I didn't grow up thinking I would be a soccer referee, I became one because it looked to be a good way to get some exercise and because my son issued me a challenge so many years ago (I believe I have written about the story so check the previous posts to get more details).
Today I was thinking of my earliest referee moments. The first one I remember was a game where I couldn't have been more than 8 years old and we were playing another team. The game was tied as far as I can recall and our keeper went to punt the ball. Somehow, he punted and it hit the back of one of our defenders and rolled into our goal. I recall asking the referee if that counted. Imagine at 8 already questioning a future peer!
The second memory was one where I was also playing rec and my father was the coach. I know the league held the games in a manner that counted (most rec leagues under the age of 12 now seem to discard results altogether, at least in my area). We were playing the top ranked team and I recall snippets of the game. It was a tough game, and the other team was quite aggressive from what I recall (I was probably 10 at the time). I recall my father arguing with the ref that there were too many fouls that were going underpunished. At one of our kick offs, we were down 5-2 and I received the ball. The most aggressive defender came up to me and I remember I juked him well and got the ball through his legs and proceeded upfield. All I recall after that was a very sharp pain in my lower backside. My father later told me that the defender essentially did some sort of karate flying kick into my back. I recall spending a good 5 minutes on the ground crying because I really couldn't move. The last thing from that incident was that my father pulled the team from the field and said that he was not going to play anymore that game under those conditions. I guess he had seen enough and he demanded that the kid receive a red card or the game would not continue. Don't recall any fallout from the incident.
The last memory I will share with you was during my time on travel. I used to play for a local club in the Northern VA area (BRYC) and we were playing another club, Reston. I recall that it was one of those really hot days and humid too. It was energy sapping weather. The winner would go on to Division 1 and the loser would stay in D2. If I remember correctly, with the tie, we had the tiebreaker. Towards the end of the match, game is tied 0-0 and a player from Reston takes a shot from distance. The ball is sailing well over the crossbar when it hits the upright of the multiuse field. Probably hit it 10 feet above it. Ball bounces back into play and an attacker who puts it in the net. Center awards a goal. Our coach appealed to the center and then to the other coach. No change of action was taken and we ended up losing 1-0.
These memories from around 8 to 11 were the three that I could recall off the top of my head that dealt with referees. Not that it adds light to anything you are doing, but it does show that mistakes and interesting things happen all the time.
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