Middle school girls, home team is down 7-1 in the waning minutes of the game. With two minutes left the ball goes out for an away team throw-in. Home coach, who's right behind me, goes "Sub ref?" I think what the heck, it's middle school, he's down 7-1, two minutes to go, if he wants to get a player in, fine. "Sure bring her on coach." "No I mean for me." I laugh and say "Two more minutes." "OK, thanks ref."
A little context first. I am almost 50, have been officiating since I was 16 at levels of soccer. Most people say I don't look older than 40. I am running the line on a one sided girls HS Varsity match last night, I get all the action the first half. The guy in the center is straight out of college, was a decent player, etc. At half time he comes over to me and says "Its refreshing to see an old guy who uses proper mechanics." "Old guy? WTF does that mean?" "Oh I was paying you a compliment, you know a lot of old guys don't run all the way down to the end line, they kind of just stop." "Oh like what you did every single time the ball rolled to the goalie, you signaled from 40 yards away?"
Two U10 boys games this morning. As I am checking the nets I walk by the parents to make sure they are far enough off the touch line. One parent said “We have an old referee.” I just gave her a look and the other parents laughed. She said “I mean most of our refs aren’t even 15 yet.” I said “since I’m old, you’ll forgive me if I can’t run very fast” and gave her a smile. I had no problems from the spectators in either game.
Game one in Brookhaven, Georgia Saturday was 40 degrees and breezy. I had four layers under my jersey and four U10 boys games back to back to back to back. It warmed up so I removed a layer after every game. A coach in the last game said "It's a good thing you don't have one more game. You might have done it barechested." We both laughed at the absolute absurdity of that. I'm not sure the patch would stay on the chest hair anyway.
As a fan, some things that players and coaches say used to bug me. High on that list are "Good shot." or "Unlucky!" after an ill-conceived shot goes wildly awry. Not much unlucky about some crazy shot that misses by a mile... But, this bothers me less now, after 15 or 20 years sitting or standing on the sideline. Now its just noise--but I guess I still notice it... Last night, an average game, U16 boys I think. One team dominating, second half winding down, energy kind of running out of the game. I am AR1, trying not to look at my watch too often. An attacker from the losing side cuts loose on a very hopeful shot from 35 yards out that sails wildly over the goal, into the huge net guarding the parking lot. From one of his teammates across the field, comes a half-hearted, "Unlucky." A quick glance down at my watch reveals the time remaining: 13:13 Me: Well... I guess it was unlucky.
Saturday, B16 state league game. Both teams evenly matched. Home team wins 1-0 on a PK late in the 2nd half. 2 cautions for each team. Nothing out of the ordinary. After the game, the losing coach does not come over to shake our hands. No big deal. As I am gathering my things to leave, I hear the losing coach talking to his team behind me. He tells his players, "It's not your fault. The referee didn't have his best effort today. He will walk away from here knowing that that wasn't his best effort." Talk about passing the buck. How about you take some responsibility for your own actions, or lack thereof? I just laughed quietly as I walked away, actually feeling quite good about the game.
This isn't something that I actually heard, it was my AR2. Two Hispanic teams so everything was in Spanish and I don't know enough to understand anything that isn't insulting/swearing or field tactics. The one goal keeper saw every ball in hand as an opportunity for a counter attack so I'd turn and take off full sprint to be within 10 yards of the drop zone. "Finally a referee that runs." "He looks like a clydesdale." Apparently other words used were "prance" and "majestic". I think it is actually because I've got a bit of a belly so I don't look like I can move until I take off. I also used to hunch so now I probably over compensate a bit by being very upright when I run. I've also been told that my long steps are smooth and make my movement look effortless (usually by someone 6-8" shorter than me).
I've had similar comments about my running style: smooth, fluid, effortless, etc. But every now and then I get an assessor who says that I need to run with more effort. Because of my fluid running style, it doesn't look like I'm working very hard. Sorry, but that's just the way I run. As long as I am where I need to be when I need to be, what does it matter what it looks like.
I knew a guy who got dinged in an assessment because the assessor said he "ran funny." His explanation was he was an ex-marathoner and had learned to conserve energy by just letting his arms hang when he ran instead of pumping them. It did look weird. I think the assessor said something like "Well OK, but when you're ref'ing you should run like a normal person."
Yeah, well, I mean, congratulations, all you tall people with long strides and stuff. My legs are short; my strides are short; I take a lot of steps; I get there quickly, but do I look as athletic as the players? I do not. Have I received this feedback? I have. Have I tried to improve? I have. Do I like watching myself on video? I do not. That is all.
I'm in the same boat. It's tough when refereeing older age groups, as one stride for them often means two strides for me.
Here's one that had me stumped the other night. Has anybody ever heard an indirect free kick referred to as a "two-touch?" I had a touchline conversation with a center the other night where I had flagged a foul in my corner that when he ran over for clarification I described (probably incorrectly under NFHS rules) as obstruction with contact. (I later looked it up and confirmed that while LOTG expressly call out "impeding with contact" as a DFK foul, the NFHS rules make no such distinction with respect to obstruction as such.) Anyway, he responded with "That's a two-touch, right?" I didn't understand what he was saying, thinking he was talking about a double-touch infraction, which of course made no sense at all. We eventually got it sorted and went with the direct free kick, but it still left me scratching my head.
I can say with certainty my running style has never been described with the words clydesdale, prance, majestic, smooth, fluid, effortless... nor fast, agile, graceful, etc... Ever. A shorter colleague once said, "It must be nice to have such long legs. You can just jog and keep up". Uh, well, no... that was me pushing 85% while trying not to trip over myself.. I've received the same assessment from a few coach friends... and my wife...