Question for the reader: change of focus?
I have a question for you, oh reader. For seven years now, I've been writing about every game I've done (and then some) on this blog. I'm still reffing as much as I ever have, but last year I began reffing a sport other than soccer. For the most part, I've kept the other sport (roller derby) out of this blog, except for a few comparison pieces, but it means that my fall season, which used to be geared toward high school, is now on derby (and winter never had a whole lot of anything going on).As I've repeated many times, I started writing this primarily because I'm able to vent emotionally through writing, and because it allows me, as I rethink situations, to mentally assess myself and ask myself the questions I need to be a better referee (even if there's no answer for them). The secondary purpose was to have other people understand the point-of-view of the referee - I figured that as long as I was writing this stuff, maybe someone will find it enlightening to read. As it turns out, I've been elected the assistant head referee for our roller derby league, which was very much unexpected (and most definately not planned). The next roller derby season will be our seventh (my second), and several of our most experience referees have retired. One of the reasons I think I was elected was not just because I had ten years of soccer reffing experience, but because I also ran our city's men's roller derby league for two years, growing it from seven people to the largest men's league in the United States; so I've also got some chops on my quad skates.
Being the assistant head ref is going to put me in the middle of pretty much everything when it comes to working with referees in this infant sport: training new referees (and how many sports has to put green referees in from of 5,000 paying spectators?), assigning the lineups, working with intra-league matchups and the governing body of the sport. In other words, a whole lot to write about - although much of it is covered by non-disclosure agreements.
So, would that get too confusing, or maybe just not that interesting? One of the big differences between reffing derby and soccer, at least for me, is that in derby we have a complete crew, every bout, which gives us a better internal support system than soccer (where you may do a game with the same person once a year). For all I know, I may not have that much to vent over, and because all of our bouts are recorded and webcast, we do a lot of our analysis together watching the recordings.
I'm just curious of your opinion. (more)
17 May '10 - 12:59 - - | four comments, already - § ¶
