RefBlog

Taking the easy road

I was lucky today - not because of anything I messed up on or didn't do, but because of who I was working with.

As you know, I've been a wee bit stressed of late, and I've been bouncing my theory about people, where they live, and how they react to other referees. So far, when I've asked about what they think when they ref in the 'burbs versus the city, the reaction is much the same as what I have - except they kept the politics out of it... well, explicitly, anyway. Some found a correlation between the amount of money in a community to their obnoxiousness and sense of entitlement. One person I talked to lately agreed, but thought it might have to do more with "new money" versus "old money".

The teams we had today fit into two of the "nice" categories - a private school, populated mostly with "old money", and a public school, while in a suburb, was more of a blue-collar area. I had also done both teams before, and it promised to be pleasant, if one-sided, games. But yet my mental state was pretty much telling me to get out of centering the boys game. I know a transplanted Brit who's reffed a long, long time, both in the US and England, who's decided that he'll never center a boys high school game again. It's not that he can't, it's that he won't. And even though I knew the boys would be well-behaved, they would still be... well... boys; and I just didn't want to go through it. That's where I got lucky.

The schedule center for the girls game and I had worked together before... just last week we worked together for games at that private school - he centered the girls and I the boys. He thought he was centering the boys, because he did the girls last time. We double-checked the schedule, found I was scheduled for the boys, and then I promptly offered to switch. I didn't want to disservice the boys, and I knew the girls would be a far easier game (not because they're girls, but because I'd done both teams multiple times - they were both happy with me, and I knew they could play clean without me even being there).

As it turned out, both games were blowouts 10-0 and 10-1, and both times we switched to running time in the second half (normally high school requires time be stopped on goals, injuries, and bookings - but what good does it do to prolong things, especially when both coaches agreed ahead of time for it?).

I have a couple days away now, and the 100% problem-free games really helped ease some of the stress levels. I know I've got a screamer of a coach coming up (I've only had one game in the past where he didn't get close to being thrown out, and that was when I did chuck him) next, so I'll take the R&R.

30 September '04 - 16:28 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

What good are coaches?

I've had a couple of rather sobering thoughts of late, one of which is more of an ongoing discussion than just a thought, another is what I plan to do for the future. It's of the later that I want to talk about first.

About six years ago, I started working at our local renaissance faire, and overall had a pretty good time. I started in a high-profile act, and hit a low point when faire politics took precedence over our doing what we supposed to do: entertain people. But since then I've taken another character, one that's not part of a group, and am in a pretty comfortable position - I can do what I want, when I want, am below the radar as far as faire politics, but still can entertain people with reasonable success. Last year, because I was having so much fun reffing, I pretty much took the year off. This was a big sacrifice, because over the years I've spent a lot of money in costumes, weapons, and stage combat classes - but I felt I needed a year away, and as I said, I was having a great time with the whistle. I was asked to come back this year by my girlfriend, who has continued to work there even when I didn't - and considering the crap I've had on the field during the high school season, I think a reassessment of priorities are in order.

I've wanted to get back into a bit of stage combat (and the faire gives me the ability to do it on a far more flexible schedule than the traditional theatre), but my desire to ref high school has, in the past, put the kibosh on it. Now I'm thinking that it might be better for me mentally to change priorities, skip, or at least majorly reduce, high school games, and hang out with actor-types, attend some really good parties, and enjoy some time away from the field.

Now I'm not talking about for good, and I'm not talking about the USSF season - I did more games this year than ever, and had a marvelous time. But the nature of the beast that is high school right now just isn't worth it (I've gone into more detail about it here). The question is, can I make my absence turn into something positive. If I send a letter to the high school association telling them why I'm taking a leave, will it mean anything? Will they care? Or will it just lead to me being blacklisted? The latter has been known to happen - I haven't heard of it here, but that doesn't mean it hasn't. Maybe it'll have to wait until the end of the season, and if I'm willing to risk more than one year away.

The other thing I've been pondering is a little more esoteric: what good are coaches to the game of soccer? (more)

29 September '04 - 15:04 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

Yes, I'm running into a burn-out issue

I don't know if it's just the high school game, or the fact that when you do club ball during the center, you're doing a range of ages and abilities. In the fall, it's high school game, high school game, high school game. In the summer it's U14, U19, U16. Sometimes in the summer you have teams that play just as hard (or harder), both physically and mentally, than high school - but in the event of people being obnoxious and giving you a hard time, it's cancelled out by being more likely next time to get teams where there's not as much riding on the game. In the fall, it seems like every game is the end-all be-all.

There are exceptions, of course. What I wrote about yesterday was one of only a pair of them - but today I was back in the suburbs. Which meant, even if the coaches weren't obnoxious (and they weren't), then the parents would be. I was even verbally accosted after the game on the way to my car!

