The last of the checks rolled in today, the tournament I had 8 mini matches on Saturday and then was hurt on Sunday. The total was $140 for that one, and compared to the $125 from the other tournament where I was just backup, it does not measure up in terms of compensation. Still, in the end, my season's haul was just north of $1,000 in 39 matches with comes out to about $26 per match but that average is skewed due to the fact that $125 were for being a backup ref. Still you take what you can get, right?
I centered 21 matches and was an AR in 18 of them. I only worked as a center in 2 matches where I had a full crew at my disposal. That is something I will need to improve on next season. It was interesting to do the U-13 match with a full crew, that was probably the best game I worked, because it was a challenge. I certainly want to work more of those matches for this season, but I do enjoy the U9 U10 crowd as well, as they are not yet jaded and not trying to play you as much.
As far as I can recall, I pulled 4 yellow cards, none during the regular season, but rather at tournaments. No reds this season, but I am sure that time will come. I will post more tidbits here and there during the off season and get to some of your comments, questions as they roll in.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Pleasant surprise
Sometimes, not reffing is just as lucrative as actually reffing. I was a backup referee this past weekend and did not get a chance to actually manage any of the matches, but I was basically on call for 5 hours or so each day. I did not expect much in terms of payment because it was not much in terms of work but yesterday I received a check for $125 for such services. Not bad given the fact that I think the check I will get soon, for the 8 mini matches I had the week before, will probably be that much as well, though given this payoff, it should be more. I will give an update when that check arrives.
And I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
And I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
First Season in the books
It is done, my first season was completed this last weekend with no matches to referee. All referees that were scheduled for the two fields I was the backup for, showed up. Interestingly enough, I did have to lend out my flags to one of the referees and then lend him some money since he forgot his wallet and did not know that matches had built in breakes in between then (to the tune of an hour and a half between match #2 and match #3 on each field).
I still expect to make around $80 for the efforts and I got to watch some good refereeing by some of those involved. Over the course of the winter, I plan to write up more of my experiences with the equipment itself as well as posting some pictures of the things I use to referee. I would love to hear some of your comments or suggestions on how to make it better.
Also, being the statistical enthusiast that I am, I will post some more details as to how much I made and all the matches I did, once the final numbers are counted.
I still expect to make around $80 for the efforts and I got to watch some good refereeing by some of those involved. Over the course of the winter, I plan to write up more of my experiences with the equipment itself as well as posting some pictures of the things I use to referee. I would love to hear some of your comments or suggestions on how to make it better.
Also, being the statistical enthusiast that I am, I will post some more details as to how much I made and all the matches I did, once the final numbers are counted.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Stand-by in the cold
Oh boy was it freezing this morning. I arrived at 8am at the fields where I was a stand-by referee. I originally was not too happy that I was only selected to be a stand-in instead of a referee with assigned matches, but after feeling the blistering cold, the wind that cut right through you, I was more than happy to be able to sit in the car and wait to see if any of refs outside suffered from hypothermia.
The matches I did observe were well played for the most part. My son's team did very well with a 7-0 win and then an 8-0 win. But the really funny parts were the following:
- The first one was a jolly old referee. He did my son's first match and was a great example of how to work games without taking it too seriously but at the same time resepecting the kids and the parents. He had some dialogue with the crowd as well as explaining all the rules/decisions concisely when needed. And at the end of the game, he was leaving the field with us, so he turns to my daughter and asked her if would like a pencil. She said yes and he pulled out a soccer themed pencil. He gave a couple more out to the kids that were still around. That is why I called him a jolly old referee. Just a fun guy to be around. I am not sure if he ever works U19 matches or if it is mostly younger kids, but those tactics will not fly after a certain age group.
- The other interesting thing was that during the break between the first round of matches and the second, I was able to drive up to Walmart to buy some gloves and a knit hat as I did not have any and it was desperately needed. As I was walking up to pay I overheard a woman talking on the cell and her conversation went very much like this..."the girls played well but they were beaten, I do not remember the final score but it was not close. And the worst part was the referee, he called everything in favor of the other girls..." and then she was gone. I wanted to stop the woman and ask her if she really thought that the referee had that much ill will against a group of girls he does not even know. I think not!
I will have some more tomorrow, but the bad part is that my knee is acting up so I may just have to bite the bullet and go to get it looked at.
The matches I did observe were well played for the most part. My son's team did very well with a 7-0 win and then an 8-0 win. But the really funny parts were the following:
- The first one was a jolly old referee. He did my son's first match and was a great example of how to work games without taking it too seriously but at the same time resepecting the kids and the parents. He had some dialogue with the crowd as well as explaining all the rules/decisions concisely when needed. And at the end of the game, he was leaving the field with us, so he turns to my daughter and asked her if would like a pencil. She said yes and he pulled out a soccer themed pencil. He gave a couple more out to the kids that were still around. That is why I called him a jolly old referee. Just a fun guy to be around. I am not sure if he ever works U19 matches or if it is mostly younger kids, but those tactics will not fly after a certain age group.
- The other interesting thing was that during the break between the first round of matches and the second, I was able to drive up to Walmart to buy some gloves and a knit hat as I did not have any and it was desperately needed. As I was walking up to pay I overheard a woman talking on the cell and her conversation went very much like this..."the girls played well but they were beaten, I do not remember the final score but it was not close. And the worst part was the referee, he called everything in favor of the other girls..." and then she was gone. I wanted to stop the woman and ask her if she really thought that the referee had that much ill will against a group of girls he does not even know. I think not!
I will have some more tomorrow, but the bad part is that my knee is acting up so I may just have to bite the bullet and go to get it looked at.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Limping out the season
Nowhere close to what I was expecting for the rec tournament I did this weekend. The day started off ok, the rain was held in check for Saturday morning and only scattered sprinkles could be felt. Traffic was not bad heading to the matches, but then I did not expect much at 7:15am on a Saturday morning.
Upon arrival, I see that the teams are arriving and I make my way to the field, but I must go on a tangent/rant. Matches were 25 minutes each with 5 minutes in between matches, so each match was expected to be played in 30 minute intervals. It was certainly impossible to keep that going. After the first match ended at 8:37 (already 7 minutes behind schedule), I knew there was no hope in keeping up with the alloted times. In the end, I was 35 minutes behind schedule when I ended my 8th match, and I have to say that I thought I did a good job.
Anyway, upon arriving, the field coordinator states that there is a big interest in getting the matches played but that I was the final say on if the matches would be played. I looked at the fields and saw that there were some minor puddles, but nothing that looked deep and/or problematic, so I said that we would be able to play.
The field was not in the best of shapes to start, and by the end it was a steaming pot of mud. I pity the referee who came after me. As the matches wore on, I could see that footing might be troublesome to maintain.
In the end, the level was not very good, the girls were all U12 and from rec leagues, so the level of play was not fantastic. The field did not allow for much fluid play and in 8 matches, I had a 2-0, 3 1-0 matches and 4 0-0 matches, not exactly brilliant but given the circumstances, understandable.
On a side note, I am now limping thanks to some misstep I took at some moment between the 5th or 6th match that caused me to run around in pain for the last of match 7 and all of match 8. The field probably contributed to the injury. At this point, it does not seem like a torn MCL or anything close, more like sprained. So not having actual reffing responsabilities next weekend is not a bad thing. At this point, I am happy the season is almost over and ready for the holidays to begin in earnest.
Upon arrival, I see that the teams are arriving and I make my way to the field, but I must go on a tangent/rant. Matches were 25 minutes each with 5 minutes in between matches, so each match was expected to be played in 30 minute intervals. It was certainly impossible to keep that going. After the first match ended at 8:37 (already 7 minutes behind schedule), I knew there was no hope in keeping up with the alloted times. In the end, I was 35 minutes behind schedule when I ended my 8th match, and I have to say that I thought I did a good job.
