Yeah, that used to be pretty common. You had dads coaching who never played the game and just saw the line up in some book so told the defenders to go stand there. Defenders basically had a few yard radius they would travel to kick the ball but otherwise didn't move. At least they weren't all playing bunch-ball? When I started coaching my son, one of the first scrimmages I told him to kick off and play in the middle (don't recall the exact words). Him being him at 8 years old was afraid to move more than a few yards from the center of the field. It took 5 minutes for me to notice it (thought he just wasn't engaged) and about the same time for him to question my initial instructions.
I had a lot of fun coaching my kids at those ages—you take the minor wins. (And try to gag the parents who scream “boot it!!” All the time . . .)
Before rec soccer started to dwindle (at least in our state) I did some games in a neighboring town because of the high pay rate and had some availability for night games. One team had 4 kids stand at approximately their own 35 yard line and weren't allowed to move. God forbid if a player took the ball downfield. A defender would senselessly clear the ball 20 yards away with no rhyme or reason, but the coach would yell out "Good job Jimmy!". It was so sad to watch and not much you can do as a referee.
I had an intermittently present assistant coach at U7 who once rushed up to me with a brilliant idea: "What if we get them to spread out?" Wow! No one's ever thought of that! Back in the days of U-9s punting on a small field, I heard parents roaring with approval as the goalkeepers punted all the way to the opposite goalkeeper.
This still happens all the time at all rec levels. Regardless of where the ball ends up, “big kick by a player to clear it away = good”
Although MLS is gone from traditional TV, the Premier League is regularly on NBC and USA Network and other large profile games are played on Fox but these comments still sound very 1980-ish. Yes, the more knowledgable fans have kids on club travel or academy, but I would have hoped that rec evolved, but it actually got worse.
Oh, believe me -- a lot of travel parents don't know what they're watching, either. Neither do travel coaches, for that matter.
I went to a high school game last year where the parents would randomly tell the players to kick the ball in a certain way or in a certain direction. The home coach started yelling at his own parents saying, “Stop telling the players what to do. You don’t know the strategy and instructions I’ve given them!”
For those interested, I have some added info and a reminder why you shouldn't lie about your match when almost everything is on camera nowdays: 1) The morning after the match, one of the referees was asked by the assignor how things went in the match. The response was "The game was a little physical, but it went well". A scrum, a fight and a photographer getting choked conveniently didn't come up. 2) When the state office opened on Monday, they were asked for their version of the events. Two of the referees claimed they were already in their car. When they were told they had video of them walking away AFTER the fight, they clammed up. Although referees are to leave after the match, they were in no hurry to leave until they saw the fracas and were scolded for not reporting what happened. The CR never reported the issue until well after it was on social media and all of the local news stations.
Is not reporting everything a lie...or is it just an omission??? Facts apparently no longer matter...lol
I don't know how they thought it wouldn't have been broadcast somewhere - St. Benedict's in a perennial top team in the country, so I would think any game they're involved with is on tape somewhere.
Every game is on video these days. I saw five separate Veo cameras set up on a youth match I refereed recently ... but even if there's not a Veo up, assume there is always cell phone video footage.
Just like HS soccer has a different culture than USSF, our state seems to have it's own unique culture. The opposing school's AD, as per the link in the newspaper article @msilverstein47 provided, called it "high school nonsense". Translated, this means "Boys, will be boys". At this point he was aware of the photographer being assaulted and was trying to play down the bruises on the guys neck by justifying it by saying the teen "only" wanted the photos erased. Again, this is the OPPOSING athletic director defending this behavior (this was reported elsewhere).
So I just want to clarify something with you guys with this whole “HS referees run away as soon as the game ends” policy. So if the ending whistle blows and the three officials immediately all sprinted away to their cars before the handshake even began, they would be off the hook for anything that happened? The state office opens and asks for their version of the events, they say “sorry, we all sprinted to our cars immediately and were not present to see the postgame fight”, the state office just says “oh ok, no problem, good to hear”, and not “why didn’t you stick around to make sure the postgame events went smoothly”? And what about if they don’t sprint away but immediately get out of there and you can see them walking away through the gate when the fight begins, are they expected to run back and get involved, or just keep walking and pretend that they don’t know what’s going on behind them?
you stay...you could be deposed in court as a witness to any lawsuit/criminal charges. Having just witnessed another "scuffle" at a post-match pointyball handshake, it is not worth the risk for anyone to remain.
Since traditional print media is dying across the nation, sites like this one are one of the few where you get coverage of the state. Coincidentally, they revisit this match this morning with this article, pointing out 2 other major incidents the same night that didn't get the same TV coverage: https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports...ts-fields-are-we-doing-anything-about-it.html We have no leadership at the state level. They thought by sticking out a mandatory sportsmanship statement a while back, it would "solve" poor behavior. It's not different than slapping a green USSF badge on a minor and thinking this would stop fans from verbally abusing them. They pat themselves on the pat that they did something good. In high school matches, I've seen referees issue straight red cards and then tell the coaches afterwards he will not report it. Then what's the purpose? If I'm a whistleblower, I would get blackballed from good assignments. Nothing will change for the better because of who is in leadership.
Yes, that's correct. They didn't ask "Why didn't you stay after the game". When the game is over, it's over. They now had video Monday morning and set them up asking if they saw what happened. There was no reason to ask why they didn't stay for the hand shakes, because they're not obligated to and are supposed to leave once the game ended. HOWEVER, if you're still there and a brawl breaks out, you have an obligation to report it. If there were no cameras there or if they malfunctioned or if they stopped recording because the game was over, both teams would have said words were exchanged and nothing happened. At the BARE MINIMUM, the CR had to call the assignor for guidance on this on his drive home. He did not. He was completely caught off-guard (and not happy about all of this).
So, my question to you is this: What would you have done if you were still there and a fight broke out? I asked before what role referees have after the game is over and was told essentially "None". I don't see that any referee would have been able to stop it as no cards can be given at that point.
This is why guys like @Law5 say to split in a high school match. You have nothing to gain. Is a U10 USSF match, you have idiot fans who might do stupid stuff, but it's been reported since that the brawl spilled over into the street after the video cuts, which generally you wouldn't see in that age group. Watch the end of the video. The CR is still there. His reward is to get berated by a coach for a few seconds, as if he suddenly caused numerous teens to behave like thugs. If you start issuing red cards, your fate will be worse than the photographers. They'll find your body in the Hudson River, which is only a mile from there the game was played.
The referee actually CAN issue red cards at this point. However, with the number of teens involved, a photographer being assaulted, etc, this would not be advisable. The problem is they didn't report the incident since they were still there.
I guess that’s just somewhat surprising to me that HS associations would hear that the referees escaped seconds after the game ended and weren’t present to see a post game fight (assuming it happened quite quickly after a match) and would be fine with it, but obviously I don’t understand the politics of it all. And yeah these referees were definitely complete idiots to be present for a fight and pretend like they weren’t, cameras or not.