The director of coaches in our local youth league is trying to put forward a silent saturday where coaches and parents are only allowed to cheer and not give the continual instructions to the players. Has anyone else seen this done in thier area? Can you hook me up with some ammo to sell this idea. It is not my responsibility as a referee but I would like to help him.
Grey, Get on the Ohio North website and email someone there. It is www.oysan.org. They did it over there last spring. It was either at selected leagues or possibly across all of Ohio North. They don't have an archive of articles on their site, but I remember seeing something about this last year. I'll search a little more and see what I can find, but you might start there. Kevin
Here's an article that appeared in SoccerTimes about it. http://www.soccertimes.com/langdon/1999/sep16a.htm Here's some letters following up on that article. http://www.soccertimes.com/letters/1999/sep22.htm And here's the website of the league that did it. http://www.nogsl.com/toc.htm
I have seen versions of this where the administrators tried to make this part of the referee's responsibility. Don't let that happen!
I have seen a tape by a Mass soccer organization that confronts the effects of verbal abuse by fans and parents. It is good, not great, but it does make some excellent points. They were mentioned in Referee Magazine. The tapes sell for $2.50 in groups of 25. Just a thought.
The tape's a riot. You see play, you hear the parents scream about incorrect rules or yell out instructions to the kids, followed by interviews from the kids who say things like "When my mom and the coach tell me what to dom I listen to my coach, because my mom doesn't know anything about soccer"...