This post will deal little with reffing per se. Instead, as I mentioned in my last post, I am now a director of referees for the club my kids play for. This has led me to see some of the other aspects of working a tournament or dealing with issues that come up with assignors, etc.
As one of the things I have had to deal with are changes in the club, policy revision and dealing with complaints from referees and those that dislike referees or disagree with decisions.
Which leads me to a tangent rant today. I will go over some of the things that I have had to deal with as a director of referees shortly but today we will discuss something different because it needs to be said and it has to get off my chest somehow.
The club made some changes in terms of who is allowed to coach a couple of months ago. There is an emphasis on not going with parent coaches because of all the issues that brings. Well, the board voted on making sure that parent coaches were deemphasized and decremented substantially. It is done for the good of everyone, not a select few but because of that decision, people are suddenly cold (the ones that did not like that decision). It is hard, but I believe that the decisions taken were for the good of everyone and not just some kids. Parents sometimes take this way too seriously (and yes, I know it is their kids but still, at such a young age group like the ones we are working with, as long as the trainers are competent, there really should not be such a big deal, at least that is how I see it).
Because of that, many parents do not talk to me anymore. They just walk away. I know it will blow over eventually, but gosh darn it, people suck sometimes.
Ok rant complete, sorry to take you on a sidetrack here. More real ref stuff to come shortly but this is something that comes along with the director of referees bit, so you might be getting some of this as well thrown in. Hope you are all ok with that.
2 comments:
I think that's a great policy. Game after game, I see coaches riding their son or daughter and taking them out merely to show they are in control. I'm interested to hear about other aspects of your new position!
I agree. There are two types of parent coaches, those that play their child and treat their child just like everyone else and those that basically let the child run the team. At our club, it has been too much of the latter and therefore we changed the policy. Some parents were not too happy because it raises the cost of training. In the end though, I think it is the right thing to do for all the kids. But time will tell.
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