I know I'm reaching the breaking point, because I started shooting back, making references on how they were such good keepers of the sport because of the size of their butts. I don't care if they disagree during, but after the game it's got to stop. This is supposed to be a frickin' extension of the classroom (if you listen to the claptrap the NFHS spouts), but look how the schools are letting these people act! Coaches more often than not behave with inappropriate behavior for the classroom; or for that matter, inappropriate anywhere in public. But yet we let them do it in this "teaching environment". And then the parents show what good stewards they are of their children by emulating it.

God help me if I ever become like that when I have children.

The thing that sets me off is that this was as close to a nothing-game as you could find. For the first half, the ball seemed nearly stationary. I was searching for places to run (because if I didn't, I'd just get stiff, creating a potential problem should I need to turn on the jets), but couldn't - even a mild jog would just put be out-of position. The second half was more lively, but still not terribly exciting. The visitors, state powers, pretty much had their way with the home team, winning 3-0 without even trying. If it was a close game, if I had to make a controversial decision at some point during the game that turned the tide, I could almost understand it (almost). But this game had nothing in it that should have brought out the crap it did. The game wasn't physical, there were no PKs (or anything even close) - it was almost like the fans decided to turn their attention to me because they lost their interest in the game.

I know a couple people online that have complimentary philosophies: 99% of people are stupid jerks, and they should all die painfully in car fires. I'm not there yet, but I'm coming perilously close to telling my assignor to take back all my games, because in the four years I've reffed high school soccer, this has been the worst I've ever seen people behave (even during my first year, when I was over my head and shouldn't have been on the field for varsity matches!). Right now I'm not having any fun, and would rather be elsewhere than on the pitch.

28 September '04 - 14:32 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Politics and Soccer

This time of year, it's rather hard to find a place that isn't infiltrated by the Presidential race, and for a brief moment, it'll even darken the doorstep of this site.

What does it tell you when the best attitudes and sportsmanship of the year come from a pair of inner-city schools, and the worst come from the suburbs? I'll remind you that Bill Clinton went out to see our National Team games, and that George Bush (both the elder and younger) don't really give a crap. Hmmmmm.

As you may have guessed, I did a pair of inner city schools, and they were a delight to work with. The girls game started out worryingly, as the visitors only showed up with eight players! But in a remarkable bout of generosity, and one that I think would be laughed at in Republican country (aka the suburbs), the home coach volunteered not only to reduce the length of the halves to 30 minutes, but to play only eight players on the field himself!

I know far too many people in the suburbs who are frightened of the city, won't go in there, and are frequently bad-mouth them (there was even a suburban legislator who went on the record saying that the city schools "Sucked"); but when other schools would take advantage of the situation to run up the score, one inner-city coach took the high road, and actually did what suburban high schools only give lip service to: it's how you play the game. To be sure, the home team won, and won handily - he did substitute his players, but at 10-minute intervals, ensuring that everyone got some playing time. But when the visitors made some daring attempts early in the game, he never wavered. He knew the proper intent of high school sports is to teach the students how to live in our society, that it's appropriate to play hard, but you also need to play fair and not take unfair advantage of other people's debilities.

I also had a boys game, where I was in the middle. And while full squads showed up for this game, the situation was much the same. The players played hard, but stayed calm, respected each other, and generally made it one of the most pleasant experiences I've had all season.

From a purely soccer standpoint, it was a lot of fun as well. There's a large Hmong population here, and instead of the boom-ball that's become so prevalent in the suburbs, I got to see some honest-to-goodness dribbling and midfield skills. The thing that's too bad for them is that, some playoff time, they usually get drubbed by Caucasian players who are much bigger than they are, and the narrower confines of the high school game only accentuate that style of play. But it was nice to see some of what I used see during the summer.

27 September '04 - 15:57 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Forget the satisfaction, I need sugar!

Interesting how real life intrudes on your game. As I've said before, I'm working a new job that has me traveling all over the city - eventually part of my job will be working at home, but so far it's been 100% in the field. Although I'm having fun, what and when I eat lunch has proven to be sporadic in terms of time and of quality, causing me to come close to what felt like a blood sugar incident last night.

I refereed a girls varsity game first, which went off quite well. There were a couple incidents where I needed to get deeper (I'm not sure I could have, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't) to get a better angle on a foul near the goal line off a break-away; I had a conversation with the AR, who was on the far side, and we basically agreed that we both blew it, but considering that the foul (and PK) would have been for the team that was already up (and won) 2-0, it wasn't a game-breaker. There was also a couple cases of needing to go wider (and I've been trying to narrow down my diagonal, per my last couple assessments - dow!) to get the best angle, and a couple of occasions where I needed to linger on activities off-the ball a bit more. I'm not sure what I could have done with the last one - because both happened immediately before a break-away, so I watched as long as I possibly could, but events pull you away. One was a player kicked in the face: she was knocked down, got up immediately, wobbled a bit, then seemed steady - there was a breakaway, so I figured she was well enough and went back to play. When I turned around, awarding the goal, she was back on the ground. I think this was a case of ideal situation (watching her the entire time) versus reality.