Anyway, upon arriving, the field coordinator states that there is a big interest in getting the matches played but that I was the final say on if the matches would be played. I looked at the fields and saw that there were some minor puddles, but nothing that looked deep and/or problematic, so I said that we would be able to play.
The field was not in the best of shapes to start, and by the end it was a steaming pot of mud. I pity the referee who came after me. As the matches wore on, I could see that footing might be troublesome to maintain.
In the end, the level was not very good, the girls were all U12 and from rec leagues, so the level of play was not fantastic. The field did not allow for much fluid play and in 8 matches, I had a 2-0, 3 1-0 matches and 4 0-0 matches, not exactly brilliant but given the circumstances, understandable.
On a side note, I am now limping thanks to some misstep I took at some moment between the 5th or 6th match that caused me to run around in pain for the last of match 7 and all of match 8. The field probably contributed to the injury. At this point, it does not seem like a torn MCL or anything close, more like sprained. So not having actual reffing responsabilities next weekend is not a bad thing. At this point, I am happy the season is almost over and ready for the holidays to begin in earnest.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Housekeeping
I realized that the links on the left were not working, so I fixed those and added one link to a blog of another ref who has been at it for a long time now and writes quite a bit as well too. His style is one that I can only hope to emulate and there are hundereds if not thousands of entries. I started reading it a couple of weeks ago and still have not caught up (I am on November of 2006). Refblog.com is the site, just in case.
No silver lining
I spoke too soon regarding these last two tournaments. The first one, starting tomorrow, looks to be a doozy with all the rain we may be getting. It is wet now and cold, so I imagine it will stay that way. I am not really looking forward to it, but I am in too deep at this point. At least I have 8 mini games on Saturday (the equivalent to 4 regular matches) and then Sunday I have 4 more (regular matches). I will tally these up as 8 matches total, though 12 results will be had.
As for the following weekend's tournament, I think I am paying the price of being a relative newbie. I was put in as a Stand-by for the fields where my son is to play. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but beggars can't be choosers, so I will take it and run with it. If I get a match or two, I will be happy but at least I will be able to watch my son's matches without any issues that weekend. More to come as it happens but let's say I do not expect much of anything to come from this tournament. So much for going out with a bang.
As for the following weekend's tournament, I think I am paying the price of being a relative newbie. I was put in as a Stand-by for the fields where my son is to play. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but beggars can't be choosers, so I will take it and run with it. If I get a match or two, I will be happy but at least I will be able to watch my son's matches without any issues that weekend. More to come as it happens but let's say I do not expect much of anything to come from this tournament. So much for going out with a bang.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
First Payment
Today I received my first check for services rendered. I was up to about $800 on my watch, in terms of all the leagues, of which there are 5. The check is nothing earth-shattering ($87) but it does represent the first amount that someone ever pays me for blowing a whistle. I am actually proud of myself (even though all the positions I did in this league were AR positions) and cannot wait to get more, but it puts in perspective that there are responsibilities. Today, it is sad in a way, that it went from a hobby and a passion to a job. I just hope that it stays as vibrant as it is now.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Assignments in so many colors
So the season is not dead yet. I had received an invite from an assignor that I never worked with a couple of weeks ago that basically said, call me at 11am today for assignments at the upcoming tournament on the weekend of November 15 and 16. So I did. At 11am on the dot. She was evidently fielding calls from other people already.
When she got to me, she asked me what I had worked already this season and what I felt comfortable with, etc. I got a Saturday with U12 girls and a Sunday with U11 boys. It was just interesting how you get assignments to that tournament. My son played in that tournament last season and the level of reffing was decent, to say the least, so I am hoping to be able to keep up the level. And U11 and U12 is not the oldest (U15 looked to be the oldest) but it was not the youngest either (with U8 being the youngest) and I would imagine that they keep those for the younger referees. I also got the mornings, as I do not mind being at the fields at 7:30, and the wife and kids will not be up until 9:30 or so, that works out well as there would not be that much time away while everyone is awake. The afternoon possibility was better to see championship matches (all the finals are played on Sunday afternoon) but it would also be something of a bigger break if we had any other weekend activities.
And the following weekend, I am part of another tournament, this time, with my son's team in play as well, so there are still some matches to be had even as the season winds down. And to think I am at 30 matches this season already. I will be close to 40-45 when it is all said and done for this first season. Not too shabby.
When she got to me, she asked me what I had worked already this season and what I felt comfortable with, etc. I got a Saturday with U12 girls and a Sunday with U11 boys. It was just interesting how you get assignments to that tournament. My son played in that tournament last season and the level of reffing was decent, to say the least, so I am hoping to be able to keep up the level. And U11 and U12 is not the oldest (U15 looked to be the oldest) but it was not the youngest either (with U8 being the youngest) and I would imagine that they keep those for the younger referees. I also got the mornings, as I do not mind being at the fields at 7:30, and the wife and kids will not be up until 9:30 or so, that works out well as there would not be that much time away while everyone is awake. The afternoon possibility was better to see championship matches (all the finals are played on Sunday afternoon) but it would also be something of a bigger break if we had any other weekend activities.
And the following weekend, I am part of another tournament, this time, with my son's team in play as well, so there are still some matches to be had even as the season winds down. And to think I am at 30 matches this season already. I will be close to 40-45 when it is all said and done for this first season. Not too shabby.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Wacky weekend
Well, this was one of those weekends that all the others have mentioned in their soccer reffing blogs (I plan to link some after posting this) but I never had experienced myself. I was scheduled to do 6 matches this weekend (yeah, my wife was thrilled!). But on Thursday, I get an email that the three games on Sunday had been moved from one site, to three and at all different times. I email the assignor who basically said that she had no control over the changes in venues and she understood if I had to cancel. I did as the games were all over the place. So I was down to 3 matches on Saturday. I emailed one of the assignors and asked if he had any matches. He sends one U13 my way for Sunday, so I was back to 4 matches. Then Friday night, I get the email from my Saturday matches confirming the assignments, and I am not on the list, so I was down to 1 match, man could not catch a break!
I email that assignor and he replies that he sent the wrong spreadsheet and the new spreadsheet did have me, so I was back up to 4. In the end, I did 5 matches as the one on Sunday was preceded by being asked to AR during my son's match, where the scheduled AR no-showed.
So on to the matches...the Saturday ones were all ARs for the local rec league in U16 and U14 formats. There were a couple of close games but what really called my attention was the fact that the local league had boys that were half the size of some of the other team's kids. The interesting match was a 1-0 match that was decided by a shot that hit the goalie's hands, popped back and landed just past the goal line for a goal. I was glad that I had run to the end and was able to see for sure that the ball had gone totally in before being snached again by the keeper. I ran up the line and the center showed his appreciation after the match for my being in position.
On Sunday, I was pulled last minute while watching my son's match to AR for the match right next to it in a U12 match. The only thing of note was the coach of the Orange team that sounded like Bruno Tonioli from Dancing with the Stars. Out of nowhere he starts yelling at me that I had not seen a hand ball. I do not get coaches. He immediately made me angry and I told him in no uncertain terms that it was the last I wanted to hear from him in that manner again. He pipped down after that.
Then I ran to my center match about 30 minutes away and did an awesome match of a U13 game. The level and speed was not something I was expecting. White was whiny (the kids were, the parents and the coaches not so much). Blue was also asking for fouls that just were not there.
We had a 2-1 match in favor of white when at about 4-5 minutes into the second half, I realized I had not started the watch and so I did some math and used a technique I read about somewhere else. If you forget to start the time, announce the time remaining with plenty of time, like at the 15 minute mark, so that no one is surprised when you count it down from 15, 10, 5 and 2 minutes. I like to do that in a close game.
