They don't make it easy, at least in Virginia, to become a grade 7. I just registered on the USSF website and tomorrow I can try and sign up on the VA website for a 7 upgrade exam and all that. Then it is a physical exam as well that you need to sign up for. I emailed our point of contact at the state level and still don't seem to have all the answers. I will post more but now it is time to start running, as the Cooper test as I think it is called, requires running 2,200 meters in 12 minutes. That is the one I am most worried about, but if I start running, that should be ok.
I downloaded a program called Nike + GPS for my phone that should help with this. We will see how it goes, but I am going to give it a shot. From my calculations, 2,200 meters is just short of 1.4 miles in 12 minutes, so that is my goal. Then there is a 200 meter dash in less than 40 seconds and a 50 meter dash in less than 9 seconds. For some reason, those don't scare me as much as the long run of 1.4 miles in 12 minutes. Anyone who has some experience in that, please post your tidbits of knowledge. More in that later.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
End of Season numbers
Quite a few matches done this season. I have 3 more matches tomorrow for an all-star tournament and will be at 75 matches for this season, by far my most active season. I certainly have enjoyed it.
I am also trying to get the wife to approve a trip to Birmingham Alabama for a four day ref fest. More on that to come shortly as well as the final numbers once everything is said and done. Anyway, stay hydrated in the meantime.
I am also trying to get the wife to approve a trip to Birmingham Alabama for a four day ref fest. More on that to come shortly as well as the final numbers once everything is said and done. Anyway, stay hydrated in the meantime.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Persona non grata
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.
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.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Yikes! It's been a while
Not much to say other than I am sorry. I have a ton of material from this season but not much time to go over it. I am at 65 matches for this season, I think a new personal high and at the same time, I have become the director of referees for our local club and as such have to deal with some of the more minute details of what goes on behind the scenes. Dealing with the assignor and getting to know the 100+ referees that ref for the club's rec program and the travel teams. Not much time to blog, to tell you the truth but I know you all deserve better, so I will do my best to try and give you some content for the summer.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Close the fridge, will ya!
Seriously, it is basically mid April and I am still wearing my long sleeve kits with a couple of colors underneath to keep warm (my go to color underneath is yellow because the club I most work for uses it for their uniforms, so I end up wearing black or red as the outer color).
Rant aside, I worked 6 matches this weekend and there are three storylines I wanted to share with you. The first is a funny one. The first match this weekend was because I was at the field observing our younger core of refs and helping out. One ref was hurt and so I did his match while waiting for my 1pm match. It was a U6 match of the rec league. Loved every minute of it.
I did have a trying time with a little boy named Frank. At U6, you normally get a couple of kids that have not played soccer before and this was the case Frank. He thought soccer was football and he ran off with the ball, tucked under his arm at least three times. Once all the way to restroom area 100 yards away before his father tackled him. He also believed in causing some damage to teammates and opponents alike. He took down players left and right. I was close to actually carding the kid (only half serious) but his coach and father made it tolerable. Hopefully Frank figures out how it all works.
The second one is related to goal safety. Please make sure that the goals are anchored and/or have some sort of weight on them. We had an incident where some of the mobile goals were not really anchored well because of the rain and one of our referees checking the goal was able to tip it over with one finger. Thankfully someone was checking. Please do the same.
Finally, I worked with some referees this weekend that were interesting characters. The first was one that stated he had worked over 4,000 matches and his preference was 12-16 matches a weekend plus high school. He expected at least double the centers than ARs (so 2 centers per AR match given to him) and a minimum of 6 matches per day. More power to him but goshdarnit what a beating he takes both mentally and physically.
The second interesting ref story was one of a father/son combo where the father took his AR responsibilities very lightly and then in the center was absolutely the opposite. It certainly appeared that he did not appreciate an AR role at all. He did not run at all as an AR and ran only marginally more as a center (while still handing out plastic for relatively low level stuff).
That is all I have for today. Thanks for the emails and look forward to hearing from you all with comments, etc.
Rant aside, I worked 6 matches this weekend and there are three storylines I wanted to share with you. The first is a funny one. The first match this weekend was because I was at the field observing our younger core of refs and helping out. One ref was hurt and so I did his match while waiting for my 1pm match. It was a U6 match of the rec league. Loved every minute of it.
I did have a trying time with a little boy named Frank. At U6, you normally get a couple of kids that have not played soccer before and this was the case Frank. He thought soccer was football and he ran off with the ball, tucked under his arm at least three times. Once all the way to restroom area 100 yards away before his father tackled him. He also believed in causing some damage to teammates and opponents alike. He took down players left and right. I was close to actually carding the kid (only half serious) but his coach and father made it tolerable. Hopefully Frank figures out how it all works.
The second one is related to goal safety. Please make sure that the goals are anchored and/or have some sort of weight on them. We had an incident where some of the mobile goals were not really anchored well because of the rain and one of our referees checking the goal was able to tip it over with one finger. Thankfully someone was checking. Please do the same.
Finally, I worked with some referees this weekend that were interesting characters. The first was one that stated he had worked over 4,000 matches and his preference was 12-16 matches a weekend plus high school. He expected at least double the centers than ARs (so 2 centers per AR match given to him) and a minimum of 6 matches per day. More power to him but goshdarnit what a beating he takes both mentally and physically.
The second interesting ref story was one of a father/son combo where the father took his AR responsibilities very lightly and then in the center was absolutely the opposite. It certainly appeared that he did not appreciate an AR role at all. He did not run at all as an AR and ran only marginally more as a center (while still handing out plastic for relatively low level stuff).
That is all I have for today. Thanks for the emails and look forward to hearing from you all with comments, etc.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
PBB - Parents behaving badly
Where are the worst soccer parents from? In a more travelled tournament than those I have worked before, I think I found the team that has the worst parents. They yelled, screamed, threatended and did a whole slew of other things that make them take the cake as far as I am concerned.
I do have to admit that the first half of their match between their team and another from North Carolina had to have been one of the worst officiated halfs I had ever seen. The guy in the center made me feel ashamed that I was on his crew, but I did back him up. The second half got better but it was too late as the damage was done. So who were these people? They were from eastern PA, just outside of Philadelphia it appears. And they tied 4-4. I'd hate to see them when they lose.
I do have to admit that the first half of their match between their team and another from North Carolina had to have been one of the worst officiated halfs I had ever seen. The guy in the center made me feel ashamed that I was on his crew, but I did back him up. The second half got better but it was too late as the damage was done. So who were these people? They were from eastern PA, just outside of Philadelphia it appears. And they tied 4-4. I'd hate to see them when they lose.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Money for nothing
Literally the above title is true. The weekend before last I was offered to ref a couple of premier leagues matches. I checked with the wife to make sure things were kosher and emailed back saying I was in at around 3pm that Friday. By 4:30 I was told that one of the teams was probably not going to come because they had been told about the change in venue too late for them to alter their plans, so they were not coming. By 5:30, I had been removed by the two matches and thought nothing of it (originally there were 3 matches with 2 crews in total and when one of the matches was suspended, they changed it to one crew for the two matches and I was not on the working crew).
On Tuesday I get a check in the mail for having been part of this email exchange. Apparently since the team that did not show was declared to have forfeited, all the monies due to the referees had to be paid. This was the first time I was paid for just saying I was going to be part of a match.
On Tuesday I get a check in the mail for having been part of this email exchange. Apparently since the team that did not show was declared to have forfeited, all the monies due to the referees had to be paid. This was the first time I was paid for just saying I was going to be part of a match.
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