The second incident was a pair of players tangled up, but looked like they were getting up cleanly, and I turned to another break-away; but apparently they didn't get up cleanly. The senior AR saw a kick, asked for a card. The coach was mad, because he wanted cards on both. I explained (and then reiterated after the game), but I blew it by focusing my attention elsewhere, and only caught the end. And Lord help me, THE COACH WAS UNDERSTANDING!! If I were truly obsessive, I could make some sort of sexual gratification comment, but I'm not - let's just say it was bloody amazing.

I volunteered for the junior assistant position in the boys game, even though I was schedule for the senior slot. Even though I'm not seething like I was when I wrote that last entry, my opinions on coaches in general had gone up-and-down all day - but even when it, it wasn't particularly good. Putting me on bench-side would just not be a good idea (especially when one of the coaches has a pretty wide-reaching reputation as a screamer/whiner/complainer). Pat myself on the back, because it was a good choice, not only for the reason I thought of, but because about 20 minutes through the first half, I began feeling it. "It" being the start of energy sapping away, even though you know you should have plenty in your legs - I just needed some sugar. So I did some things I normally would never do: I purposely became sloppy in my mechanics (not running to the corners on goal/corner kicks; if the defense was charging upfield, but had no worry about offside on a counter-attack, jogging instead of running; that sort of thing). It was a matter of rationing my energy for when it was absolutely necessary, so I could do a good job when it counted, rather than preserve a "look".

I'm not diabetic, but I know enough people who are hypoglycemic I recognize it. It's only happened to me on rare occasions, but I'm wondering if my lack of a regular lunch schedule (and 5pm double-headers don't lend themselves to a whole lot of food after lunch) might have caused it. In the past, I used to eat a dinner-sized lunch, which would hold me through all night - and then something tiny (if anything) for dinner. It's a thought - maybe I'll need to look into trying to keep some candy bars cool if it continues.

As it was, I grabbed a Snickers bar from the concession stand at halftime, and felt a lot better. I still kind of hedged myself in the second half, but didn't have any issues, and gradually put myself back into the form I wanted. Moreso when it went to overtime.

I didn't make any mistakes (a defender wanted an offside call, but that was when I was back on-track, and in proper position), other than mis-reading my own body. Like the break-aways in the first game, I'm not sure if there's anything I could have done about it, other than note it, and see if I can't visualize better next time.

As a postscript, I think I found the solution to those god-awful yellow lines - this school had them in deep-red. It worked MUCH better than yellow. Not perfect, but no conflict with the pointy-ball lines, either.

24 September '04 - 18:20 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

No, it is starting to grate

I thought that a feel-good game would buoy my spirits, but no, it just didn't last. I think I need a few more of those games, because I really am getting sick of coaches using me as a verbal punching bag. It would be one thing if it were constructive criticism (even allowing for the fact that they aren't neutral), but all I'm getting is ranting and raving; and I really want one to just go that smidgen too far, so I can boot the SOB, and see if that helps my mood at all.

Single game, two pretty high powered schools with myself in the center. In the first half, visitors score first, then the home team follows shortly after. Game play is clean, there's some nice ball-control being done on both sides, and as a referee crew we're pretty happy. But this is an important game, and the reality is that the visitors have the upper hand, and quickly start to prove it by a goal ten minutes into the second. Now, instead of fighting to come back, the home team loses its poise and becomes sloppy in their style of play, and in how they handle their own physical presence. When the latter happens, that means I start blowing more fouls against you. Shortly after, another goal is scored (an easy tip-in after a defender blows his mark).

So what does the coach do? Instead of working regain the presence of his team, he starts going off on me. Apparently my refereeing was fine, but now that the game is quickly becoming out-of-reach, I now am one-sided, inconsistent, and a disgrace to the uniform. And the team, following their institutionalized role model, start doing the same. Yeah, guys, it's my freakin' fault you lost 4-1. Suck it up, you blew the game, not me. YOU fouled the players, not me. Just because you don't know the definition of consistency, doesn't mean your view from a static position is just as good as mine.

I'm getting a little sick of these adults acting worse than the children they're supposed to be supervising. And although I know it won't stick, I'm having one of those, "Why the hell am I doing this?" kind of moments. Because you know what? I did a damn good job today: I ran well, I was in good position, but I'm sick of dealing with these emotional nitwits. (more)

23 September '04 - 22:33 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

Just a nice game

After so many games where the teams have come out way too aggressive (at best), or out-and-out nasty (at worst), this was a nice change. The teams played hard, but clean; the coaches were positive toward their players and myself, even when they disagreed with me. It was just nice, and a refreshing change of pace.

