule was instituted? Imagine a coach having to remain seated for the rest of the game except for halftime. Having to yell from the bench 60 yards across the field, can't point because they're too far away. I imagine that their job as a coach would become so much harder that they would do anything they could to avoid facing that fate.
Smaller playing areas makes this a lot different in water polo than soccer. I'm not against it, but I'd image it takes a lot more away from the coach trying to deal with 100+ yards as opposed to what ever the pool is (or a basketball court.) I did have a coach though who sat in a chair the entire game. He only got up at half time to talk to the players on the field. "I coached them during the week. Now is their time to play." He'd still handle subs and talk to players on the sideline. Now, that doesn't mean he didn't get in trouble with the referee. One game the fans/parents, on the same side as him, were yelling at the referee constantly. She finally came over and talked to him as he sat in his chair 10 yards down the line from the fans. She told him to control the fans or he'd get a yellow card. The response was "But they are right." (it was only thing he said to or about the referee the entire game). She was not pleased with the response.
I dunno. I think it might be doing most of them a favor. . . .they aren’t having half the positive impact on the game by yelling that they think they are
But that’s exactly why it would be great for soccer. The culture of constant dissent could potentially be eliminated if the coach knows he can’t stand up for half an hour if he criticizes the ref too much and his coaching ability gets severely degraded
I know in reality they probably had a good time, but in my head it’s funny imagining Ish dragging his crew out to burning hot Austin during their rare weekend off after just getting back from a Los-Angeles-to-Riyadh trip. These guys don’t stop!
I used to bring my own chair and a notebook to every game I coached on purpose as a means to prevent me from specifically yelling instructions to the field to my team and/or complain to referees.
My point really was that the impact would be much different due to the size of the playing area. Taking away the 'coaching ability' is something I'm fine with regardless of having to sit or not. They rarely help as socal lurker points out as well.
Of course this is true, but it’s the PERCEPTION that their coaching “ability” is being taken from them is enough of a threat to make them not dissent to begin with. Yes in water polo when a coach has to sit down, functionally it doesn’t have a huge effect because they are close enough to play to easily be heard and pointing makes sense. But in soccer I think the perception would be strong enough to make them think twice
This was coached to me a long time ago that coaches were only suppose to have one person from their TA up and giving instruction. When they are finished giving instruction they're suppose to sit down. I don't normally do a lot of youth anymore so not sure if this is not a common practice. It's also a lot harder to enforce when you have 3-man system versus a 4-man system.
A really timid ref once had to give my school's headmaster / C team girls basketball coach a technical foul because he forgot he was supposed to stay seated -- I *think* at all times. He was a mild-mannered guy who simply forgot the rule. Took full responsibility for it. Good guy.
IIRC, HS basketball for a while didn’t let coaches stand. I believe that was replaced with the rule that you lost the right to stand if you got a tech. And I believe assistants were prohibited from standing to coach. I believe my sons JV coach got his first and second techs of his career in the same game. After getting the first, he forgot he wasn’t supposed to be standing and got the second (which is an ejection, and I believe in their league was a one-game suspension, too).
ECNL/Girls Academy weekend along with a LOT of lower-level matches today at a complex in our area, and we had two mentors (including myself) at the fields. Our senior mentor focused on the higher level games, while I took the lower-level games. My son centered his first game in over a year (playing schedule and recovery from a meniscus tear), and his middle was a solo U12G game. At the start of the game, the coaches knew that offside would be called if obvious, but that was it. He did pretty well overall, and nailed a deliberate play offside reset that led to an attacking goal. Player clearly shanked a slow-moving ball that went to a player behind her. Defender's coach could not believe that it was not an offside. As I was coming over at halftime to mentor, I hear this conversation. Son: "Your player shanked it. That's a deliberate play, and it's not offside." Coach: "So you're telling me that if my player had just let the ball go past her, it would have been offside?" Son: "Yes, that's right. She deliberately played it. It doesn't matter that the ball went behind her." After the game, the other mentor and our SRA (his son was playing in a different game) met my son and me. My son recapped the situation and ended it with, "I don't understand coaches sometimes. They can be idiots!" SRA after a few seconds pause: "Checks out." We were able to mentor close to 15 different officials between the two of us. I tried very hard to at least take a couple of minutes with each official to identify one good thing and one thing to improve on for the rest of the day. I hope we can continue doing this, but it's always tough with our own on-field demands and an officiating shortage. Many of the ECNL and GA coaches who traveled were also appreciative of the efforts to be there for the officials as well.