Monday, April 24, 2006
Kill the ref!
A few years ago, I obtained my level 8 youth soccer referee license with my son, who was interested in refereeing as a part-time job. I did it mostly to learn the rules and actually know what I was talking about when I was yelling at the ref. I'd much rather sit and watch the games than work them, so I let my license lapse.
My daughter plays as well. Invariably, the referee crew will be short, so they'll have a parent work as an AR (Assistant Referee). ARs are the ones that work the sidelines of the field calling the balls out of play and offside. Since no one else in our corps of parents has had any experience or know much about the rules to begin with, I'm usually the guy who volunteers. My daughter's U12 team was playing a U11 team from Ankeny yesterday and I got the call to sub for the missing AR. The center ref just wanted me to call the out of bounds and I assured him that I was certified and was comfortable calling anything that needed to be called.
Our team was up 2-0 on a much smaller group of girls, when toward the end of the 1st half, one of their forwards received a pass and broke to the goal. I had a suspicion that she was offside as she had been called several times before that point, but I honestly lost track of where she was at the time the ball was kicked. Having not seen it, I didn't make the call. I wasn't too worried about it until she scored. Then I saw our coaches argue the non-call, which they rarely do except in obvious cases. Then I knew I blew the call. Of course, that swung the momentum their way and they beat our girls 4-3.
Note to self: The opposing team is *always* offside.
My daughter plays as well. Invariably, the referee crew will be short, so they'll have a parent work as an AR (Assistant Referee). ARs are the ones that work the sidelines of the field calling the balls out of play and offside. Since no one else in our corps of parents has had any experience or know much about the rules to begin with, I'm usually the guy who volunteers. My daughter's U12 team was playing a U11 team from Ankeny yesterday and I got the call to sub for the missing AR. The center ref just wanted me to call the out of bounds and I assured him that I was certified and was comfortable calling anything that needed to be called.
Our team was up 2-0 on a much smaller group of girls, when toward the end of the 1st half, one of their forwards received a pass and broke to the goal. I had a suspicion that she was offside as she had been called several times before that point, but I honestly lost track of where she was at the time the ball was kicked. Having not seen it, I didn't make the call. I wasn't too worried about it until she scored. Then I saw our coaches argue the non-call, which they rarely do except in obvious cases. Then I knew I blew the call. Of course, that swung the momentum their way and they beat our girls 4-3.
Note to self: The opposing team is *always* offside.
