Best Story of the WEEK 2021

How embarrassing. They didn't put in a change order for different weather?!

 

Only because the topic about weather has been started, I want to say something about tournaments/assigners/referee shortages.

We hit 112 degrees in Portland yesterday. It was 90 degrees before 10am and 100 degrees by noon.

The local summer tournament altered its schedule ahead of the heat to complete games by 2 or 3 pm. Still, the entire slate of games on Sunday were cancelled specifically due to the referee shortage. The message from the assigner? "We just need more referees."

Tournaments/clubs need to understand that in a tighter labor market, you need to be creating working conditions people want to work in. You need to be offering wages that are competitive (not the same wages you've been offering for close to a decade). You need to deal with the shitty parents and coaches, the long commutes to games, and the breakneck schedule of these tournaments. The weather won't cooperate, and yes that's out of your control, but I will respect a tournament that cancels games to respect referees/players over one that pushes ahead. Cancelling because the referee shortage and not because of the unsafe working/playing conditions is an example of poor treatment.

Instead of saying "We need more referees," the question should be "how do we make choosing to referee more enticing than the alternative?" Because I don't see that happening enough.

So to stay on topic, the best story of my week is that I didn't referee and instead I took my 10 month old pup to the beach for his first time, and he made so many friends and gained a lot of confidence playing in the water! Best part was, temperatures topped out in the 80s on the water.

 

The Surf Cup used to rent field from the Polo Grounds (horses). They were required to run a reverse diagonal the 2nd week of play to avoid destroying the grass too much. I always found it funny that the horses running on the pitches apparently did less damage than the ARs.

 

Maybe I have a super power, but I would've noticed this right away. If you can't notice this until well into the game, maybe it's the wrong job.

 

You never know. I was AR on a GHS freshman game and noticed that the keeper on my end wasn’t wearing either socks or shin guards. I’d like to say I caught it immediately, but I know it was after the opening whistle. I was waving my flag while play was at the other end and the referee was positive I’d lost my mind.

 

The assignor isn't technically incorrect, but he missed a golden opportunity to perhaps change the context of the discussion.

By simply saying "We need more referees", the uneducated masses will once again blame those terrible referees who don't want to be out in the heat too much while the kids are playing.

What the assignor should have said was something like this.

"We are canceling games out of an abundance of caution for our referees. Because of poor behavior of parents and coaches, our referee numbers have steadily decreased over the years. Our referees work extended schedules because of these shortages, working more games in a day than the kids play. We will not subject our referees to extended periods in these dangerous weather conditions.

Referees are a vital part of the game. We need them in order for your children to be able to play in a safe environment. We urge everyone to review how our officials are treated so they can work in a respectful, professional environment. We also encourage players, coaches, and parents to explore becoming a certified official."

I know it's not perfect, but something like that may make people realize what is driving referees away from the game (or more likely not, but at least the assignor can say he/she did a part to help raise visiblity for why these games were cancelled).

 

@RefIADad Yes AND address the pay issue. $40 for a U19 center - which you might be doing solo - (even if is is 2x30') is laughable.

 

When we suspended competition at the Olympic Trials before the men's long jump final started, some of the athletes wanted to just jump anyway. They were told that the suspension was going to protect the officials more than the athletes, so they backed off. While we had rakers (actually, broomers) in their 30's and 40's, the rest of us, even if seated, were going to have to sit out there for almost three hours.

 

That picture makes me glad that we are on turf for Midwest Regional Championships in St Louis.

 

I'm not afraid to use them as well. I always find at least 2-3 times per season when I voluntarily run a reverse. It's usually during JV matches or younger club games where I'm not going to end the world if I am in a poor position from running a right. I've had two instances in semi-important games where I ran a right.

1) 2020 Regional ODP event in Memphis. We had some pretty wet weather, and the regular AR lines were muddy. I told my ARs we were running a right for the game. They were very grateful.

