How to do anything you want in this league, and get away with it 100% of the time
I've learned something I've only suspected until this point: if you want to get away with murder in this league, be a drinking buddy with the coordinator. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it happened again. I was willing to let the first time slip (well, not exactly slip, as I sincerely threatened to quit) because of lack of planning or organization on the coordinator's part – but since she did it again, well, what can I do?Ok, the obvious answer is quit, but that puts me in the same pickle I was while I was waiting for the dome to reopen (it hasn't, I was at the alternate location) – because all the other leagues are at capacity for referees (it's quite unlike the summer in that respect), it's very much a put-up or shut-up situation. I hope to get some games for one of the alternate locations I'm working on, but I can't count on it. And, compared to the threat I received last time, this wasn't as bad. This was just dissent, continual ongoing dissent, and when I tossed him, and when he refused to leave (because he wanted to continue and complain), the coordinator stepped in and contracted me. I'm sorry, they do not pay me enough to be abused, and this person has no right to get involved in that situation. The thing that really pissed me off is that this is another one of her drinking buddies. Are we sensing a pattern here? Let's see, two drinking buddies thrown out, and given no consequences for their actions – I see a trend here, and I don't like it.
I take that back, because this isn't FIFA, she can – she just shouldn't. I miss the old coordinator, he had his flaws, but he stuck by his referees. The thing about it, was that she could have done things differently, but decided to get confrontational, and openly defend the player who was being blatantly disrespectful. What's more, I don't think she would have done that if it wasn't one of her buddies; she's let the line between her friends and her job get between her, and I'm not going to get caught in it.
So I won't out-and-out quit, but I'll keep working on other leagues. I need to keep my options open; some of these other leagues have higher-level games than this league does, and I know from playing in them, treat the refs better. I also don't want to burn any bridges; she's not keeping that job permanently; it's something that college kids (usually grad-students) do to make some money while being involved with soccer again – she'll graduate, and probably need to move on. I might then want to work myself back in – if I can find something better.
There was actually more stuff going on, that I was sure I wanted to write about, but I suppose I can thank the coordinator for giving me a reason not to stew about that one. I'll write about it later.