Even the assistants noted that this was probably the nicest game they've had all year, in terms of general disposition of everyone involved. Granted, we were not dealing with state powers, or even conference powers for that matter, but the teams both provided excellent examples of what the NFHS wants with their sports programs - I don't know if this proves that "nice guys never win" (because I know some very nice and respectful coaches that do very well year-in and year-out), or merely examples of how to coach young teams that need to work on playing as a team. Probably something else entirely.

But this game will keep me from going totally cynical about the high school game for a while.

21 September '04 - 23:34 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Can I use "utter lunatic" as a coach rating?

It was not my best game at center, but neither was it my worst - and I knew enough about my shortcomings that I think I was able to compensate for them and have a half-way decent game.

In many ways it was a no-win situation, because both teams came out playing dirty - I issued four yellow cards in the first half, all for very obvious stuff. Shove a guy in the back as he passes you, yes, you will get a card. Clothes-line someone across the chest and then push him to the ground, yes, you will get a card.

And yes, they complained about them.

I think there's really only one person to blame here: the coach - because they were emulating him the entire game. He was loud, obnoxious, ignorant, borderline insulting and abusive; it carried to his players, and to his fans. Yeah, this is some "teaching situation" you have here, NFHS.

Was I perfect, as I said before, no. I had problems running today - it may be partially because of the weather: high winds throughout the game had the game to be more "boom ball" than soccer; the other reason may be, because I've started a new job, and getting the proper food for lunch is a bit iffy until I finish the training aspect of it, enough so that I needed a gatorade at the 2nd game's half to raise my blood sugar level a bit. I also had some positioning gaffes, where I misread where the play was going to go, and got burned for it; but overall I felt good about what I called and my positioning when I had to make them.

Sometimes, as a referee, you have to be satisfied by pissing off both coaches equally, which is what happened here. The home team capitalized on the wind in the first half and took a 1-0 lead, and started slowing things down in the second. Another one of those NFHS rules I hate is the reliance on the stadium clock as the official clock, because teams can milk them quite effectively, as you as a referee can do jack-and-squat; even if they're not, you can get the opposing coach going ballistic (as did this coach) because they're not going as fast as he would like (even if it's the same speed they've been going all game long). In USSF/FIFA games, the solution is easy: you simply add time as necessary, and nobody has a spazz. But there's plenty in the NFHS rule book to spazz over. Then again, looks who writes it: coaches, athletic directors, and lawyers. While the coaches and AD's may have good motives, the only people going into a game neutral are the referees, and in their organization, we have no say.

So why do I still do it? Because it's the only game in town, and it's either like it or lump it. So I have to deal, and vent about it on here.

The second game, where I was an AR, the obnoxious crowd stayed, and instead of the coaches stirring up the fans, is was the fans stirring up the coaches. They went from pleasant, joking, to borderline maniacs when it came to calls that it was clear they knew nothing about. Can I blame the first coach on that, too? Oh, sure, why not. It'll make me feel better.

We had a 20-minute delay for lighnting - technically we were supposed to wait longer, but it was a rather unique situation (at least for me). The lighting was bearing down on us from behind the stadium, so we couldn't see it, although we did get reports. We did end up suspending the game, and tried to figure out how far away the cloud lighting was from us (we didn't see any strikes, but just because it's going through the clouds doesn't mean it won't strike the ground). One of the coaches pulled a marker from a local TV weather station, who said we had about 20 minutes before it would come too close, so we ended up finishing the game.

The delay seemed to either quiet down the obnoxious people (perhaps they left) - so it's hard to complain about coming home late.

20 September '04 - 08:16 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Yellow lines: what are they good for? Absolutely nothing.

One of the things I really hate about high school soccer are the yellow lines. Pointy-ball, despite having the entire field littered with dots, dashes, marks, and probably little pop-up baloons, gets the nice bright white paint, while the rest of us have to make due with yellow. I'm no "football" referee or coach, so I can't see the NFHS rule book (because they don't allow it to go out to the public - another reason I dislike them), but I highly doubt they would make any concession to alternate colors to denote all 30,000 boundaries.

There's a reason I'm going into this: most games are at five and seven PM, which means that you can't see these yellow lines when looking into the sun. Not at all. You can see the while ones just peachy, but these yellow ones are practically invisible. Now, I know that pointy-ball is far more popular that soccer; but I also know that soccer's lines are far more important to the game that pointy-ball's are - especially considering you're dealing with three referees for soccer, as opposed to seven for American football. Football doesn't have that do-or-die penalty area, and because our referees can't be as close to the play as football's refs, we have to rely on them much more heavily. Not that I expect that this will change, it's just a frustration that I have to deal with - as do the players when certain situations pop up like in did in both of the games I was involved in recently.

