Working with Adult Soccer Players

Throw away everything you thought you knew about soccer and then try to relearn it, because that is what happens when working with adults. The same rules apply, they just apply differently. As adults, we complain more, we talk trash a whole lot more, and we cheat more if given the chance.

Case in point, the local league where I am also one of the officers has finally gotten an adult league off the ground and playing. It is fun, family friendly and creates a spirit of community. That is until you blow the whistle to start the match, then those nice guys you thought you knew off the field become a mix of puberty laced adolescents with a penchant for foul language and a shot of demonic tinged pitbulls coming off a hunger strike. And as full disclosure, I am a player as well as a referee in this league, so a lot of this applies to me also.

We dive, we complain, we use unrostered players, we use gamesmanship to the extreme and we chest bump opponents when someone else has the gall to stand up to us.

Now that the league is in its second season, things seem to be settling down a bit. What was all nice and dandy that first set of matches has become somewhat of a stale truce at this point for many teams. Especially those that play each other a couple of times during the season and then again during the following season. After the third or fourth time you face the same opponent, you know what they are going to try more or less and you aim to take that away, be it by word or action.

Personally, the jury is still out in terms of whether I like working with adults. So far I will say it is different. The tolerance level is not the same. Some have very short fuses. And in the end, it is all about going back to work on Monday, regardless of the score so even if you score a beautiful goal and then get knocked unconscious, the main thing to remember is not that you won on Sunday night 2-1 thanks to that last minute header, but rather the 2 weeks off you need to take from your Monday to Friday job because you now have a concussion for example. Perspective, I guess.