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.