I was an AR in the girls game, and it was very one-sided. The visiting goalkeeper was getting lots of practice, and was going a good job being aggressive while not being helped by her defense. But even goalkeeper get tired, and make mistakes, and miss. However, it really helps if you can see where the bloody penalty area is, rather than have myself and the center hunt around a bit to see if there will be a PK or not! Damn you, yellow paint (more)

17 September '04 - 19:57 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Returning to the scene of the ugliness

A couple years ago, before I started writing in Refblog, I had a really ugly game. Fights were had, police were called, statements were sent in, and man was it ugly ugly ugly.

It was a high school playoff game where I was the senior assistant, in my second year of reffing, and in the middle was a person who maybe shouldn't have been. He said before that he normally doesn't like centers, and at halftime he said he doesn't like giving yellow cards (when I pointed out a situation that just screamed for one). In a boys playoff game, it just was a recipe for disaster, and we made a very nice disaster flambe. With just a few minutes left in the game, a 0-0 tie was broken, and then immediately fists started flying. My lack of experience kept me from doing what I needed to do prior to that: call the center over and tell him he was losing control of the game, and that it would get ugly if cards didn't start flying prodigiously. It may not have been enough, but we never even got to that point. The game was terminated without a single card being issued.

Two years later, just now in fact, I returned to the same stadium, to referee one of the teams involved in that fiasco. But this time, I was going to be the center referee, and while it's nice if I can get away without carding anyone, I'm not afraid to use them, and in many cases, it's a necessity when it comes to boys high school games.

I had the girls game to AR first, and it was relatively uneventful. I hate saying that about girls games and then just moving on, but sometimes that's just the way it goes. Most of the very highly skilled players either skip high school, because of the tendency for high school coaches to be poorly trained, or go to one of the elite private schools. The one thing of note was that the game went to overtime, which also happened the last time I reffed the visiting school; but mostly it's notable because of a conversation I had at half-time of the second game, and immediately at the end of the second.

I was familiar with the home team coach, because I'd worked with him quite some time, as I reffed for the club that he worked with, and knew his tendencies. I also knew the visiting team, because I saw them earlier in the year, and knew they had two very highly skilled ball handlers that I'd want to watch out for (not only for hacking, but because many times they also learn the skill of diving).

The visitors struck first in about midway through the first half, and I had my first controversy. In FIFA/USSF (although now Sepp Blatter is contradicting the order his organization sent this year) removing a shirt is a yellow-card offense, but in high school, it's considered taunting and grounds for a send-off. But this situation was odd: After the goal was scored, a singular player, forty yards away from the action, took off his shirt; he didn't shout, he didn't move toward the actual celebration, he just took it off, and then calmly put it back on.

As you can imagine, the coach starts screaming for a red card, following by players bleating the same, but I did nothing. The reason being is that he didn't celebrate, he didn't taunt, he just removed his shirt and stood perfectly still. I don't know what the heck was going through his head, but it certainly wasn't celebratory or taunting. Once again, we have high school rules that allow no flexibility: under FIFA rules a caution would have been enough to satisfy everybody, but we have to tinker with the rules, and make a very gray area either under- or over-kill. In those situations, I opt for under-kill, because it's far more fair.

The remainder of the half was for more normal. There was one occasion where I though a visiting player dived, but because I only caught it in the corner of my eye, I just let play continue. At half-time I was told that yes, there was nobody within six feet of him, but oh well. We also joked about not wanting another overtime game, with a comment to be that "You know what you need to do." Now I actually mentioned the "find a penalty in the last minute" joke earlier in the year... and it actually happened, so I said I don't say that anymore (after the assistants finished laughing), and we continued into the second half.

The second half was very much a story about how a better team falls to smarter play. The visiting team was, thanks to their ball-handling skills, dominating play; the home team relied on hustle and counter-attacks to make their offense, but while they were holding their own defensively, not doing well on the offensive front. They ended up tying the game with 15 minutes left on a hustle play from the smallest player on the field: he charged up field toward the goalkeeper when he was about to kick the ball for a clearance - it went right into the player, and the ricochet sailed above the goalkeeper and into the net. Yes, it was one of those fluke things, but it's also something you do, because people can pick off those on-the-ground clearances, and try to make something of them. In this case, you couldn't make anything better.

With less than three minutes later, still tied 1-1, preparation and smart play won the day. I whistle for a foul 25 yards from the goalline against the visitors, who stop to complain - but the home team doesn't stop, and instead execute a perfect quick-restart, sliding behind the now flat-footed defense for a one-on-one against the goalkeeper, who loses, giving up the goal.

It was quite a fight for those final three minutes, but the home team ended up taking a game they really shouldn't, if you only looked at the skill level, have won 2-1. Fortunately for them soccer is as much about strategy and awareness.

