High school vs USSF vs College

For those that don't do comments too much, here is the link to the current differences between the three sets of rules. I have not looked over all of the differences so I won't comment but I did want to thank the 2-3 of you that read my post and sent me an email almost immediately. I did not think I had that level of a following!

https://www.nfhs.org/media/1018270/2017_soccer_guide_-interscholastic_revised.pdf

Another interesting thing from this weekend was the snow we had on Saturday evening. I had 3 matches and at the start of my center which was kicking off around 2, it was coming down nicely on the turf field. By the end of that match, the field was more white than green and it was coming down hard. To the point that I had to shield my eyes when running down the pitch.

When we were about 10 minutes from kick off for the 4pm match, it looked like there was a good couple of inches of snow and the lines were gone. No 18, no touch lines. We had to put down cones and discs to see where the midfield was and where the top of the box was for each side. I went to talk to the tournament director and said that the fields were unplayable. To which I was told that it was not my call. And yes, to a point, it is not, until it is, you see. Unfortunately the center for that match was more accommodating than I would have been and played the match in full.

The field right next to ours ended their match at halftime of the 4pm kick off. And the field behind us actually played their 6pm match as well (while the other 2 fields's matches were cancelled). Go figure.

Still, not your everyday field conditions. Players were going in hard as it was a showcase tournament but they really couldn't showcase much. I had to send off one player in my match who slid so hard that had he made contact with the person with the ball in earnest, he would have broken a foot or leg (and the perp was already on a yellow).

After the match he came to me and insisted that he got all ball. I didn't agree completely. He did get ball, but got leg in there as well and I did mention that I always want them to control the body and that he played in a manner that could have caused injury given the conditions. But the truth of the matter was that regardless, the game should not have been played, because it was on a field that was already somewhat dangerous, or was getting there quickly. And yes, I could have stopped play at any moment when I felt it was unsafe. It didn't really feel like that until we were ready to kick off the next match when I came to the conclusion that it was ok to finish the match but the field was not ok to start a whole new match. No one got hurt but I did call the assignor and said that in my book the 4pm games were being held on a field that was not playable. He suggested that we talk to the coaches and see if they were ok (and unfortunately, they were).

Back in school

Conditions on the ground dictated that I could and should return to school to do High School games. This season, I return to the fray. I have taken my test, watched the rules clinic online and attended the on-site meeting that they had for high school referees. I haven't found a good (and updated) list of differences between the rules in USSF soccer, and that of NFHS rules.

The ones that I know of off the top of my head are the throw in, where USSF is a redo should the ball not actually go in play (high school you gave up your chance), the yellow card requirement of coming off in high school and the injury to the keeper where a trainer needs to come out.

There are other differences, like OT PKs but that is more of a procedural thing. If any of you have a good updated list with all the differences, it would be great for someone like me that has exclusively been doing USSF based rules for the last 3-4 years. Thanks in advance if you do find a list out there and I will update this post should a good one be found.

Match that changed everything part 2

I will have to speak in code a bit so as not to offend certain parties, but we had a meeting regarding the issue of the match. And I also talked quite a bit with my daughter about her desire to stay out of the refereeing world.

First, there was a meeting about the match in question. I was asked to provide more detail and to explain my perceptions of what was going on, what I heard and what I didn't hear. Not something that I get to do every day. In the end, the panel is going to decide within a couple of week whether the was enough for referee abuse. If I hear anything regarding that, I will update you.

With regards to my daughter, I dug a little deeper. Because I have mentioned this many times, I enjoy more than almost anything else in my refereeing world the ability to spend time with my kids doing something I love. My daughter was more of a referee-for-money type of person and so she said that while she was genuinely scared at the time of the incident, she also had decided before then to not recertify for 2018. So it was not the match that caused her to end her career altogether but rather a factor in the decision to do something else other than ref during tournament season.

So in the end, there was one. I have a 6 year old that says she wants to referee but that is 6 years in the future, so not sure that will stay like that. But I will say that I am happy that we were able to get to the bottom of what happened, and that there was a meeting to decide whether referee abuse happened.

And then next 4-5 weeks are going to be absolutely crazy. I have tournaments starting next week all the way through the end of March. I guess it will be good money, but I am sure going to be tired as well. Hopefully I will have some time to let you in on what happens if something merits it.

Finally, I am about to purchase a comm system. Full details when I get it and when I try it out. Gotta have that tax deduction!