The other was that on a corner, blue heads it and the ball hits the crossbar, bounces down and only my lead AR could see if it was a goal or not. I stopped the match, asked the AR and he said that he was fairly sure that the ball had gone in. He was not in the best position in the world, but he was the only one who could have seen it, so I validated the goal. The game ended 2-2 but I had to card one of the blue players for retaliating on a non-call that he thought he should have gotten. Other than that, it was a good game, an eye opener for me. Hoping to do more of those as they were the full sized field and this was fun!
Next week I am on travel, so I am not sure when the next post will be, hopefully soon.
I email that assignor and he replies that he sent the wrong spreadsheet and the new spreadsheet did have me, so I was back up to 4. In the end, I did 5 matches as the one on Sunday was preceded by being asked to AR during my son's match, where the scheduled AR no-showed.
So on to the matches...the Saturday ones were all ARs for the local rec league in U16 and U14 formats. There were a couple of close games but what really called my attention was the fact that the local league had boys that were half the size of some of the other team's kids. The interesting match was a 1-0 match that was decided by a shot that hit the goalie's hands, popped back and landed just past the goal line for a goal. I was glad that I had run to the end and was able to see for sure that the ball had gone totally in before being snached again by the keeper. I ran up the line and the center showed his appreciation after the match for my being in position.
On Sunday, I was pulled last minute while watching my son's match to AR for the match right next to it in a U12 match. The only thing of note was the coach of the Orange team that sounded like Bruno Tonioli from Dancing with the Stars. Out of nowhere he starts yelling at me that I had not seen a hand ball. I do not get coaches. He immediately made me angry and I told him in no uncertain terms that it was the last I wanted to hear from him in that manner again. He pipped down after that.
Then I ran to my center match about 30 minutes away and did an awesome match of a U13 game. The level and speed was not something I was expecting. White was whiny (the kids were, the parents and the coaches not so much). Blue was also asking for fouls that just were not there.
We had a 2-1 match in favor of white when at about 4-5 minutes into the second half, I realized I had not started the watch and so I did some math and used a technique I read about somewhere else. If you forget to start the time, announce the time remaining with plenty of time, like at the 15 minute mark, so that no one is surprised when you count it down from 15, 10, 5 and 2 minutes. I like to do that in a close game.
The other was that on a corner, blue heads it and the ball hits the crossbar, bounces down and only my lead AR could see if it was a goal or not. I stopped the match, asked the AR and he said that he was fairly sure that the ball had gone in. He was not in the best position in the world, but he was the only one who could have seen it, so I validated the goal. The game ended 2-2 but I had to card one of the blue players for retaliating on a non-call that he thought he should have gotten. Other than that, it was a good game, an eye opener for me. Hoping to do more of those as they were the full sized field and this was fun!
Next week I am on travel, so I am not sure when the next post will be, hopefully soon.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Season wind down
This coming weekend will be the last for this season except for a late November tournament that I will be participating in. I have six matches scheduled between Saturday and Sunday so it promises to go out with a bang. I am going to post total number of matches and other details once the season is officially over and hopefully, there will be some activity during the winter months as well but if not, I will resume once things start to move again in spring.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Rain, rain, play anyway!
In my last post, there were concerns over the weather this weekend. It was supposed to rain a fair amount on Saturday and it did. In our area, I would say at least 3/4 of an inch. However, when I got up at 7:30am, I checked the local website, expecting to see all the fields closed and noticed that the turf fields were open. I was not sure if I was on the turf fields (I was pretty sure I was not) but when I checked my email, I realized I was.
The first match, a close 1-1 match between two U10 teams was centered by one of the senior referees. He gave a lot of tips on when to call offsides, positioning, everything. I was certainly glad to have worked his game.
The second match was much more waterlogged and even the turf fields were ponding. I was really hoping for some thunder so we could just call the games but, no! It came down but no thunder or lightning in sight. The second match was a more monotonous affair, with both teams having to play a man down due to the fact that one of the teams did not have any subs. They ended up losing 5-2 but it was a good time at least where I could joke a bit with the team's parents.
Finally, it was my turn to center and the assignor was one of my ARs. I did an ok match given the circumstances (downright downpour). I missed an offside call on the other side of my AR, where the trail AR (the assignor) had to point it out. But it was the rain and everything else that made it interesting. In the end, I called only a couple of fouls, like 4-5 offisides and it was a 1-0 game decided in the end of match by a relatively tame ball that trickled through the hands of the goalie. Now my hope is that I can get more travel matches close to home. We will see.
The first match, a close 1-1 match between two U10 teams was centered by one of the senior referees. He gave a lot of tips on when to call offsides, positioning, everything. I was certainly glad to have worked his game.
The second match was much more waterlogged and even the turf fields were ponding. I was really hoping for some thunder so we could just call the games but, no! It came down but no thunder or lightning in sight. The second match was a more monotonous affair, with both teams having to play a man down due to the fact that one of the teams did not have any subs. They ended up losing 5-2 but it was a good time at least where I could joke a bit with the team's parents.
Finally, it was my turn to center and the assignor was one of my ARs. I did an ok match given the circumstances (downright downpour). I missed an offside call on the other side of my AR, where the trail AR (the assignor) had to point it out. But it was the rain and everything else that made it interesting. In the end, I called only a couple of fouls, like 4-5 offisides and it was a 1-0 game decided in the end of match by a relatively tame ball that trickled through the hands of the goalie. Now my hope is that I can get more travel matches close to home. We will see.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
So much for that!
They are calling for a big chunk of rain starting this Friday and into Saturday, so I will probably not be doing the games on Saturday. Too bad too, because it seems like it would help with getting more games closer to home.
Only time will tell but from the reports tonight, things look like they will be very wet (and canceled) for Saturday.
Only time will tell but from the reports tonight, things look like they will be very wet (and canceled) for Saturday.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Blowouts and bow outs
Well, I am going to take a break it seems for the next week or so, as I will be busy doing other things this coming weekend, most probably. I have a birthday celebration I need to take care of on Saturday and Sunday has us traveling over an hour and a half for a match in Frederick, MD. There will probably be no reffing this coming weekend and probably no posts either.
The other weekend (Nov 1 and 2) should be interesting though as I am going to be doing a center for a U15 girls match and then two ARs for U16 and U19. I am excited about that as I will be centering my first set with full ARs. I am ready, I think...
As for yesterday's match, it was a complete blowout, the visiting team camped out in the home team's half the whole time and racked up 6 goals in the process. I called one offside, one hand ball and one or two fouls, tops. If all games could be like that!
Well, I am editing this post because right after I posted this, I get a call from the local rec league assignor who said that he wanted me to center and AR for him and the league's travel assignor this Saturday morning. So much for not having to do much this weekend. It will be a fun weekend after all! More to come later in the week or this weekend.
The other weekend (Nov 1 and 2) should be interesting though as I am going to be doing a center for a U15 girls match and then two ARs for U16 and U19. I am excited about that as I will be centering my first set with full ARs. I am ready, I think...
As for yesterday's match, it was a complete blowout, the visiting team camped out in the home team's half the whole time and racked up 6 goals in the process. I called one offside, one hand ball and one or two fouls, tops. If all games could be like that!
Well, I am editing this post because right after I posted this, I get a call from the local rec league assignor who said that he wanted me to center and AR for him and the league's travel assignor this Saturday morning. So much for not having to do much this weekend. It will be a fun weekend after all! More to come later in the week or this weekend.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
(AR)e we there yet?
What a long set of matches! I had 4 AR positions today and it seemed like one match droned on to the next. It was quite tiring, cold and windy. I did get to see some good Centering in the first couple of matches, but the matches themselves were mostly blowouts.
The last two matches were much closer but the Center left a lot to be desired. He arrived late, had no flags, his whistle did not work, etc. Still the matches were much more intense as there was a 3-0 match at the half that ended 4-3 for the other team for the first match and then a well played 2-1 match with the tallest U12 player I had seen in my life (probably a little taller than me and I am 5'9").