16 September '04 - 22:35 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

An incentive not to hit the AR

The next time I ref will finally get me out of the line rut - not that it's bad, but it's time to put me back in charge. Sometimes, when a game is boring as an AR, it's terribly exciting as a center - it all depends on what's happening.

Today was pretty, well... OK, not boring, but not terribly exciting. It was a varsity double-header, and neither game had a ton of rhythm, which is more of a problem for the centers than for me - but it also meant that in both games, I wasn't doing a whole lot, either. The boys game was particularly one-sided, despite the 1-0 final; the home team controlled the ball at least 90% of the game, but just couldn't finish. In the second half, when I finally was able to do something, one of the defenders turns 90 degrees and clears the ball straight into my face. I was, understandably, dazed for a second, and as far a I know the ball didn't go out of play, so once I got my head back on straight (the game continued), I had to explain to him, prior to him taking a goal kick, why the ball was still in play.

"Consider it an incentive to not hit me again!"

16 September '04 - 00:01 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Publishing schedule

Just a quick note about the sporadic nature of my publishing schedule lately:

I got a new job! Once I get settled it, it'll be roughly equal parts working from home, and working at an office, but at the moment, I'm spending all my time with other people, which, on top of my full reffing calendar, doesn't leave me a whole lot of time to publish new entries.

I am still writing them, but I tend, or at least try to, have a pattern when publishing new entries. I like to have them sit a day, so I can re-read them and make any corrections necessary (the usual stuff: spelling, clarity, and most importantly was my head screwed on at all when I wrote it). So my entries will be posted at rather odd times and at rather odd intervals.

I really appreciate that people actually read my rantings and find them interesting. I've found them extremely helpful for myself in writing them, and hope to be able to continue both functions for the foreseeable future.

15 September '04 - 00:23 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

"What was the call?" "Me screwing up!"

Had back-to-back varsity games; I centered the first, a girls game, and lined the second. The center was nothing special to speak of: everyone was well behaved, the game was a bit lopsided (against one of the powers of the state, even), but I felt I ran pretty well.

I would have liked another ten minutes or so to get ready for the second game(we only had ten), although I doubt it would have helped me. Right off the bat, ball at midfield, I blow a call by raising the flag early. I STILL can't believe I did that, because I certainly know better. I dropped the flag, started indicating to the center that play should continue, but it was too late, the whistle had sounded.

"What was the original call?"
I decided that I had to be honest, "It was me screwing up."

It didn't bite me too bad. I had two instances of people asking, "Are you sure?" One was a goalkeeper who thought a ball hit an arm and not a shoulder; the other was a coach after a ball partially, but not completely, crossed the goal line (so no-goal). Both seemed to take it my response of "positive" at face value.

Time to jump-start my brain, apparently.

14 September '04 - 23:59 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Perfect if there were no coaches

I had my first high school center of the year, and it turned out to be a doozy. The only thing that would have made it perfect would have been to have no coaches there. The intensity was great, the players were great, the coaches were both whining dinks.

The whining started before the game. We (my crew and I) just finished the girls game, and were re-hydrating and go over pre-game stuff before the second game, and I asked an assistant to tell the home team that we'd go over the required sportsmanship stuff, equipment check, and captains starting at eight minutes on the clock. The visiting team was fine, but the assistant said that the home coach said he'd refuse to comply, grumbling about taking time away and so forth.

Coaches: why do you act like this? Referee's do not schedule game times, so if you want more pre-game time, talk to whoever schedules this stuff, don't come bitchin' to us! Because then we have to be mean, force the issue and start the game on the wrong foot. If it pisses you off, fine, because you just pissed me off. Start acting like civilized human beings from crying out loud!

I did force the issue, and things went off fine (probably because both coaches stayed away).

The game itself was a lot of boom-ball. Unfortunately, the field lent itself to this style of play, because the field was so narrow: 120 yards long, by a mere a mere 52 yards wide, that meant when on the flank, there were only four yards before you entered the penalty area.

But it was an exciting game: the visitors opened up a two goal lead, with the home team coming back to tie; followed by the visitors scoring another two, with the home team taking one and pushing hard for the tying goal as time ran out. The players, while not always agreeing with me, were willing to listen, to work with me, understood the calls, and were really a pleasure to work with. They were what a high school game should be about: intensity tempered with good sportsmanship. The coaches, however, were almost completely the opposite. The visiting coach started up about 15 minutes into the game, and immediately afterwards the home coach joined in. Nothing about their players, just comments about the officiating (and not even constructive ones) - at the end of the half I ended up carding the louder of the two because he ignored my first warning to pipe down.

These guys are supposed to rate me? These guys didn't know the rules they were playing under, let alone know how to officiate. They only thing they cared about was getting their way, and if they didn't get it, than I clearly was a poor official. Umm, yeah. If you ever complained about how the USSF assesses and grades their referees, you have nothing when compared to the National Federation of High Schools. In the NFHS, skill means nothing, kissing the coaches ass means everything. But I'm a good referee, I call a good game, and other than being disappointed if I don't do post-season work because I pissed off some hoser when making the correct call, they can do a 180 and kiss my ass instead.

