I can’t help but think that while the vast majority of youth soccer referees make honest mistakes, some just relish being jerks about it. While this has been, in my experience, far and away the exception, it’s still causing parents heartburn. Referees tolerate a LOT of abuse from fans/parents which is uncalled for. But sometimes they do things that leave you scratching your head. Lisa at LDSM Soccer Mom had a few choice words for an official at her son’s recent high school match:
Note to High School Refs: Y’all pretty much suck for the most part and would be better off handing out smilie faces to snot-nosed toddlers at the Wal-Mart entrance. And it is NOT all about you. Let the kids play, please. Giving a player a second yellow 20 minutes into the game for scoring a sweet goal against his rival high school team, during his senior year, and then getting excited about it, is ridiculous. And you know it. I bet most refs were the kids who got picked last for sports in school.
PS: We WON, and I still feel like this.
Her son got his 2nd yellow after an unassisted goal against his school’s rivals at an away match. After the goal, he ran along the sideline by the home bleachers, with his arms spread out, celebrating. Bang – yellow card.
I sometimes think we’re working WAY too hard to makes kids conform and force them to not get excited – for anything. Unless a celebration is way over the line, let it go and let the kids play. You gotta love his style – after being ejected, the player left his bright colored boots in front of his team’s bench as a reminder of his goal. Outstanding.
Now contrast this with a recent experience I had. My U10s are playing and I need to substitute some players. We got the ball for a throw-in and substituted (in our league you can only sub in when you have possession of the ball during a stoppage). The other team subbed as well so there was a fair delay. When the referee restarted the match, he gave the ball to the OTHER team. Now we were in firm control of the match so I think the extent of my reaction was outstretched arms saying ‘How is it their ball if we subbed?’ Again – not a huge deal, but for a moment I was wondering if I’d imagined us getting the ball. A throw in lost in a match we were winning and won – not a huge deal (actually most lost throw ins don’t have much impact on a match’s outcome).
Yet at the end of the match when the referee came to get the match report signed, he apologized. He said something akin to “I’m sorry about that throw in. I totally blew that because it definitely was your ball on the restart. I just got confused.” Wasn’t going to change anything, even if we lost because of that call. But the referee admitted he had made a mistake and apologized. Is that such a hard thing to do?
Clearly, referees endure a LOT of abuse from parents and most of the calls the parents and coaches complain/scream/argue about, the referee made the right call and the people upset don’t know the rules or didn’t see what the ref saw. But that doesn’t mean referees should be untouchable and act as if they’re inhuman. We all make mistakes and if you admit a mistake, even if nothing can be done about it, you’ve earned my respect as a coach more so than a record breaking sequence of correct calls.
Nothing profound I guess. Referees endure way too much abuse. But that doesn’t mean they can’t admit a mistake once in a while.
October 23rd, 2006 at 8:03 am
Thank you. I won’t even go into how the first yellow was uncalled for as well (no one heard the dead ball whistle), or how the CR made up some bizarre “medical waiver” rule to try to keep my son from even playing in the game in the first place (his hand needs to be taped up due to a possible fracture from a previous game, but no cast so it’s legal). I’m sure I’ll have more to say after tonight’s game 🙂
October 23rd, 2006 at 8:14 am
Wow. I didn’t really mention the first because, well, you kick a dead ball, you’re pretty much asking for it, but if the whistle hardly blows and nobody else stops… Geez.
The medical waiver is a cute angle. I can understand 100% if he had some type of splint that could hurt another player but taping your fingers together??? You gotta be kidding.
October 23rd, 2006 at 12:14 pm
So because she has a problem with a call made against her son, all high school refs “pretty much suck” and should work at Wal-Mart instead of calling games? Who’s going to ref her kid’s game then? I believe this crosses a line and is not appropriate.
October 23rd, 2006 at 12:19 pm
human – while it may be an over generalization – this isn’t the first time LDSM has had issues with the level of officiating in the high school matches. This was just the latest in a series. She’s posted about it before.
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:16 pm
That doesn’t really lend much support to this kind of talk, at all. How does that saying go? If you walk down the street and someone punches you in the face, that person has a problem. If you walk down the street and everyone punches you in the face, YOU have a problem.
October 23rd, 2006 at 8:40 pm
human – Well put as always!
October 25th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
I just want to make it clear that my problem is with NC HS refs, only. And I’m not the only one getting punched in the face by them on a regular basis, to put it in your words. I hope the situation will get better when there are more former players entering the HS ref ranks. Right now it’s pretty dismal.
Human, do you have a HS player? Do you watch many HS games?
October 25th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
LDSM – Just out of curiosity because you’ve seen a fair amount of soccer in NC (club vs school, etc) What might be behind the HS refs being worse than say, club refs? You have to think they come from the same certified pool for the most part. Do Challenge/Classic matches pay more than High School (probably given how tight budgets are) Just curious.
October 26th, 2006 at 8:33 am
I don’t know how much HS refs get paid, but they don’t seem to come from the same pool as the ones we get for club, for the most part. I’ve noticed a bit of overlap but not much.
It also doesn’t help that in NC, the HS soccer rules are different from regular club or FIFA rules.
October 31st, 2006 at 4:09 pm
The second yellow card for excessive celebration is required by the organization that oversees high school sports. A few years ago, they outlawed these types of celebrations to emphasize good sportsmanship.
Just wanted to clear that up. I’m a Coach/Referee in Alabama.
October 31st, 2006 at 4:15 pm
I don’t think anyone is faulting rules against excessive celebration. The problem with rules like that is what constitutes ‘excessive’ – it tends to be overly subjective which can lead to problems. Is a player running around with his hands raised after a go ahead goal celebrating excessively (vs say ripping their shirt off, doing back flips, etc)
And then that thread will eventually come down to “don’t celebrate at all” which is unfair to the players. They’re kids, they’re excited, let them celebrate a little while keeping them from outright taunting people.