2) 2005 or 2006, first round substate matchup. We are playing on a traditional football field that's about 55 yards wide. If I run a left, AR1 has to run along an asphalt long jump running lane. No bueno at all. We ran a right.

 

I was once forced into an unplanned reverse diagonal when I was getting my maintenance assessment. Men's open first division, largely Hispanic team v. mostly white bread team. The guy who was supposed to be AR1 (and who happened to also be the league's assignor!) apparently decided to switch himself to AR2, without having actually informed myself or the other AR. After we shook hands and the AR's went to check the nets, he turned left, instead of right. I realize that both AR's are now on the same side of the field. I went over to him and said, basically, 'what are you doing on this side of the field?' He gave me some explanation about how the teams weren't happy with him because of some issue with player registrations, so he didn't want to be on that side of the field, yahdah, yahda, yahda.. He then tells the other AR to go to the other side of the field. Being an obedient young man, he headed straight across the field. So now we're in the right position for an opposite hand diagonal. The teams are all out there and looking impatient while us referees are trying to sort out our referee stuff. I made the immediate decision to just go with the opposite hand diagonal. About a minute and a half later, I made eye contact with him and he gave me the look that said "I screwed up, didn't I?"

Afterwards, the assessor's first question was to ask why I ran an opposite hand diagonal. The culprit (who has a Ph.D. in some medical field) spoke up quickly and said, "I was just testing his cognitive flexibility." I passed with flying colors.

 

Was that in Greenville, SC? I saw a BUNCH of pictures from that tournament and didn't see anything close to that.

 

We had a high school tournament where the lines were trashed. One of the crews tried a reverse diagonal. One of the ARs couldn’t figure it out. After twice finding himself with two ARs on one end of the field he gave up.

 

I mean, really, it isn't that hard . . . I used to do it with newbie AYSO volunteer refs in 10U games, as we had a field that had a small tree about a foot off the touchline on one side.

 

Man that men's 1500m final was super entertaining. I started following track over COVID as I've been incorporating more middle-distance style training for my referee career. Very cool that you were there.

Additionally, in re: reverse diagonals. I once received a well-deserved caution for dissent when I was playing college soccer for telling a ref that he was missing clear misconduct by running an unnecessary reverse diagonal. I wasn't wrong, but it was still dissent .

To offer up a best story of my week, I received feedback earlier today on a formal assessment that made me smile. The criticisms and areas for improvement sections of the assessment report were relatively sparse and the score was the highest I received since 2017 (and that 2017 assessment score was realistically too generous). I've walked off the field thinking I had a good game and have failed assessments in the past, so it's nice when you feel like you had a good game and see that reflected in the assessment report/score.

 

I only had four games as reverse diagonals. Two high school games in one day, and two USSF games in one day. As much rain as we got, we had more cancellations, 21, than we had games on wet fields.

Edited to add: That's $832 worth of cancelled games. Looks like we won't be spending as much on vacation this year.

 

As AR, I've suggested multiple times on both USSF youth and HS games to run a reverse diagonal because of mud trenches or a really nasty angle on the evening sun. Never got a single crew to agree - either the other AR refused and/or the CR said they'd get confused.

 

Had a low-level HSBV game two years ago, dual, About 30' into the 1st, GK at other end goes down. Neither R1 nor I had noticed he didn't have shinguards on until he was already off the field and we checked on his status at halftime. Maybe it was his stocky build or something. I usually catch it but not that time - i was never close enough to him to look. But, I'm not really surprised that particular R1 missed it.

This past reason, HSGV second round playoff game, I'm up in the pressbox and saw a player I used to coach in club sub in and could immediately see she'd forgotten her shinguards. I text coaches I know on both teams to tell them to get her off the field before she breaks a leg. But some of her club teammates playing for the other school also notice and start hollering at her... which the CR hears and has to card her coach - his first and only YC all season.

 

I have had some success with "Coach, do you want to remove #5 from the game briefly to verify that his necklace is religious or medical in nature?"

 

*AR* couldn't figure it out? I'm not sure how difficult that is to figure out. CR certainly can get confused, but the AR?