Tomorrow I have a U11 Girls from the travel so it should be fun.
The last two matches were much closer but the Center left a lot to be desired. He arrived late, had no flags, his whistle did not work, etc. Still the matches were much more intense as there was a 3-0 match at the half that ended 4-3 for the other team for the first match and then a well played 2-1 match with the tallest U12 player I had seen in my life (probably a little taller than me and I am 5'9").
Tomorrow I have a U11 Girls from the travel so it should be fun.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Realization
Today, on my way to work, I came to a realization that I had not been paid one penny for my work up to now. Everyone appears to have a different system, but in the end, they all take their sweet time to pay.
One league states that they pay twice in the season, at around mid season (of which I think we are around that time) and the others do not have a clear policy, but when I added up my games up to now, I am over the $500 mark. Not that it is a ton of money, but it is decent change for paid exercise.
Anyway, I thought it was funny. In the end though, I feel I am well organized as I have a spreadsheet with all my games and another spreadsheet with my travel related expenses. I also have a folder where I keep all my purchases related to soccer, which are around $300-$400 at this point. So if you think about it, I will have only made $200-$300 after expenses this first season (but I should be able to deduct all the soccer expenses at tax time - I hope!).
This weekend, I have 4 AR matches in the U10 and U12 local rec league and then one Sunday U11 girls center. I want to get some more ARs with the adult league but I am not sure my wife will be happy with all that reffing when this past weekend it was all I did. I will update close to the weekend.
One league states that they pay twice in the season, at around mid season (of which I think we are around that time) and the others do not have a clear policy, but when I added up my games up to now, I am over the $500 mark. Not that it is a ton of money, but it is decent change for paid exercise.
Anyway, I thought it was funny. In the end though, I feel I am well organized as I have a spreadsheet with all my games and another spreadsheet with my travel related expenses. I also have a folder where I keep all my purchases related to soccer, which are around $300-$400 at this point. So if you think about it, I will have only made $200-$300 after expenses this first season (but I should be able to deduct all the soccer expenses at tax time - I hope!).
This weekend, I have 4 AR matches in the U10 and U12 local rec league and then one Sunday U11 girls center. I want to get some more ARs with the adult league but I am not sure my wife will be happy with all that reffing when this past weekend it was all I did. I will update close to the weekend.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Weekend Work
It was a interesting, fun-filled weekend. I had four games scheduled for the tournament, two U9 games and two U10 games. At the same time, my son's team was playing in another U9 bracket.
I am sure that anyone who referees games sees games differently if there is a vested interest due to the participation of a child, relative, etc. I have disagreed many times with referees in the past when it involves my child and his team, but I do not believe I had seen such bad officiating in some of the matches I witnessed. More on that later.
My four matches went ok, I got to call my first penalty and handed out my first yellow cards. In the end, I called two penalties and gave out two yellow cards, all in the same match, one penalty and one yellow card a piece.
The first one was evident, the boy was in the box by about two feet, got past the defender and the defender just leveled him with a kick to the shin of the foot that was in the air at the moment. It was a reckless foul and halfway towards a red card in my book. I immediately called the penalty and showed him the yellow card as it was truly unsportsmanslike. They converted the penalty.
Three minutes later, the other team is attacking and another interesting play occurs. A defensive player passes back to the goalie and the goalie falls on it. I call an indirect in favor of the attacking team. Since the ball was in the goalie box, I take the ball outside of the goalie box and have all the players on the defending team line up under their goalpost. In the end, they missed it but in the scramble, a defender charges and misses the ball and strikes the attacker who had the ball. A penalty again, but for the other side (I was not trying to play 'fair' in the sense of giving one team what the other team had received, it just happened that way). The goalie saved the kick, and that was the half.
In the second half, I showed a yellow to a boy who just kept on fouling. I had called 3-4 fouls on him in the first half and on the second foul of the second half, I said enough, and showed him a yellow for persistent infringement of the laws of the game. What was funny was that the coach of that team, at halftime, came out to talk to me and said that he wished all the refs called the games like I did, and had no fear of calling the difficult plays (2 penalties, a yellow card and an indirect on the 6 - all in the first half of a 25 minute half).
I later found out that he complained to the referee table about me stating that his kid had only commited 4-5 fouls in the game and he did not understand why I was being so harsh with him. Funny how these things work...
The other games were much less involved. One of them was a 7-0 blowout, so not much there, and the other two were U10 matches that were good, well played games, with little fouling, one ended 1-1 and the other 2-0.
Back to my son's matches now. I have to say that many of the younger refs, those kids in the 15-18 age group seem to have a solid lack of understanding for the rules of soccer, and an adverse feeling towards the blowing of the whistle. We had three or four times when the whistle was not heard when play needed to be clearly stopped.
And as a side note, as a point of reference, I follow the plays closely (and that is why I sometimes get winded and tired after only two youth matches) and get to see a lot of the minor fouls that go on, like the pushing off, the pulling of shirts, the high kicks, etc. I, on average, call about 10-15 fouls a game I would think in the U9 to U10 age group and I feel that some teams commit fouls all the time because they are trained to foul all the time. In two of my son's matches, no fouls were called in a 50 minute match. I repeat, NO FOULS. That is virtually impossible. At the same time, I am watching the games and seeing what I would call a foul. Let's just put it that my sense of foul recognition and many of the younger kid referee's sense of fouls are way off.
Finally, the worst play of the weekend was a breakaway of my son's team towards the rival goal and he gets fouled from behind and in my opinion, inside the penalty area. The ref calls the foul, puts the ball on the line of the penalty area and calls for a direct free kick. What the heck is that? On the line is inside the box, according to the rules, but the boy would not be budged (I refrain from yelling, like the other parents and coaches due as I do not want to appear partial and then have to ref those other kids in another game).
In the end, my son's team did not do well at all, and the officiating had nothing to do with it, so no blame there, but really, if you are going to be a referee in this sport, please, please read the rules, do a couple of season in the rec league if you are not sure and then come and do reffing for a more complicated and advanced soccer style as many of my coworkers this weekend were not ready for "prime-time".
I am sure that anyone who referees games sees games differently if there is a vested interest due to the participation of a child, relative, etc. I have disagreed many times with referees in the past when it involves my child and his team, but I do not believe I had seen such bad officiating in some of the matches I witnessed. More on that later.
My four matches went ok, I got to call my first penalty and handed out my first yellow cards. In the end, I called two penalties and gave out two yellow cards, all in the same match, one penalty and one yellow card a piece.
The first one was evident, the boy was in the box by about two feet, got past the defender and the defender just leveled him with a kick to the shin of the foot that was in the air at the moment. It was a reckless foul and halfway towards a red card in my book. I immediately called the penalty and showed him the yellow card as it was truly unsportsmanslike. They converted the penalty.
Three minutes later, the other team is attacking and another interesting play occurs. A defensive player passes back to the goalie and the goalie falls on it. I call an indirect in favor of the attacking team. Since the ball was in the goalie box, I take the ball outside of the goalie box and have all the players on the defending team line up under their goalpost. In the end, they missed it but in the scramble, a defender charges and misses the ball and strikes the attacker who had the ball. A penalty again, but for the other side (I was not trying to play 'fair' in the sense of giving one team what the other team had received, it just happened that way). The goalie saved the kick, and that was the half.
In the second half, I showed a yellow to a boy who just kept on fouling. I had called 3-4 fouls on him in the first half and on the second foul of the second half, I said enough, and showed him a yellow for persistent infringement of the laws of the game. What was funny was that the coach of that team, at halftime, came out to talk to me and said that he wished all the refs called the games like I did, and had no fear of calling the difficult plays (2 penalties, a yellow card and an indirect on the 6 - all in the first half of a 25 minute half).
I later found out that he complained to the referee table about me stating that his kid had only commited 4-5 fouls in the game and he did not understand why I was being so harsh with him. Funny how these things work...
