One side of refereeing that I don't think I have covered well up to now is what to eat while at the games. When you have a 4 game set or something like that, you are bound to get hungry. While I try my best to arrange to have a cooler with a sandwich and such, many times I have come to a field and don't have enough to eat so I had been racking my brain to figure out something that can stay in the trunk of my car for a long time in case I need something to eat and drink and don't have enough with me. Kind of like an emergency stash of some sorts.
The other requirement is that it has to be able to withstand cold and heat. Originally I had energy bars. And they worked fine if it was 70 degrees and cloudy, but would become rock solid if it was 40 degrees out and would melt if it was 90 degrees out.
So this is what I have come up with as emergency rations to have in the trunk of a car for those days when you just need something in your tummy:
-Bottled water (duh!) - Even though experts do not recommend plastic bottles that have been heated up by the sun too much because of the toxins that can seep from plastic to water, it still makes the most sense to have a case of water.
- Canned nuts - They don't seem to be affected too much from cold or heat and provide some nutrition like the energy bars but without the melting factor. I found cans of peanuts at Walmart for $1 each. They are perfect because they fill you up with just a couple.
- Saltines - For when you need something else other than peanuts. They shouldn't go bad too easily, or stale that quickly if they are in the stay-fresh packs.
As a side benefit, both salted peanuts and saltines have some sodium that you are losing via sweat, so it compliments water quite well. This mini list works well for me in this region of the country, where there is cold and heat to deal with. Those in Florida or Barrow, AK might have other recommendations.
What do you have as emergency rations should you be called at the last minute to a field?
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Whose game is it anyway?
This March soccer tournament season has generated a lot of material for me to write about. I had forgotten to mention previously something that happened during a small tournament I worked a couple of weeks ago.
I had reached out, last minute, to an assignor to see if he needed help and told him where my daughter was going to be playing, in case he needed help at those fields around the time I would be there anyway with my child. Sure enough, he sends me a "standby" assignment later that day. It is basically an assignment that requires you be at a site and see if anyone else doesn't show or gets hurt. Then you step in.
The week before this tournament, I was working another tournament and while en route to that tournament, there was a huge traffic accident. I called the assignor as well as the other two people I was working with to let them know that with the accident, I would probably not make it for kick off. Indeed, I arrived about 5 minutes after kick off. They had a standby referee and he took my spot for that game. These things happen and I was fine with it as I was not there at kick off. What was interesting there is that the center for that match told me that the spare stated that if he took the spot, it would be his for that game, that if I arrived, he would not "switch out" or be replaced. Again it makes sense to me, since he was there and I was not.
So fast forward to the weekend where I was the standby again, and 8am rolls around and there are 2 referees for one crew and the third is nowhere to be found, so I am asked to step in. 5 minutes before half time, the 3rd referee shows up. He walks over to me and askes me to swap right then and there, while ball is in play. I said not to worry, that we can talk at halftime. He takes a couple of steps back and just stands there for the remainder of the half.
At halftime, he insists that it is his game and that I need to go back to being a standby. I frankly did not care as this was not a high level assignment so I hand him my flag. Then I notice his badge. It did not say "Referee", it said "National Emeritus Referee". So at some moment, this guy was high level. I would have thought that he would have had more idea of what to do and what not to do with regards to missing an appointment. My feeling is that he should have backed off just like I had the week before, but I was not going to cause a stink like the guy who replaced me apparently did.
I don't know, whose game is it? The one who was originally assigned, regardless if they arrive late or the guy who is stepping into their shoes because the original person was not there at the start of the game? Let me know in your comments.
I had reached out, last minute, to an assignor to see if he needed help and told him where my daughter was going to be playing, in case he needed help at those fields around the time I would be there anyway with my child. Sure enough, he sends me a "standby" assignment later that day. It is basically an assignment that requires you be at a site and see if anyone else doesn't show or gets hurt. Then you step in.
The week before this tournament, I was working another tournament and while en route to that tournament, there was a huge traffic accident. I called the assignor as well as the other two people I was working with to let them know that with the accident, I would probably not make it for kick off. Indeed, I arrived about 5 minutes after kick off. They had a standby referee and he took my spot for that game. These things happen and I was fine with it as I was not there at kick off. What was interesting there is that the center for that match told me that the spare stated that if he took the spot, it would be his for that game, that if I arrived, he would not "switch out" or be replaced. Again it makes sense to me, since he was there and I was not.
