Job hazards

My first season of refereeing is in the books, for the most part. I picked up a couple of other non-high school refereeing assignments (one is reffing co-ed intramural games at a local university, grad students mostly, three games, every Thursday night, 100 bucks per night, easy money).

I'll write some more of my high school tales here in the coming weeks. One thing I encountered often, though, was the ball. As in, it flew past me a lot. When I was working alone, I stayed mostly in the middle of the field so the ball was an ever-present obstacle. There were some games recently in which the ball caromed off my leg or thigh or something. One game, the ball nailed me three times in one half. It didn't hurt, but I felt like a moron that couldn't get out of the way of the ball. It's harder than you think, really, to avoid the ball. It's easy to read the game and react to the flow of the game at the JV level for instance. A defender will send a long ball over the top of a group of players but nobody on his/her team is up there waiting for it so you figure the ball will go back down in the opposite direction.

It's when the players can't get out of each other's way that causes problems. Player A tries to dribble through B's defense and Player B takes control, dribbles too long, Player A gets ball back, tries to pass to teammate, stolen by another Player B, who tries to pass it to a teammate out wide - BANG - goes off my leg.

I try to stay as close to the action as possible but not too close because the ball moves around a lot. Sometimes, though, the action gets close to me.

Well, none of the shots I took were very hard. I mean, 15-year-old girls can only kick so hard to begin with. Still, I sympathized with this guy even though his job hazards are much more difficult and potentially damaging than mine.

Adventures in reffing

I've had a quite eventful last... well, two months, but in particular the last three days in my role as high school referee. I had my confidence raised, shattered and raised again, which I guess is all part of the learning process.

Thursday I had a junior varsity girls game. This was a fairly high-level JV girls game as the two high schools have traditionally had strong varsity girls teams. I was doing well, active, making all the right calls and getting no flak from the coaches and/or parents in attendance. With about five minutes left and the score at 0-0, that all changed. The visiting team had the ball in the hosts' penalty area. A girl dribbled the ball around some defenders when one of them stuck her leg out and tripped the attacking player, who fell to the ground as the ball went away from her.

I blew my whistle and pointed to the spot. PK. I was certain it was the right call. It wasn't a blatant foul; the defender didn't elbow her or knock her down from behind, but nonetheless it was a foul. The visitors converted the penalty and took a 1-0 lead. About three minutes elapsed by the time play resumed, and for those three minutes I took quite a bit of heat from the losing coach. She was complaining about everything from that point on, to the point that I nearly cautioned her. Still, I figured what would be best would to keep control of the game, blow the whistle as soon as the 35 minutes were up and get the hell out of dodge.

After I ended the game, I jogged over to get my stuff. Sometimes I change out of my cleats and slip back into something more foot-friendly but this time I didn't bother. I figured I'd rather leave without giving people time to complain or whatever. Well, that didn't happen. As I'm walking out towards the gate I hear the coach racing towards me.

"REFEREE! REFEREE!"

Well shit, here comes the coach, I thought. This was a first. I was involved in a game earlier this year when a parent waited for me and my partner in the parking lot after his son was sent off (I didn't send him off but that didn't matter to that guy) but this was the first time a coach ran to me after a game to complain about a call.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked her twice. Maybe that took some of the edge off because she seemed to pause for a second before she ripped into me.

"How could you call that? The girl tripped over her own feet? Did you not see that?!?!?!?"

I didn't stop walking. No way. But I didn't speed up or anything, just kept at my pace. I probably should have just not said anything but that probably would have pissed her off even more so I told her that I had the best vantage point, that she was on the sideline and that her player tripped the other girl. She said something else before she turned away but at that point I just put my head down and tried to leave before anyone else confronted me. Luckily, there were a lot of people coming and going as the varsity game was set to start later and I sort of just blended in at some point.

Although I think I handled the confrontation well, what I should have done was carded her. As a high school referee, I can card people after I've blown the final whistle. And really, she crossed the line. She completely lost it, lost control, displayed poor sportsmanship and set a bad example to her players. I should have red-carded her ass and given her a game off to think about her actions and force her to explain herself to her principal, since that's what HS coaches have to do after receiving a red card (at least in my area). But, of course, I was unclear on whether or not I could have carded her at all. It was the first time it came up, so after talking to other referees about it I am now more up-to-speed on that.

On Friday I was slated to ref a varsity girls game between a pair of mid-level area girls teams. I couldn't stop thinking about the day before. Had I made the right call? Should I have let play go on? Did I do what I never want to do and decide the game? That stupid confrontation made things worse. Had the coach not approached me I may not have second-guessed myself so much, but she went all Dominic Kinnear on me so it rattled me a bit. I was nervous then before Friday's game so I called a referee buddy of mine to talk about it and hopefully settle my nerves.

