Referees Using Two Watches

When I started, one of my watches was a wind up, hand-held stopwatch, and the other was just an analog watch with a rotating bezel to mark where the minute hand should be when time was up . . . the advent of cheap LCD watches certainly made life easier!

 

I'm not sure if this story goes here, but I'll type it anyway. On Sunday, I had a game with three "watches": my count down watch, my count up watch, and the stadium clock. In was a U-18 girls game and they played it in a high school stadium. The local Native American tribe operates a casino nearby and frequently donates money to local school districts. Last year, they donated a brand new scoreboard, which is more impressive than the scoreboards of some professional teams.

Anyway, the scoreboard was used during the game but I still kept the official time. Even though the operator stopped the clock at 2:00 in each half, he also stopped for both goals (but interestingly did not stop the clock for the hydration breaks). My assistant referee kept trying to tell him not to stop the clock at all and even after the game was talking to the clock operator. I told my AR not to worry; this guy was probably used to NFHS games. Then I pointed to the count up watch on my right wrist and said, "This is the only clock that really mattered during the game."

 

Then there was the time I showed up for a game with ZERO watches. Not my best performance.

Cheers, Mi3ke

 

Did you swing your arm counting seconds the whole match?

 

Especially for high school games, I carry extra everything. Cards, watches, pens, writing paper, whistles. Oh, yeah, I’ve lent an occasional shirt out too.

 

That happened to me once also. Very fortunately I had arrived extra early and the field was not too far from home. Dashed home and made it back with only minutes to spare!

I was solo on an U12 or U14 boys match - don't recall which.

 

I suspect we could have a whole thread on forgotten things. My worst was a playoff game and I was almost at the field, wearing crocs to drive, when I realized I hadn't put my shoes back in the bag. With no chance of making it home and back, I was fortunate my wife humored me by meeting me near the field with my shoes . . .

 

The last time I had one watch, working non-USSF rec, my watch battery died. U8 solo. I asked the coaches to let me know when the first quarter ended. I used my phone for the other three quarters. I bought two more watches and never had that problem again.

I love that idea.

 

When I first joined the local high school board, one veteran official was talking about how to deal with coaches. During his lecture, he mentioned that he wouldn't bring a watch to games because his games were all at stadiums with clocks. All I could think after that was about what he would do if the clock malfunctioned.

Another high school official that I worked with, would carry an electronic stop watch in his hand and every 5 fives he would shout the time remaining even if there was a stadium clock. He was a former coach so the old boys network thought he would also be a good referee. I remember at one meeting he proposed coming up with a signal for someone who was in an offside position but hadn't gained advantage yet. It would have been like in hockey. He was told that isn't an official NFHS signal so not to do it.

 

weirdly, in hockey, the linesmen inform the offending team very loudly when the players need to touch up to become on side again. Always thought that was a little backwards, but I guess it’s for game flow.

 

During my son's second game on Saturday, I forgot to start my watch as I was watching him since I always keep time during games without a scoreboard clock. He started the game about 30 seconds after the game on the adjacent field started. About a minute after the other game ended, he blew his whistle for full time.

Little did I know until he told me that he didn't start either of his watches! He was wearing two watches (yes, I had him do that). He just flat-out didn't start him. So like father, like son I guess! I do admire his quick thinking to end the game really close to when the game on the other field ended.

My tip for him (which I know many of us do) is to start both watches and make sure they are running a few seconds before blowing the whistle to start the half. He was able to laugh about it afterwards.

 

I worked a game with a ref who started his watch after he blew the whistle to start the game and missed a relatively nasty foul 10 feet from him. He was focused on the watch. I gave him the advice RefIADad gave his son. Thankfully it didn't come back to bite him as that play was the exception on that day. The rest of the game was fairly clean.

I should probably add that on another occasion I forgot to put on my watch and borrowed his. IThe buttons worked enough differently from mine that I ended up having trouble getting it started. I may have been guilty of what I had seen in him.

 

Reminds me of a ref I know who was told on an AYSO National Referee assessment that she should wear two watches. Before her next assessment, she borrowed a watch. When the ref she borrowed from tried to tell her how to use it, she said "Don't bother--I'm wearing it, not using it."

 

Best story I've heard on that was a referee getting ready for his final upgrade to National assessment. Game was ~150 miles away. He brought a pair of extra ARs, just in case he got to the game and the locally assigned ARs didn't show.

 

VAR and AVAR?

 

From a friend of mine who used to be a fairly high level linesman (never made it to the show, but worked a small handful of AHL games as a "callup")... that's taught for exactly that reason... the more hockey flows, the happier they are. The fewer offside calls you actually HAVE to make, the better off you're doing.