The other games were much less involved. One of them was a 7-0 blowout, so not much there, and the other two were U10 matches that were good, well played games, with little fouling, one ended 1-1 and the other 2-0.
Back to my son's matches now. I have to say that many of the younger refs, those kids in the 15-18 age group seem to have a solid lack of understanding for the rules of soccer, and an adverse feeling towards the blowing of the whistle. We had three or four times when the whistle was not heard when play needed to be clearly stopped.
And as a side note, as a point of reference, I follow the plays closely (and that is why I sometimes get winded and tired after only two youth matches) and get to see a lot of the minor fouls that go on, like the pushing off, the pulling of shirts, the high kicks, etc. I, on average, call about 10-15 fouls a game I would think in the U9 to U10 age group and I feel that some teams commit fouls all the time because they are trained to foul all the time. In two of my son's matches, no fouls were called in a 50 minute match. I repeat, NO FOULS. That is virtually impossible. At the same time, I am watching the games and seeing what I would call a foul. Let's just put it that my sense of foul recognition and many of the younger kid referee's sense of fouls are way off.
Finally, the worst play of the weekend was a breakaway of my son's team towards the rival goal and he gets fouled from behind and in my opinion, inside the penalty area. The ref calls the foul, puts the ball on the line of the penalty area and calls for a direct free kick. What the heck is that? On the line is inside the box, according to the rules, but the boy would not be budged (I refrain from yelling, like the other parents and coaches due as I do not want to appear partial and then have to ref those other kids in another game).
In the end, my son's team did not do well at all, and the officiating had nothing to do with it, so no blame there, but really, if you are going to be a referee in this sport, please, please read the rules, do a couple of season in the rec league if you are not sure and then come and do reffing for a more complicated and advanced soccer style as many of my coworkers this weekend were not ready for "prime-time".
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Excitement
This coming weekend I get to do a tournament. It is called the Battlefield Classic and I have four games scheduled, so that should be fun. At the same time, I am a stand-by ref, so if there are any problems, injuries, etc, I may do more. I will try and post between day 1 and day 2.
As for this past week, I did 3 U8 rec league centers and then an AR for a U19 league. The three centers were a lot of fun and very competitive in the sense that all three games were close. 2-2, 1-0 and 3-2 were the final scores.
The AR position for the Sunday game was an assessment game. I did not know it was an assessment game until I received an email from the center stating to make sure that I was early so I could go over all the lines etc. He also asked me to make sure that I brought my USSF card, so I emailed my assignor and the person who had registered me into the reffing world as well to ask them if I could get it or at least the number. The registrar sent me a strange response, to the point that stated, "You are probably way out of your league and will probably hurt the center's chances to get to go to Grade 7". When I spoke to my assignor though, she said that I should not worry about an 8 to 7 upgrade, most everyone passes that one and you really only have to terrible at foul recognition to screw it up.
Anyway, I went, and boy those U19 boys were tough. The amount of mental abuse the center and the ARs get in these games is unreal. I called a paper thin offsides, where the attacker was just in front of everyone else and another attacker appeared to pass the ball (or it could have been a self pass) but when I raised my flag, holy moly, the boys let me have it. "Thanks for making us lose the game", "Maybe everyone should get glasses" and so on.
For the first time ever I had to tell the coach to can it as I had had enough. The team was down 1-0 at that point in the second half and what made it funny was the fact that they scored twice in the final 10 minutes to steal the match.
After the match the assessor went over the things the center did well and not so well. I thought he had done a decent job. Not spectacular, but good enough to pass. The assessor said that he was going to pass him but barely, as he had horrible positioning, where he did not look at the ARs and he did not work with the lead AR on plays to make sure that everything was covered. The fact that he had his back to me while corners were being taken on the other side of my field was the one thing the assessor though was the worst.
It was a good experience, but not one that I want to do again, at least not for a couple of weeks, the kids were brutal enough. I will update everyone this weekend after the tournament.
As for this past week, I did 3 U8 rec league centers and then an AR for a U19 league. The three centers were a lot of fun and very competitive in the sense that all three games were close. 2-2, 1-0 and 3-2 were the final scores.
The AR position for the Sunday game was an assessment game. I did not know it was an assessment game until I received an email from the center stating to make sure that I was early so I could go over all the lines etc. He also asked me to make sure that I brought my USSF card, so I emailed my assignor and the person who had registered me into the reffing world as well to ask them if I could get it or at least the number. The registrar sent me a strange response, to the point that stated, "You are probably way out of your league and will probably hurt the center's chances to get to go to Grade 7". When I spoke to my assignor though, she said that I should not worry about an 8 to 7 upgrade, most everyone passes that one and you really only have to terrible at foul recognition to screw it up.
Anyway, I went, and boy those U19 boys were tough. The amount of mental abuse the center and the ARs get in these games is unreal. I called a paper thin offsides, where the attacker was just in front of everyone else and another attacker appeared to pass the ball (or it could have been a self pass) but when I raised my flag, holy moly, the boys let me have it. "Thanks for making us lose the game", "Maybe everyone should get glasses" and so on.
For the first time ever I had to tell the coach to can it as I had had enough. The team was down 1-0 at that point in the second half and what made it funny was the fact that they scored twice in the final 10 minutes to steal the match.
After the match the assessor went over the things the center did well and not so well. I thought he had done a decent job. Not spectacular, but good enough to pass. The assessor said that he was going to pass him but barely, as he had horrible positioning, where he did not look at the ARs and he did not work with the lead AR on plays to make sure that everything was covered. The fact that he had his back to me while corners were being taken on the other side of my field was the one thing the assessor though was the worst.
It was a good experience, but not one that I want to do again, at least not for a couple of weeks, the kids were brutal enough. I will update everyone this weekend after the tournament.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Out of Position
Today's games for the most part have been rained out (though it is sunny) and I drove to the field anyway since the day was looking nice. Next time I will make sure that I check email and the website before driving down and finding out that things were not as they seemed. Always a learning experience.
Yesterday I was able to do a girls U10 match. And there was not much to comment as one team was clearly superior to the other (4-0 was the final score) but I realized in the first half that it did not seem to be too hard to stay back and watch the match from farther away that I normally do and still make the calls.
That 'discovery' lasted me until about midway through the second half, I myself felt I was out of position and could not see things as closely. I even felt I called a couple of fouls on the reaction of the players instead of what I saw, so I am scratching that, I am going to have to be in better position and closer to the play because this calling it from 20 feet just does not suit my style. As always, it is good to walk away from a match and figure out you learned something.
There is still one AR position left this afternoon that appears to still be on, we will see if that is the case closer to the kick-off time, but I certainly hope so as I wanted to make over $100 this weekend (my wife's car had to get a lot of work done) and could use every penny!
Yesterday I was able to do a girls U10 match. And there was not much to comment as one team was clearly superior to the other (4-0 was the final score) but I realized in the first half that it did not seem to be too hard to stay back and watch the match from farther away that I normally do and still make the calls.
That 'discovery' lasted me until about midway through the second half, I myself felt I was out of position and could not see things as closely. I even felt I called a couple of fouls on the reaction of the players instead of what I saw, so I am scratching that, I am going to have to be in better position and closer to the play because this calling it from 20 feet just does not suit my style. As always, it is good to walk away from a match and figure out you learned something.
There is still one AR position left this afternoon that appears to still be on, we will see if that is the case closer to the kick-off time, but I certainly hope so as I wanted to make over $100 this weekend (my wife's car had to get a lot of work done) and could use every penny!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Last Weekend's Recap
Alas, I am in training this week for my 'real' job and so updating this blog has not been priority one. But I did want to document some of the experiences from last week as there were a couple of interesting things that happened.