I pulled a quick card in the second half for a player that went into a challenge late... with a raised forearm, which again set off the coach, but which the player (and teammates) accepted without problem. Heck, they were trying to get the coaches to calm down - who the heck were the kids here, anyway?

Down by two, the home team picked up a PK when the goalkeeper made a dive for a player running down the flank, taking the player out instead. The ball was played a little too than the striker presumable wanted, and it was a legitimate effort to snag it away from him, but missed. Coach, of course, wants a red: "How could that not be an obviously goal-scoring opportunity?" In my mind, when the NFHS "rule book" fails to address an issue properly, you go with FIFA/USSF, and this didn't meet the four criterial for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. It wasn't cynical, it wasn't reckless, it was however, a PK, and the PK was adequate justice.

The boom-ball really tired me out, I'm just not fast enough to keep up with that style of play, although I think I did adequately enough, but it was a great game to be part of. It was one of those games, where you have to go to one of the losing team's players, prostrate on the ground following the final whistle, help him up because they all put up one heckuva game, never backing down, literally leaving it all on the field.

13 September '04 - 23:01 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Maybe adults don't want to learn

I kind of put myself in a pickle last night with the other assistant referee. I thought I was doing the right thing, and actually I did. I think my problem was that the other assistant thought my suggestion was talking down to her. Apparently that also made my "hyper" and she said she would ask to not work with me again. Ooooo K. I don't know what hyper has to do with anything; maybe the fact that I actually warmed up, and decided not to sit at halftime so my legs would get stiff was too much. I don't know - I don't think I want to. But then again, she later badmouthed several other people, some high-ranking, so I honestly don't take it seriously. She's a good AR, so that's regrettable, but other than say that I wasn't trying to disrespect her, there's little I can do (or frankly, want to).

And the screw-up was not hers, it was the center's. A shot was taken, hit the underside of the crossbar, went down behind the goal-line with the back-spin spitting it back out into play. She took off down the touchline, indicating goal, and the center missed it. She went down thirty yards, the center still missing her, and what's worse - restarted play, meaning that the error could no longer be corrected (my mistake was, having seen them exchange eye contact, and then letting play resume, was that he "waived down" the goal, but at halftime learned that this wasn't the case). If there was any consolation, neither team knew what happened or even said a word; the team who's goal was nullified scored several more times and won handily.

But let's be clear: the AR was in good position and indicated the goal correctly. The center blew it by not looking for the AR. What I did was suggest to the AR was the same thing a National referee told me: go to the goal line, hold up the flag and don't move until the center sounds the whistle, then sprint upfield to indicate the goal. The idea is that, since the center is never in a position to call a goal that's only barely over the goal-line, the AR needs to grab everyone's attention (including players), to show the goal. This is nothing they teach you in rectification classes, it's just something you pick-up from those in-the-know that are willing to pass that wisdom down.

She didn't want to listen, and what made things worse, I had a similar situation in the second half. Nothing off the crossbar, but a dribbler that barely passed the goal line before clearing. I did do the procedure as recommended. I think that really pissed her off.

Look, I know I'm not a great referee - I'm good, but I'm not pretentious. If it was just me talking, I think she'd have every right. But this is stuff from the high levels, people who know what works and what doesn't. Her mechanics were correct, but it was a suggestion on how to bail out the center in case there's a brain-fart.

But she took offense. I didn't talk down, I didn't criticize, I just made a suggestion; so I have to assume that it was her attitude. Personally I love suggestions and assessments, but it doesn't mean I have to take them seriously - and she was more than welcome to ignore my comments. But the attitude she presents make me think she doesn't want any of it - and if you have the attitude of, "I have nothing left to learn" than you shouldn't be on the field. (more)

12 September '04 - 22:04 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶

Slip slidin' away

Another short entry, because there just isn't a whole lot to talk about concerning the game - very straight forward and clean. The biggest issue I had occurred in the first half, and it was my choice of footwear!

Normally when I'm on the line, I wear turf shoes (they're the ones with about 50 studs on the underside), they give me a good amount of support in the ankles, and do a nice job gripping the field for quick changes of direction no matter what condition the field. In this case, the field was in near pristine condition (except for the pointy-ball lines... which are easy to ignore, except they don't paint in a center line, so it's easy to miss the first few times the entire defense crosses the half), and a bit wet. Normally, this isn't a problem with the turf shoes, either, except that the lawn was mowed recently. I hadn't thought about that, and about 20 minutes into the game, the shoes had collected so much grass clippings that my fifty stud turf shoes had suddenly become flats with almost no traction! On a critical offside call, it took almost a full second for me to stop before popping my flag, just before a striker kicked the ball into the goal. It fooled everyone, including the center referee, and for the most part, it's not a good idea for an assistant to fool the center.