So fast forward to the weekend where I was the standby again, and 8am rolls around and there are 2 referees for one crew and the third is nowhere to be found, so I am asked to step in. 5 minutes before half time, the 3rd referee shows up. He walks over to me and askes me to swap right then and there, while ball is in play. I said not to worry, that we can talk at halftime. He takes a couple of steps back and just stands there for the remainder of the half.
At halftime, he insists that it is his game and that I need to go back to being a standby. I frankly did not care as this was not a high level assignment so I hand him my flag. Then I notice his badge. It did not say "Referee", it said "National Emeritus Referee". So at some moment, this guy was high level. I would have thought that he would have had more idea of what to do and what not to do with regards to missing an appointment. My feeling is that he should have backed off just like I had the week before, but I was not going to cause a stink like the guy who replaced me apparently did.
I don't know, whose game is it? The one who was originally assigned, regardless if they arrive late or the guy who is stepping into their shoes because the original person was not there at the start of the game? Let me know in your comments.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Brain Farts Part 2
I thought I would not have time, but I guess I am inspired. The second brain fart scenario was during the cold, windy and miserably wet game that was played this weekend where I was the center and should have suspended it due to the deplorable weather conditions.
During the game, a sub for the red team was waiting at midfield. The ball is rolling down the line near him and is clearly going to go out of bounds shortly. The kid, I guess, decided that he could save some time by not letting the ball roll down the hill behind him but he did not wait until the ball left the field of play. He basically stopped it while the ball was still "in". My AR who was right there, waggles his flag and I blow the whistle.
The kid realizes his mistake and since it was right there by both coaches, I try to find an amicable solution since this was just a young kid and a true brain fart. There was no intention to delay, to cheat, to do anything other than not let the ball roll down the hill. It would have been red's throw in but I suggested to both coaches if we had an uncontested drop ball for white since red touched the ball. The red coach said no, he did not think that was fair.
Since I had had just about enough from that coach by that time, I said "Fine". I called the kid over, issued a yellow card and said we were going to restart with an indirect free kick for white. Coach realized he probably should have accepted my initial offer. I did not feel like I had to explain to him that his not accepting my first offer was going to generate harsher consequences. He thought I should just give his team the throw in. Oh well. Hopefully the next referee that deals with him will have an easier time with him since he didn't get what he wanted just by protesting.
One of my pet peeves in soccer is when a coach demands that I do something that I would do anyway. Most commonly it is that a player has committed 3-4 fouls and they want a yellow card. Well, if they yell and scream to give the person a yellow, I have a hard time with that because of the fact that it "looks" like I am taking orders or just going along with what the coach says and that is rarely good for business. In this case, it was the coach not wanting to go along with an uncommon situation and forcing my hand to actually apply the rules even though I think no one thought the punishment fit the crime.
During the game, a sub for the red team was waiting at midfield. The ball is rolling down the line near him and is clearly going to go out of bounds shortly. The kid, I guess, decided that he could save some time by not letting the ball roll down the hill behind him but he did not wait until the ball left the field of play. He basically stopped it while the ball was still "in". My AR who was right there, waggles his flag and I blow the whistle.
The kid realizes his mistake and since it was right there by both coaches, I try to find an amicable solution since this was just a young kid and a true brain fart. There was no intention to delay, to cheat, to do anything other than not let the ball roll down the hill. It would have been red's throw in but I suggested to both coaches if we had an uncontested drop ball for white since red touched the ball. The red coach said no, he did not think that was fair.
Since I had had just about enough from that coach by that time, I said "Fine". I called the kid over, issued a yellow card and said we were going to restart with an indirect free kick for white. Coach realized he probably should have accepted my initial offer. I did not feel like I had to explain to him that his not accepting my first offer was going to generate harsher consequences. He thought I should just give his team the throw in. Oh well. Hopefully the next referee that deals with him will have an easier time with him since he didn't get what he wanted just by protesting.
One of my pet peeves in soccer is when a coach demands that I do something that I would do anyway. Most commonly it is that a player has committed 3-4 fouls and they want a yellow card. Well, if they yell and scream to give the person a yellow, I have a hard time with that because of the fact that it "looks" like I am taking orders or just going along with what the coach says and that is rarely good for business. In this case, it was the coach not wanting to go along with an uncommon situation and forcing my hand to actually apply the rules even though I think no one thought the punishment fit the crime.
Brain Farts
Wild weather weekend this one. It was supposed to be around 45 and rainy for Saturday and Sunday this past weekend, but it was more like 20 and with freezing rain or tidbits of hail.