I did two ARs on Saturday and one center and one AR on Sunday. Let me start chronologically. On Saturday, I was scheduled to do the two ARs, for the local rec league. I was not too 'up' for it, because of the pay for these matches. The AR position paid only $14 per match (about 1 hour), was for U10 boys I and thought to myself, this is a waste of my time. I also thought that the level of play was going to be beneath me (and you will see how I had to swallow that thought later) but in the end, I had signed up and was going to do it because it was the right thing to do.
I arrived at the field about 10 minutes before kick-off (traffic getting there was absurd that afternoon) and when I arrive, I see the other two there, the Center was probably 15 if that much and the other AR was 13 years old. That only added to my thought of 'why am I doing such a rinky-dink match when I have already done more significant matches'. To top it off, the center hands me his flag and it had to be the cheapest looking flags I had ever seen. I have a set of flags of course, and they were not too expensive, maybe $10 or so. They are not professional looking, but they do look ok. These were more like sticks with colored toilet paper. Again, adding it up in my mind that this was not worth it.
To top it off, we start the match and the Center calls an indirect kick inside the penalty area right at the start of the game because of an appearant pass back to the goalie which I did not think was correct. What made it worse was that the boy taking the free kick shoots directly on goal and scores (remember it was an indirect kick) and the ref validates the goal. To be fair, I believe I was the only one who noticed. At halftime I asked him what he thought of the play and he insisted someone else touched it before going in, so at least he knew the rule, though his eyesight would need to be checked.
That first match ended 8-0 and was over 5 minutes into the match. The second match was a lot closer and right before kickoff, the referee assignor for the league stops by and says that he is going to be watching the match. I later realized that this whole deal of giving me an AR position for a match that I knew for sure was not very challenging was all a cover to see if I would take even the most trivial assignments seriously.
In the end, there were two interesting things of note in the second match that day. The first was a foul by the goalie outside of the box to an attacking player. I raised my flag but it seemed the Center shot me down. The second was a breakaway where one player was going on goal and a teammate was in front of him with just the goalie to beat. The numbnuts passed it to his teammate (in an offside position of course as the goalie was the last man) and so they blew it.
After the match, the assignor said that on the goalie foul, I should have pointed towards the side of the team making the infraction so the Center would know who to call the foul on. The other one was the fact that the offside call was spot on according to him and he saw my enthusiasm for reffing by taking a simple U10 rec league match so seriously.
So now I was offered to do an AR position this weekend for the u16 girls in a more competitive league to see how I do there. It will be interesting for sure.
Sunday's matches were great. The center match I did was a U10 boys travel match and I cannot tell you how amazed I was at the level of ball handling these boys had. The match ended 3-3 and it was so well played. The other match was an AR for the adult co-ed league. I learned in that match exactly how difficult it is to be watching your sideline up and down the whole way and at the same time, keep up with the second to last defender. I caught myself several times either out of position or barely getting to see who the ball went out on my side. That is something I am going to have to work on, for sure.
This coming weekend, I have two centers and one AR, and all are local, so hopefully, things continue to work out well. It is fun for sure and I am always looking forward to the weekend it seems.
I did two ARs on Saturday and one center and one AR on Sunday. Let me start chronologically. On Saturday, I was scheduled to do the two ARs, for the local rec league. I was not too 'up' for it, because of the pay for these matches. The AR position paid only $14 per match (about 1 hour), was for U10 boys I and thought to myself, this is a waste of my time. I also thought that the level of play was going to be beneath me (and you will see how I had to swallow that thought later) but in the end, I had signed up and was going to do it because it was the right thing to do.
I arrived at the field about 10 minutes before kick-off (traffic getting there was absurd that afternoon) and when I arrive, I see the other two there, the Center was probably 15 if that much and the other AR was 13 years old. That only added to my thought of 'why am I doing such a rinky-dink match when I have already done more significant matches'. To top it off, the center hands me his flag and it had to be the cheapest looking flags I had ever seen. I have a set of flags of course, and they were not too expensive, maybe $10 or so. They are not professional looking, but they do look ok. These were more like sticks with colored toilet paper. Again, adding it up in my mind that this was not worth it.
To top it off, we start the match and the Center calls an indirect kick inside the penalty area right at the start of the game because of an appearant pass back to the goalie which I did not think was correct. What made it worse was that the boy taking the free kick shoots directly on goal and scores (remember it was an indirect kick) and the ref validates the goal. To be fair, I believe I was the only one who noticed. At halftime I asked him what he thought of the play and he insisted someone else touched it before going in, so at least he knew the rule, though his eyesight would need to be checked.
That first match ended 8-0 and was over 5 minutes into the match. The second match was a lot closer and right before kickoff, the referee assignor for the league stops by and says that he is going to be watching the match. I later realized that this whole deal of giving me an AR position for a match that I knew for sure was not very challenging was all a cover to see if I would take even the most trivial assignments seriously.
In the end, there were two interesting things of note in the second match that day. The first was a foul by the goalie outside of the box to an attacking player. I raised my flag but it seemed the Center shot me down. The second was a breakaway where one player was going on goal and a teammate was in front of him with just the goalie to beat. The numbnuts passed it to his teammate (in an offside position of course as the goalie was the last man) and so they blew it.
After the match, the assignor said that on the goalie foul, I should have pointed towards the side of the team making the infraction so the Center would know who to call the foul on. The other one was the fact that the offside call was spot on according to him and he saw my enthusiasm for reffing by taking a simple U10 rec league match so seriously.
So now I was offered to do an AR position this weekend for the u16 girls in a more competitive league to see how I do there. It will be interesting for sure.
Sunday's matches were great. The center match I did was a U10 boys travel match and I cannot tell you how amazed I was at the level of ball handling these boys had. The match ended 3-3 and it was so well played. The other match was an AR for the adult co-ed league. I learned in that match exactly how difficult it is to be watching your sideline up and down the whole way and at the same time, keep up with the second to last defender. I caught myself several times either out of position or barely getting to see who the ball went out on my side. That is something I am going to have to work on, for sure.
This coming weekend, I have two centers and one AR, and all are local, so hopefully, things continue to work out well. It is fun for sure and I am always looking forward to the weekend it seems.
Friday, September 19, 2008
This weekend
This weekend, I have more games, for sure. My goal is to do at least one match every weekend this season. That way it does not take a ton of time out of my weekend, which already includes a game on Saturday with my daughter and my son's on Sunday.
However, this weekend, turned out to be quite moving as I have 3 ARs for the local rec league on Saturday and one center and one AR on Sunday. The Sunday matches are what I am looking towards as they are a U10 boys match and then an adult coed league match where I am an AR. I am excited that I will get to do 5 matches this weekend, but hoping the body keeps up with the pace I am going to put it through as I am not much of an exerciser. If you read an earlier post, I refer to reffing as a form of paid exercise.
In terms of getting these assignments, it is a lot of reaching out. Once you complete your course as a Grade 8, my suggestion is to start off and talk to one of the instructors. There is a great chance that one of them will be an assignor, so start with them and ask them if they have a league that you can ref with, or get on a mailing list. Your local referee organization should have a list of certified assignors for your area. Send them an email as well stating that you would like to be put in their mailing list. Finally, find out about tournaments via the assignors you work with once you have sent the initial message.
You will see that they have to have a ton patience and amazing organization (at least in this area) because the sheer number of games and the level of what can and cannot be booked, is quite mind boggling. By way of this post, I want to say thank you to all the assignors for all the work, late nights they put in trying to juggle the matches, refs, assignments.
I will update everyone as much as I can for this weekend's games and hope to have at least one more for next weekend. Wish me luck and thanks for the emails!
However, this weekend, turned out to be quite moving as I have 3 ARs for the local rec league on Saturday and one center and one AR on Sunday. The Sunday matches are what I am looking towards as they are a U10 boys match and then an adult coed league match where I am an AR. I am excited that I will get to do 5 matches this weekend, but hoping the body keeps up with the pace I am going to put it through as I am not much of an exerciser. If you read an earlier post, I refer to reffing as a form of paid exercise.