Needless to say, at halftime I explained what happened, just before changing into my cleats.

09 September '04 - 07:10 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Rather Tame Line

I'm opening the high school season with a number of lines, followed by a more than even distribution of centers-to-lines, so there's no reason to complain. Besides, I feel pretty confident in my ability as a center, and this way I can safely get into the feel of things by watching other people in the middle.

Not a whole lot in this game, though, it finished up 4-0 for the home team and was pretty quiet all-round. It involved a city team, and the referee called it really tight - probably tighter than he needed, but he said he did that team several times last year; and nobody complained, so who's to say. Everyone on the field thought he did good, and when everyone's happy, it's hard to complain.

07 September '04 - 20:28 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Score 0, Red Cards 2

There are several things you need to adjust to in the high school game, as opposed to club soccer, especially when dealing with boys:

• Play is much more direct, and that's the polite way. The less polite, but still rather nice way is that there's less reliance on skill and more on physicality. The not polite way at all is to say screw skill, just go straight through the other guy.
• Despite the lower skill level, attendance is usually higher than at the club level, because they're representing something larger than the club.
• Despite the "educational" purpose of NFHS soccer "rules", people just don't get it.

I had my first honest-to-goodness varsity match last night, and it was between two upper-crust teams that, while always competitive, you wouldn't call them perennial contenders for the championship. It was wet, it was cool, but the field was FieldTurf so I didn't slip at all while running line. You could almost say it was a pretty typical boys high school game, because once the emotions came out, they never were stuffed back into place.

The center referee called a pretty tight game (a safe choice when dealing with boys of that age), and the first half was relatively uneventful. But as the game went into the second half scoreless, boys do that boys tend to do, which was get overly excited, emotional, and vengeful. And the center still did a good job; once the line was crossed he issued a card (a pair of them, to be precise, one for each team when a pair of players became way too engaged in getting an out-of-play ball) - you could see the card coming a few minutes away, but the emphasis by both teams was clearly quick restarts, which meant that there was little cooling off time. The referee did a good job trying to slow things down, but that doesn't mean that, while time to restart was longer, that time to cooler heads would be the same.

As you might imagine, cooler heads did not prevail; so what's a referee to do? He did the only things that were left: he continued to card, and the teams continued to butt heads. He ended up giving one straight red for a late tackle from behind, and four more yellows. One of the yellows was a second, giving the kid a "soft red", which meant that, in high school, the team could replace him. Ugh - that brought out the usual discussions with the coaches (who, despite coaching high school, still don't get that in a straight red you can't replace, and in a soft red you can), and the howling of the parents who insisted that we were showing favoritism because one team was playing with ten men, and one with eleven, despite a red card for each side.

Even if the fans knew the "rules" we were playing under, I don't blame them for being mad (although I do for being mad at us). Why is it that someone who's majorly stupid will have their team play short; but someone who's been just very stupid, but been so repeatedly, doesn't affect the team? It's silly - this is a team sport, and the whole "soft red" fiasco removes the team aspect from your behavior. I wish the NFHS would also publish their reasoning for such moves.

03 September '04 - 09:38 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

A look at the news

I don't do this too often during the season, but now seems as good a time as any...

Not a whole lot of referee content, but kudos to the referee for his brief (and unnamed) appearance in the Santa Maria Times. The quote: "The Rams protested again when the referee ruled someone had fouled Jose Olivera inside the penalty area with eight minutes left to play. 'You give an elbow inside the box, I'll call a foul every time,' the referee responded."

Bravo.

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In an ongoing saga that would darken the doorstep of soccer and referees, if soccer were actually covered in the US and Canada (although if it involved rioting, the news services would be all over it), word that the bribery scandal in the Czech Republic is growing.

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I've chided many of the stories AllAfrica.com carries concerning referees because they almost always talk about how the referees are terrible, and then after the public berating, wonder why they never get any better (hmmmmmmmm). At last, a few more details in a well thought out article that, while not excusing, does give light to the problems that many African referees have to deal with. A good quote: "Often times, hoodlums follow the referees to the dressing room to remind him how important the match is for them and the dangers inherent should he fail to 'give' them the match."

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Like Unions or hate them, when people band together, things can happen. In this case, an abusive parent is banned from the game because of a threat, which was carried out, by the referees to boycott. A second story about the same situation is here.

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What is likely to be the final entry in Kari Seitz's blog on her Olympic refereeing experience has been posted. I had to smile when reading it, because I too have had some games where you nearly forget to look at the watch, because the game is so fun.

I, however, will continue to pour forth on these pages for the foreseeable future

01 September '04 - 19:31 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