Pre game hydration

Let me preface this post to tell you that I am not a doctor, I don't know much about doctor related things, get queazy at the first sight of blood, cannot look at things like broken bones or anything like that without wanting to throw up.

That said, this weekend, after working the u11 girls match I mentioned in my previous post, the next match was a match between a team that had 8 players (in an 8v8 match) and another team who had 10 kids (so they had 2 subs). I figured that the team with 10 would find a way to win towards the second half because the other kids would be really tired. The result of the match was not what I wanted to report on, it is the situation that happened during a game thanks to what happened before the game.

To start, the game ended 5-4 in favor of the team that had 8 kids. The final goal happened when they had 7 on the field. So very interesting and powerful that they were able to get the victory with everything stacked against them. 

During the first half one of the kids looked off on the team with no subs. He would run but almost in a trance. At one point he went down (with about a minute left in the half). He was tended to and did not return until the start of the second half. I asked my ARs to look at him well and to ensure that he was not concussed or something similar and to be able to help me figure out what was ailing him. In the second half he went down again, after a very clumsy foul he committed and grabbed his head. He then sat up and said he was really dizzy. I thought, oh crap, here is a kid with a concussion and I let him play.

The coach came on again and I told him the kid was done for the day. This was while they were up 4-3. The other team immediately tied the match and with 1 minute left, the goalkeeper of the 10 man team committed the blunder of all blunders and allowed a silly goal in for the win. 

For the dizzy kid, what I thought was a concussion was really a power drink (Monster I believe) drunk 15 minutes before game time. This was the first time the 11 year old had consumed an energy drink to boot. While again, I am not a doctor, it seems downright dangerous to consume something that is going to make your heart race right before going out and running a lot that also makes your heart race. Fortunately nothing happened, but it did raise the awareness for me. He looked off, he was dizzy and if I had known, I would have kept him out sooner. But the parents must have been happy, they won, didn't they?

The other side of travel soccer

Saw two really interesting things out on the field this past weekend. Wanted to share them both because even though they do not really relate to reffing explicitly, they do show you that you can pick things up quite a bit and learn from it.

First one is more of a funny thing. As you know, I have kids who play soccer. A LOT of soccer. Both of my oldest play travel soccer and have been playing for some time now. The world of travel soccer is anything but transparent and this weekend was a good example of some of the shennanigans that go on in the world of travel soccer as a whole.

There are a couple of leagues in this area for girls, WAGS and ODSL. Many clubs play 2 teams in the WAGS league (their top two teams, as it is more competitive) and then the rest of their teams in the ODSL league. The deal is that kids should not play in more than one game and normally, playing for one team on any given day, bars you from playing for another team that very same day. But there is a loophole of sorts that does not explicitly bar you from playing in one league and then turning around and playing in another. But it is not something that can easily be captured and even less reported unless something happens like what you will read below.

This last Sunday, I took my son to his soccer match 45 miles away and on the way back, we realized that my daughter's match that was about to start was on the way back home. My wife had driven out to take my daughter. We met up at the field, watched the game and then went home. In the PM, I went to ref my 2 matches at the local field and was working on one of the matches from my daughter's age group. She plays on the B team (WAGS) and I was reffing the C team that plays in ODSL. And when I am checking the girls in, I see that they have 2 kids from my daughter's team on their roster, hand printed. Now these two kids are not the best players, nor are they the worst. So it is not a ringer situation here, but it bothered me that this had been arranged behind closed doors. My daughter was never asked if she was available to play. It was the team manager's kid and her close friend. And I found it typical of the dealings that come with playing travel. You set up your kid to do things and take opportunities before putting them out to the general public.

I spoke to the coach (who also manages my daughter's team) why this was not communicated and that my daughter would have loved to play had she been given the opportunity. He stated that he asked the manager to arrange it and the two girls that showed up were the two that she had said were available. Well, yeah, if you don't extend the invite to anyone else and keep the info to yourself, then yes, those would be the only two available.

It is akin to working at Best Buy or some other retail place and not putting out that flat screen TV on the floor because you know the moment you put it out there someone will snatch it up as it is on super sale, so instead, you buy it yourself. I know it happens, but it was just dumb luck that I caught them red handed. So now I know what type of manager I am dealing with, one that does not look out for the interests of all the girls equally, just some. And this is all thanks to reffing that let me catch them in their scheme.

This went too long for one post to do another, but the next post is related to player safety and when to tell a kid (and his parents) that their child is not longer welcome on the field (and saying it without using a red card).

Running for my 7 again

I am in pain a bit today. I qualify myself as someone who is not a runner and does not normally jog or do much in terms of exercise other than when I get on the field. I have an active day-to-day job and also am moving around when at home due to 3 kids, so exercise is kind of built in to my way of life. I don't normally go out and look for it.

Yesterday, my daughter had some special training (ODP) and so I accompanied her and while I waited, I decided to run around the track 5.5 times in 12 minutes, or try to come close. I finished at 12 minutes at 1.47 miles (above the 1.37 I would need come test day). But man does it hurt today.

What is funny, is that this test is not a real good indicator, as rarely do we jog/run without some mad sprint or two mixed in. But with the three tests, it does cover most of what you need as a 7. Still, this morning, instead of waking up and giving it another run, I slept in a little more and will do it tomorrow morning (if I can peel myself off my bed).