In terms of getting these assignments, it is a lot of reaching out. Once you complete your course as a Grade 8, my suggestion is to start off and talk to one of the instructors. There is a great chance that one of them will be an assignor, so start with them and ask them if they have a league that you can ref with, or get on a mailing list. Your local referee organization should have a list of certified assignors for your area. Send them an email as well stating that you would like to be put in their mailing list. Finally, find out about tournaments via the assignors you work with once you have sent the initial message.
You will see that they have to have a ton patience and amazing organization (at least in this area) because the sheer number of games and the level of what can and cannot be booked, is quite mind boggling. By way of this post, I want to say thank you to all the assignors for all the work, late nights they put in trying to juggle the matches, refs, assignments.
I will update everyone as much as I can for this weekend's games and hope to have at least one more for next weekend. Wish me luck and thanks for the emails!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
First Center Breakdown
Well, it is over and done with. My first center for a U9 girls match. The other two games I thought I was going to do, was given to another ref who asked for the games before I did. In retrospect, I am happy that I did not work them as it was literally 95 degrees plus and I was soaked to the bone after that first game.
Anyway, the game was a tight one, between two teams that handled the ball very well for U9. I was impressed with the control that some girls had (one using her shoulders to control the ball). In the end, the white team came from a goal down to win 2-1 with 2 minutes left to play. The orange team I thought was marginally better, and had a better keeper, but they just ran out of gas it seems.
What was interesting was how on my toes these girls kept me. I had to pay attention to a lot more shoving and they were certainly more agressive than I thought they could be. I also had to watch for offsides more than I originally would have anticipated. They moved the ball well enough to cause problems and my positioning probably was horrible as it was my first match. But I believe I was able to make every call that needed to be called. I am sure I screwed up some throw-ins as the action sometimes was happening far enough where I was not 100% sure.
Two interesting things of note, the first was that after the match, a coach came to question one of my calls, where there was a delayed offside (a girl on the orange team was offside when her teammate attempted a pass to her, the ball was interecepted by a white player and the offside attacker when to try and take the ball away - that is when I called an offside). I had to explain that the mere fact that she was in an offside position was not enough to call offsides. As the pass was going towards her, the interception occured and I did not want to stop play as she was not at that point participating in the play, but she tried to strip the ball and that is when I determined that she was in an offside position and trying to take advantage of that from a pass that was originally going towards her. Mind you that this interaction took 2-3 seconds at the most, so I get it when refs are critizied because no one on the orange team was happy with my call, to the point where the coach questioned me after the game.
The other interesting thing was that I had a player kick a ball twice on a restart before anyone else touched it. Another ref that I spoke with a couple of weeks ago stated that he had been reffing for over 15 years and that he had never had to call it until last week. Well, I got it on my first center ever. I wonder how long will go by before I call it again (of course it is more common in rec and kids leagues like this than older more advanced leagues).
So the first one is in the books, I will be doing some AR work next weekend for the local rec league and will be trying to get some more games for next weekend, but in the meantime, I am happy with what I did yesterday. It was a tough game because of the evenness of both teams. After the final whistle, all the girls from both teams came over to thank me, and that is what I enjoyed the most. I felt that if I had not done a good job, then the coaches and the players would not have been all smiles. It was fun and quite a workout. Final note, I lost four pounds for that game, with all the running around and sweating. This 'paid exercise' program I am on is not bad at all!
I will attempt to update the links and such during the week and get more info on next weekend's matches.
Anyway, the game was a tight one, between two teams that handled the ball very well for U9. I was impressed with the control that some girls had (one using her shoulders to control the ball). In the end, the white team came from a goal down to win 2-1 with 2 minutes left to play. The orange team I thought was marginally better, and had a better keeper, but they just ran out of gas it seems.
What was interesting was how on my toes these girls kept me. I had to pay attention to a lot more shoving and they were certainly more agressive than I thought they could be. I also had to watch for offsides more than I originally would have anticipated. They moved the ball well enough to cause problems and my positioning probably was horrible as it was my first match. But I believe I was able to make every call that needed to be called. I am sure I screwed up some throw-ins as the action sometimes was happening far enough where I was not 100% sure.
Two interesting things of note, the first was that after the match, a coach came to question one of my calls, where there was a delayed offside (a girl on the orange team was offside when her teammate attempted a pass to her, the ball was interecepted by a white player and the offside attacker when to try and take the ball away - that is when I called an offside). I had to explain that the mere fact that she was in an offside position was not enough to call offsides. As the pass was going towards her, the interception occured and I did not want to stop play as she was not at that point participating in the play, but she tried to strip the ball and that is when I determined that she was in an offside position and trying to take advantage of that from a pass that was originally going towards her. Mind you that this interaction took 2-3 seconds at the most, so I get it when refs are critizied because no one on the orange team was happy with my call, to the point where the coach questioned me after the game.
The other interesting thing was that I had a player kick a ball twice on a restart before anyone else touched it. Another ref that I spoke with a couple of weeks ago stated that he had been reffing for over 15 years and that he had never had to call it until last week. Well, I got it on my first center ever. I wonder how long will go by before I call it again (of course it is more common in rec and kids leagues like this than older more advanced leagues).
So the first one is in the books, I will be doing some AR work next weekend for the local rec league and will be trying to get some more games for next weekend, but in the meantime, I am happy with what I did yesterday. It was a tough game because of the evenness of both teams. After the final whistle, all the girls from both teams came over to thank me, and that is what I enjoyed the most. I felt that if I had not done a good job, then the coaches and the players would not have been all smiles. It was fun and quite a workout. Final note, I lost four pounds for that game, with all the running around and sweating. This 'paid exercise' program I am on is not bad at all!
I will attempt to update the links and such during the week and get more info on next weekend's matches.
Friday, September 12, 2008
My First Center
Tomorrow I will be doing my first center right before my son's game. It is a U9 Girls game. I tried to choose one that was relatively innocent and that was as close as I could find as the local rec league does not allow new refs to work the first weekend of their season (I am not sure why, though).
So even though I should be ok, I am a little bit nervous, as it will be my first game. I will have 2-3 games this weekend as a center but I should be ok, none of them are finals or even to the point where a score is kept. Once I have the initial jitters out of the way, I think it will be ok. My next challenge will be when I ref for the adult league sometime in the next two weeks.
This leads me to the next part of my post, the whole aspect of getting assignments. It boggles the mind how complex this must be. I am signed up in some way, shape or form, to officiate for six different leagues. There is the adult league that has a co-ed league and a women's only league. They send emails saying these are our games, and you email them back with the ones that you want to work. This system is simple enough.
There are two rec leagues that I am associated with, the one that is right where I live and one that is one county over. One of them requires that you tell them your availability before the season starts and they give you your list of games for the whole season right before the first weekend of the season. They have a somewhat petty rule that new refs cannot work the first weekend, so tomorrow morning we all have a meeting with them but I will not be working with them till next weekend. Their system is the poorest of all as it becomes quite inflexible. My thinking is that I will work this first season with them and then stop, but then again, my daughter plays in the league and it is easier to ref for them, for sure.
The other rec league as well as the two travel leagues that I am associated with use a site called thearbiter.net. This site is kind of an Outlook on steriods. Not very intuative, and I work in IT for a living. Still, one of the assignors was kind enough to give me a step-by-step guide, and I was able to schedule and "open" the days and times I wanted to work and theoretically, the assignors will then give you games based on your availability.
Above I say theoretically, because one of the travel leagues where I am associated with sent out an email stating that there were games with no referees and to please check them out and take the ones you wanted to work. When I opened the email, I could not believe the number of games with no ref. For tomorrow Saturday, the list was at least 35 matches long and Sunday's list was even worse. One of the games listed was my son's game, which I would rather not ref. But I did get the game prior and the game right after since I was already going to be there.