This post's title is because in the only game I did this weekend, I had a mental lapse that I realized after the fact and so did one of the kids in the game. First my shortcoming.
It was cold, it was miserable. I have my Under Armor compression shirt, my black, blue and yellow long sleeve ref shirts and a USSF Track jacket to ref the game and I was still cold. I had my long pants and two pairs of socks, and I was still cold. And when it started to rain, I thought it could not get worse, then it started to cool some more and the rain turned to frozen daggers. It stung when it hit my face and yet at no moment did my brain think the following statement, "I am the center referee for this match, I can suspend the game since it is so darn cold and the kids are complaining that it hurts and it could hit someone in the eyes."
It was silly of me, my ARs didn't say anything. I did not think about it and I should have. It was just too darn miserable and while some kids didn't seem to mind, most were just ready to leave and go to their cars. I should have suspended the match after talking to my ARs and to the coaches. It made no sense to put everyone through that. I guess you live and you learn, but even though we could play, we probably should not have played in those conditions.
The next game is where it got interesting as my son was playing in that. The weather got worse still (harder sleet/freezing rain and more wind) and the AR on the parent's side went to the center and said that he should suspend the match because he (the AR) could not see well because his glasses were covered in sleet and they were fogging up.
Sure enough, the center played the game and in the last minute the AR who could not see well was called upon to make an offside/no offside call that was a instrumental in the result of the match. Poor AR did not get it right and it was due to him not being able to see the field due to the conditions. I felt bad for the AR since he got put in a situation where he couldn't make the call because of the conditions they were playing in. It happens, but as a center referee, it is our call to make sure the kids are safe and the ARs can make game critical calls.
This went a little too long, so I will leave Brain Farts part 2 for next time. Till then.
This post's title is because in the only game I did this weekend, I had a mental lapse that I realized after the fact and so did one of the kids in the game. First my shortcoming.
It was cold, it was miserable. I have my Under Armor compression shirt, my black, blue and yellow long sleeve ref shirts and a USSF Track jacket to ref the game and I was still cold. I had my long pants and two pairs of socks, and I was still cold. And when it started to rain, I thought it could not get worse, then it started to cool some more and the rain turned to frozen daggers. It stung when it hit my face and yet at no moment did my brain think the following statement, "I am the center referee for this match, I can suspend the game since it is so darn cold and the kids are complaining that it hurts and it could hit someone in the eyes."
It was silly of me, my ARs didn't say anything. I did not think about it and I should have. It was just too darn miserable and while some kids didn't seem to mind, most were just ready to leave and go to their cars. I should have suspended the match after talking to my ARs and to the coaches. It made no sense to put everyone through that. I guess you live and you learn, but even though we could play, we probably should not have played in those conditions.
The next game is where it got interesting as my son was playing in that. The weather got worse still (harder sleet/freezing rain and more wind) and the AR on the parent's side went to the center and said that he should suspend the match because he (the AR) could not see well because his glasses were covered in sleet and they were fogging up.
Sure enough, the center played the game and in the last minute the AR who could not see well was called upon to make an offside/no offside call that was a instrumental in the result of the match. Poor AR did not get it right and it was due to him not being able to see the field due to the conditions. I felt bad for the AR since he got put in a situation where he couldn't make the call because of the conditions they were playing in. It happens, but as a center referee, it is our call to make sure the kids are safe and the ARs can make game critical calls.
This went a little too long, so I will leave Brain Farts part 2 for next time. Till then.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Locking up and my own crew
Two distinct things to discuss today. First, this weekend, my son played in a tournament down in Richmond. Since the weather has been a major issue, it was until the last minute that they confirmed that his team's bracket was going to be playing.
In the second game that they were playing in, we had an older referee who seemed nice, knew what he was doing but had a lot of trouble keeping up with 14 year old boys who play an advanced level of soccer. In one play towards the middle of the second half and with the game 2-2 a series of calls showed that perhaps he needed to be closer to see the action. My son's team is defending and the other team creates an attack close to the AR's side, player goes down hard. Referee blows his whistle and then jogs, and jogs, and then jogs some more to the spot of the foul. 40 yards away and he called the foul. He asked the AR to confirm who committed the foul so he could card him. AR replies that there was no foul, attacker tripped on his own legs and the defender cleared the ball to a corner. Referee then states that he saw a foul but did not see who did the crime. AR walked up to him and basically talked to him quietly and said something that talked him out of calling the foul.