 

I'm now back from Southern Regional Championships. I was really hoping to be selected as a top referee or AR but wasn't. After talking with my wife and thinking about it, I feel much better.
Overall I did 10 games; 2 centers, 6 ARs, and 2 4O.
Day 1: I was at the secondary complex doing 2 ARs. I got the single best piece of feedback as an AR I've ever gotten. I frequently would get feedback that I was slow transitioning into a fast attack but never got good direction on how to fix it. A National/PRO coach told me that when I look at the play, I relax, so I'm not ready to move. When I look at play, I should be looking to be able to focus on my job, aka look at play to see if I need to be ready to transition into attack.
Day 2: At the main complex I did an AR and center. During AR the same coach said I did a great job getting to the goal line before an in-out decision needed to be made. I applied the previous feedback and felt much better about my game.
Day 3: Rain pushed through overnight and the first time slot moved from 7:45 to 11:45 and the last game was at 10 PM. I was on the first slot for a center that I felt gassed during and the coach noticed. At 4:30 PM it is announced that games starting at 7 or later won't be played because it has been raining on and off all day resulting in some fields looking like the previous picture. I get to our field for a 6:15 kick off and there are a couple of guys with 4 foot wide rollers pushing water off the field at one end, but at least I'm 4th. One of the coaches is a handful and won't stay in his technical area. In his defense, the tent was at least 2 feet in front of the technical area line. Finally AR1 almost runs him over after multiple times of asking him to back up so I give the coach his official warning. "There is no space! I'm just doing my job!" "He [pointing at AR1] needs to do his job too." "Fine! I'll just sit here. [sits on bench pouting]" I walked away thinking, "Perfect, have a tantrum while sitting in the technical area on the bench."
Day 4: The schedule gets compressed a little bit to play some of the quarterfinals and the group stage games that didn't get played the night before. I was surprised to be assigned two quarterfinal matches as AR1. Unfortunately, when we got out there we were informed by the tournament that in order to protect the fields, specifically the AR touchlines, we were required to run a reverse diagonal. The ref coaches were all told that positioning feedback for referees should be ignored. I only signaled with the wrong hand 3 times and got rave reviews for my staying with the offside line that jumped around inside the goal area as the keeper came out, there was a shot straight down off the crossbar, a muffed clearance, and another shot.
Day 5: It is announced the night before that the games are all being moved do different locations due to pending rain and field conditions and my standby was taken away so thankfully I didn't have any assignments considering how far away the games were.

Day 6: I worked a semifinal, U19 G, as AR1. It ended up not being competitive but I still got good reviews for not letting off and keeping focus on play
Day 7: I got assigned a 4O on the U16 B final. The center broke out beepers and comms. I clipped the PPT button to my under shirt collar. One of the ARs, who is 6 inches shorter than me asked why I didn't put it on my belt. I looked him dead in the eye and said, "I'm too tall for it to reach all the way down and back up." The game was between two Hispanic teams. The center told the ARs that he didn't speak Spanish and to let him know if someone was insulting him. The game was end to end and he was working hard to keep with play. Then with 10 minutes left the coach up 2-0 gave some tactical instruction in Spanish to his team and I got to be the one to inform the center that the coach just told his players to control the ball and send it long. He was not pleased.

I grew a lot as a referee and was told by the same national coach that he could see me choosing to be an AR when the time comes to pick a track if I'm open to it. It might be the nicest thing I've heard him tell a referee.

 

@Dayton Ref Awesome recap. With 10 games and only 2 centers... sometimes I think people assign games where they see you being rather than performance but an "intuition". How can they judge with only 2 centers? Anyway.. glad you had fun!

 

I unintentionally ran a reverse diagonal on Sunday. It was a U13 game and both my ARs were inexperienced. After giving them instructions, they both went to the sidelines and I started the game. For the longest time, I couldn't figure out why I kept ending right next to them, then I realized that they had both gone to the "wrong" side of the field. It took awhile for me to adjust.