After this weekend, I hope to give a list of where I went to get games and what strategies I used to get on all these lists. There were a couple of jerks that I met along the way, and I hope to go into that as well, but for now, wish me luck for this weekend and hope those 9 year old girls don't give me a run for the money ($35).
So even though I should be ok, I am a little bit nervous, as it will be my first game. I will have 2-3 games this weekend as a center but I should be ok, none of them are finals or even to the point where a score is kept. Once I have the initial jitters out of the way, I think it will be ok. My next challenge will be when I ref for the adult league sometime in the next two weeks.
This leads me to the next part of my post, the whole aspect of getting assignments. It boggles the mind how complex this must be. I am signed up in some way, shape or form, to officiate for six different leagues. There is the adult league that has a co-ed league and a women's only league. They send emails saying these are our games, and you email them back with the ones that you want to work. This system is simple enough.
There are two rec leagues that I am associated with, the one that is right where I live and one that is one county over. One of them requires that you tell them your availability before the season starts and they give you your list of games for the whole season right before the first weekend of the season. They have a somewhat petty rule that new refs cannot work the first weekend, so tomorrow morning we all have a meeting with them but I will not be working with them till next weekend. Their system is the poorest of all as it becomes quite inflexible. My thinking is that I will work this first season with them and then stop, but then again, my daughter plays in the league and it is easier to ref for them, for sure.
The other rec league as well as the two travel leagues that I am associated with use a site called thearbiter.net. This site is kind of an Outlook on steriods. Not very intuative, and I work in IT for a living. Still, one of the assignors was kind enough to give me a step-by-step guide, and I was able to schedule and "open" the days and times I wanted to work and theoretically, the assignors will then give you games based on your availability.
Above I say theoretically, because one of the travel leagues where I am associated with sent out an email stating that there were games with no referees and to please check them out and take the ones you wanted to work. When I opened the email, I could not believe the number of games with no ref. For tomorrow Saturday, the list was at least 35 matches long and Sunday's list was even worse. One of the games listed was my son's game, which I would rather not ref. But I did get the game prior and the game right after since I was already going to be there.
After this weekend, I hope to give a list of where I went to get games and what strategies I used to get on all these lists. There were a couple of jerks that I met along the way, and I hope to go into that as well, but for now, wish me luck for this weekend and hope those 9 year old girls don't give me a run for the money ($35).
Thursday, September 11, 2008
9/11
I am not going to write much of anything today. Being in the DC area, I still remember with horror what happened 7 years ago. I drove by the Pentagon 15 minutes before the plane hit it and I still remember the smell when I went home that day. Tomorrow we can talk soccer, today, a moment of silence...
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Getting Started
Ok, so by now, if you have ever tried to delve into the world of officiating, you know that it is like every other aspect in life. There are a lot of people or organizations that do good, or make good products and then there are those that do not but try to pass it off as the best. Those that seem to spend more on Marketing than their actual products, seem to lure you, but you have to be careful to look at everything before you leap.
In terms of buying the equipment, there are many options from many companies. I started out at OfficialSports.com because they are the 'official' place to get gear (read as more expensive). Since my goal for this first season was to just get a feel for the game, I decided to buy their starter kit with a black shirt. It arrived all nice and dandy but it set me back almost $90 for the kit with the flags, bag, shorts, socks, two ref shirts, data wallet, cards, whistle, etc.
I also bought extra shirts (yellow, red) as well as other essentials from Score Sports. They had an interesting line of items and the prices were much better than the ones from Official Sports. Shipping was much more expensive too from these people in comparison, but I suspect it was all related to the distance as Score is based in CA while Official Sports is in IL (I believe) and the shipments were coming to VA.
Finally, I bought some other shirts (long sleeves) and accessories from a place called Soccer One. Their pricing was great for the closeout stuff (the old shirts were just $10 each whereas the shirts from Official Sports range from $25 for the closeouts to $45 for each of the new official ones).
All said, I think I am in for about $300 between all the shirts (I have all 5 in short sleeve and 3 in long sleeve), ref shoes (Diadora ones that are fantastic), pants, bag and accessories. I could have spent more if I had gone with the best quality on everything and I certainly could have spent less as well. But that should give you an idea of what it takes to get started in terms of equipment.
The actual referee course cost $65 and required four evenings of my time where we got to cover the rule book, the procedures for a center referee and an AR and a ton of videos. The exam, I did not find too difficult. It consisted of 100 questions and many were based on what the restart should be if such and such happens. I got a 95% so it was not bad at all. BTW, passing score was 75% which is too low in my opinion.
I will try and get some links up to all the sites in the next couple of days (I am new to the blogging world) and will get a more detailed view of the way to actually get games as it seems hard at first, but then when you uncover the way the system works, there are plenty of games out there.
In terms of buying the equipment, there are many options from many companies. I started out at OfficialSports.com because they are the 'official' place to get gear (read as more expensive). Since my goal for this first season was to just get a feel for the game, I decided to buy their starter kit with a black shirt. It arrived all nice and dandy but it set me back almost $90 for the kit with the flags, bag, shorts, socks, two ref shirts, data wallet, cards, whistle, etc.
I also bought extra shirts (yellow, red) as well as other essentials from Score Sports. They had an interesting line of items and the prices were much better than the ones from Official Sports. Shipping was much more expensive too from these people in comparison, but I suspect it was all related to the distance as Score is based in CA while Official Sports is in IL (I believe) and the shipments were coming to VA.
Finally, I bought some other shirts (long sleeves) and accessories from a place called Soccer One. Their pricing was great for the closeout stuff (the old shirts were just $10 each whereas the shirts from Official Sports range from $25 for the closeouts to $45 for each of the new official ones).
All said, I think I am in for about $300 between all the shirts (I have all 5 in short sleeve and 3 in long sleeve), ref shoes (Diadora ones that are fantastic), pants, bag and accessories. I could have spent more if I had gone with the best quality on everything and I certainly could have spent less as well. But that should give you an idea of what it takes to get started in terms of equipment.
The actual referee course cost $65 and required four evenings of my time where we got to cover the rule book, the procedures for a center referee and an AR and a ton of videos. The exam, I did not find too difficult. It consisted of 100 questions and many were based on what the restart should be if such and such happens. I got a 95% so it was not bad at all. BTW, passing score was 75% which is too low in my opinion.
I will try and get some links up to all the sites in the next couple of days (I am new to the blogging world) and will get a more detailed view of the way to actually get games as it seems hard at first, but then when you uncover the way the system works, there are plenty of games out there.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
YASR Kicks Off!
Welcome to my blog on all things Soccer and especially soccer refereeing and soccer as a youth sport as I have two children who play it. Just so we have context, I am married, 33 years old with two children, eight and six so even though I would love to referee most of the weekend, there are other things in life to worry about that are many times much more important than the soccer field.
In the coming days I will get more information out on what goes on regarding the matches I do and my take on things that happen. Comments are always welcome, by the way. Needless to say, I am not always right, and will have questions as well as answers. Look forward to being in contact with you all soon.
There are at least two or three other people that blog about their soccer referee experiences, one started five years ago and the other is working on his second year it seems. I will post their links as well as places where I have bought gear from shortly. I wanted to get this post in so that it would be 'in the books' but later plan on giving a more detailed breakdown of the registeration/certification process and many other details in case you want to get started on this as well.
In the coming days I will get more information out on what goes on regarding the matches I do and my take on things that happen. Comments are always welcome, by the way. Needless to say, I am not always right, and will have questions as well as answers. Look forward to being in contact with you all soon.
There are at least two or three other people that blog about their soccer referee experiences, one started five years ago and the other is working on his second year it seems. I will post their links as well as places where I have bought gear from shortly. I wanted to get this post in so that it would be 'in the books' but later plan on giving a more detailed breakdown of the registeration/certification process and many other details in case you want to get started on this as well.
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