How is everyone doing?

State of NJ sent the refs an mass email last week regarding tournaments next month with "significant social distancing guidelines". I'm sure the rules will be made-up minutes before kickoff.

No fees mentioned. I can't think of other profession or trade where there's a job offer but the salary is a top secret. If you dare to ask, the answer most likely will be "You should be doing it for the love of the game" , which is hypocritical since they're getting paid well to assign these matches".

The guy is gutless. He should have said, "Yeah, I F*cked up, my apologies" instead of the lame response he gave you. It's rare for folks to apologize for the indefensible nowadays. If you tell him he's wrong, that's probably the last time you're doing that tournament since he's the tourney director/assignor.

 

Maybe I'm not understanding, but how can a tournament director have the time to also referee games in the tournament? I've been a tournament director and there was no way I was going to be able to also referee games.

 

I’ve assigned and field marshalled large tournaments (80-100 games) and had to step in for the last game of the day when the walking wounded syndrome hit but that’s the only time and it’s only as a last resort and the last game. Assigning and directing together your entire time is spent making sure the right people are on the right field, tracking down game cards after and dealing with hot coaches. It’s a full time job.

 

I should have been more specific -- the incident was a regular league game.

 

In another forum I lamented that with all the fireworks my bed has been taken over by 4 Podencos and a Greyhound. Someone suggested I use a fan to calm them. My reply was, that as a former referee, I didn't have any. The many replies I received were not sympathetic!

 

For whatever it's worth, over 300 refs made themselves available for this event.

 

Refereeing my first games since early March this Wednesday evening! It's only 7v7 U12, but my fitness level is probably not high enough to handle anything above U14 at this point.

 

Get out and run, man! I'm running about six days a week, over various routes in my neighborhood, between 1.75 to almost 7 miles.

 

The NISOA running program has been very good to follow. I'm doing that along with one extra sprinting session. I'm starting Week 3 tonight if it doesn't storm. I did the last workout of Week 2 last night. It was a challenge!

https://nisoa.com/2020/06/01/nisoa-summer-physical-training-initiative/

 

something that stuck with me when Veronica Perez And Bob Evans were around and came to my state (yeah I’m that old). They focused on how we stay fit to be able to referee and train to referee the game. Not referee to stay fit. It made a world of difference and is now why I cycle, do track work, and go to a gym w/trainer 5x a week.

Of course Alan Black also said it depends where you wanna go and what you wanna do. Bc there will always be a place for you. Whether that be MLS or 800am youth matches.
Just my 2 cents.

 

Been back in action for a little over a week now, several adult league games solo (7v7 and 11v11) and have my first 3 man game tomorrow night.

Really feels nice to be back out there. It’s a little awkward and uncomfortable pregame, and to be honest I still second guess if it’s prudent for me to be doing these games, but once I’m out there I enjoy it.

But BOY am I rusty! I swear I can usually tell whose ball it is on throw-ins and corners just by the SPIN on the ball (don’t ask me how - its something between instinct, intuition and experience) but I noticed I’ve been slightly less decisive. Anyone else experiencing something similar?

 

Sounds like the beginning of every season for me.

 

Yeah, there's a place for everyone. The hard part is not the youth matches, honestly. There's plenty of people who are happy to do some local games, stay connected and be involved with the game while making a few bucks. Doing that is just enough to keep people motivated to run consistently so you don't feel like you're dying on the field.

The harder part is that weird range of "semi-pro" leagues like NPSL, UPSL, or USL League Two. You have to put some significant work to get to and stay at that level. But most of the people putting in that work probably want to go as far as they can, and staying at that level might not seem like "enough".

 

You bring up some very interesting issues, that some/most of us will have to resolve in our own way. I started "too late" (i.e. too old) and before most of the "semi-pro" leagues even existed. I remember thinking, as a grade 8, that maybe I could become a 7 but there was no chance I'd ever be a 6. To my astonishment, I exceeded my expectation. I got some taste of those semi-pro leagues, in their early days, rarely with the whistle, just because the young, up and comers got the whistle, because they were 'the future.' That telegraphed the idea that I had no future.

Well, those who sent that message to me are now gone. Almost all of the 'up and comers' are gone too. They, and I, have been replaced by more up and comers. I moved into instructor, assessor and administrator roles, but I never stopped doing games, either. I certainly never thought that I'd still be doing games after my daughter had retired, but that's the way things turned out. When I was SRA, I struggled with some of those up and comers who thought I should, somehow, make them National Referees. They didn't want to hear that Chicago no longer cared what the SRA's thought of someone who was ambitious for a big badge. When most of them realized that they weren't going to get there, they drifted off. They were the top referees in our state, but not being able to go even farther meant that they didn't want to do it at all anymore. That's a shame, but their motivation to referee was limited to going as far as they could.

So I'm still doing all of this stuff. My continuing to do games has definitely limited my assessing and, to some extent, my instructing. I've throttled back on the administrator role, although I continue to do a lot of that with high school. Where do I go from here? I do a lot of high school and adult amateur games. I love doing our college club league for the challenge and the quality of play. To some extent, I can say that, in those other games, I just enjoy what I call 'observing human behavior.' The funny, weird, over the top stuff that people do in most games. And I enjoy seeing players and coaches that I've known over the years. There were kids that I did as U-13's who are now playing in the O-40's. And there's a lot of enjoying being the peace maker, getting people to do the right thing, play nice, etc., usually in indirect ways that they'll never recognize. As i sometimes say, half the fun of doing high school games is just messing with the heads of high school boys, those who think they're 'all that' when they really aren't even close. But the peace maker role goes deeper than that.

So I stay in shape because I love being faster than the players, especially high school and college players, but also because I don't want to look like what I'll look like if I don't stay in shape. Maybe I'll have to drop back down to youth games at some point, but right now I'm pretty satisfied with the games I'm doing.