Then my son walks over to the referee and says something snarky "Fouls are kind of hard to call from the center circle unless they happen at the center circle". He earned a yellow for that comment and he deserved it, but he was also right.
5 minutes later our referee is again in his favorite spot on the field and a passback offense happens. He is at midfield and not wide, so there are probably 5-6 kids in his line of sight. I doubt he saw it at all. AR (not the one who talked him out of the foul) clearly sees it but I guess he locked up, he looked at the center and the center did not appear to be wavering to call anything so he did not flag it. What made it frustrating is that the keeper did not actually pick up the ball but rather slid and bobbled it. The attacker instead of just popping it into the wide open goal started complaining to the referee and so the chance was lost.
On another note, my daughter just got certified, so now we are 3 certified referees in the family. I will give her a year to do the rec level before we attempt to do some low level tournaments, but I am thinking that for an assignor, this has to be good, knowing that he can have a crew of 3 referees. 2 of them would be good in the center of most U12 or U13 matches. Something to think about to see how I can use this to help both of the kids get more experience.
In the second game that they were playing in, we had an older referee who seemed nice, knew what he was doing but had a lot of trouble keeping up with 14 year old boys who play an advanced level of soccer. In one play towards the middle of the second half and with the game 2-2 a series of calls showed that perhaps he needed to be closer to see the action. My son's team is defending and the other team creates an attack close to the AR's side, player goes down hard. Referee blows his whistle and then jogs, and jogs, and then jogs some more to the spot of the foul. 40 yards away and he called the foul. He asked the AR to confirm who committed the foul so he could card him. AR replies that there was no foul, attacker tripped on his own legs and the defender cleared the ball to a corner. Referee then states that he saw a foul but did not see who did the crime. AR walked up to him and basically talked to him quietly and said something that talked him out of calling the foul.
Then my son walks over to the referee and says something snarky "Fouls are kind of hard to call from the center circle unless they happen at the center circle". He earned a yellow for that comment and he deserved it, but he was also right.
5 minutes later our referee is again in his favorite spot on the field and a passback offense happens. He is at midfield and not wide, so there are probably 5-6 kids in his line of sight. I doubt he saw it at all. AR (not the one who talked him out of the foul) clearly sees it but I guess he locked up, he looked at the center and the center did not appear to be wavering to call anything so he did not flag it. What made it frustrating is that the keeper did not actually pick up the ball but rather slid and bobbled it. The attacker instead of just popping it into the wide open goal started complaining to the referee and so the chance was lost.
On another note, my daughter just got certified, so now we are 3 certified referees in the family. I will give her a year to do the rec level before we attempt to do some low level tournaments, but I am thinking that for an assignor, this has to be good, knowing that he can have a crew of 3 referees. 2 of them would be good in the center of most U12 or U13 matches. Something to think about to see how I can use this to help both of the kids get more experience.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Offside or Goal?
Pass to what seems like an offside player, but the defender who instead of playing the ball, looks at the AR. Since he loses sight of the ball and the ball never reaches the offside player and instead deflects off the back of the defender, I have to agree with the AR and Center that this is not an offside offense, just offside position. Still, it could have been called and we wouldn't have said anything either way, other than perhaps the AR was a little too quick to call offsides. What do you think of the video? And if there are others, that qualify as strange, or weird, I would love to see them as well.
Hopefully, I can set up some sort of Video link, though web design is not my thing.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Too cold to do much
I am sure I have mentioned this before, but I really dislike the winter. Especially, this winter. With the polar vortex hitting our area (and pretty much all of the US) and the frigid temperatures, it has been slim pickings when it comes to anything related to reffing. I know that I have not had much of a chance to go outside and run and the traditional eating of this time of year certainly does not help. I have not really done any running in the last couple of months other than to and from the car to the front door! Hopefully we can get things going in time for the March madness that is the weekend soccer tournaments.
On another note, I did find a clip online that I am going to try and show you to see if it generates any comments. It was a play where the question is whether the player was offside or not and did he get involved in play. Really a good teaching moment for those referees that think they have offside down pat. I can't seem to locate it but when I have a moment, I will post the link and see what everyone thinks. In the meantime, stay warm!
On another note, I did find a clip online that I am going to try and show you to see if it generates any comments. It was a play where the question is whether the player was offside or not and did he get involved in play. Really a good teaching moment for those referees that think they have offside down pat. I can't seem to locate it but when I have a moment, I will post the link and see what everyone thinks. In the meantime, stay warm!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)