It was a great call, actually, as he had reffed the varsity game afterward. The same coach, who was on the bench as an assistant coach for that game, had continued her shenanigans as she was complaining about the calls so much so that my friend had to tell her to be quiet. Maybe she was still seething over the PK or whatever. Anyway, the team had earned five yellow cards and a red card that game and lost. The school apparently has a reputation for being like that and the coach hasn't been that great to other officials as well. So apparently I didn't force a rational coach into doing something irrational.

Anyway, in Friday's game I was doing well at the start. I was keeping up with the speed of play, making all the right calls, ignoring incidental contact, etc. Still, the one thing I did not want was to have the players put me in a position where I either needed to call a penalty or let contact in the area slide. I didn't know how I would react.

Of course, that happened with about 10 minutes left. Ahead 1-0, a girl dribbled the ball into the penalty area and two defenders sandwiched her and knocked her on her back. I didn't hesitate and immediately blew my whistle and pointed to the spot. It was 100 percent the right call. The opposing coach did not complain. Later, the other ref said that I had made a good call.

That kind of made me feel better. I don't like to play mind games with myself and always try to stay focused and make the right calls. But when your confidence is down, it's hard to do that. I was fine and Friday's game restored whatever faith that had been lost from the end of the previous day's game to the start of the other.

It's situations like that that have helped me learn about refereeing games, and have given me the knowledge and experience necessary to improve. As bad as those things are, it's the only way to continue evolving and developing.

"You suck, ref!"

After having refereed for nearly two months now, I have decided to make an oath, a pledge if you will, about soccer officials everywhere.

I solemnly swear never to utter another negative word at a soccer referee again. Not even at Alex Prus. Not even at Michael Kennedy.

Okay, that may have been my last dig there... but there will be no more negative utterances regarding soccer officials' calls from my mouth ever again. I still, however, reserve the right to question NFL and college football officials' calls.

On caveat: I'm a writer so if a big call is made and that's what I need to ask players and coaches about, then I have to ask them about it. I can't completely turn a blind eye to officials. But on a personal level, mum's the word.

Refereeing high school soccer has opened my eyes not only to different aspects of the game in a positive light but they've made me see the bad part of soccer at the high school level up close. And really, if some of the stories I've heard are true then, as they say, I ain't seen nothin' yet.

I've been yelled at by players, coaches and parents. My vision has been questioned. My integrity has been questioned. My background has been questioned. Basically, most everything you can think of has been questioned. And this isn't just over a matter of a few games, this is rampant.

Abuse towards the referee is commonplace in soccer throughout the world of course but in high school soccer there should really be no place for it. There is a difference between a professional first-division match and a junior varsity girls' soccer game. There just is. I'm not condoning violence towards officials at the pro level but people pay money to see those games, the players are paid to perform and coaches' jobs are on the line, so understandably there is a lot riding on officials' calls at that level. And when a ref makes a questionable call, he/she may very well draw the ire of everyone in the stadium.

But when you call a foul in favor of Valley High's freshman girls team, Poly High's parents shouldn't treat it as if it was a call that would decide a World Cup qualifier. For God's sake, it's a high school game. It's high school yet parents feel they have the right to voice their opinions about every single call sometimes, and that gets old quickly.

Now, I say that "it's just high school" and I say that a lot but that doesn't mean I treat it any less than it deserves. Whatever game I whistle, whether it's a varsity girls game or a freshman girls game (and this season I've done mostly girls games) I treat it as if it's the most important game I've ever done because to me it is. And I have two daughters who I pray will grow up to love soccer as much as I do, and if they are playing on their freshman team and the official doesn't care about the game and doesn't want to be there... well, I don't want to put another parent in that position. I'm going to run and bust my ass as much as possible and put in an honest day's work. That's just my personal philosophy so far on reffing.

Anyway, it is high school and parents are supposed to be teaching children a thing or two about sportsmanship, right? What kind of behavior are parents modeling when they bitch and moan and complain about silly stuff? Or even about important calls? I don't know but if I'm yelling at someone in front of my girls, I'm kind of sending a message to them that it's okay to yell at someone. Look, I'm not saying I don't yell or cuss in front of them (I've got a bad temper sometimes... particularly when it comes to bad drivers) but you've got to try and keep your cool about yourself. And too many parents have lost their cool in games that I've officiated.

I've had parents yell to their team "Come on girls, it's 11 on 13 out there" during a game that their school was not getting the calls they wanted to. At another game I overheard one parent telling another "This is the worst officiated game I've seen in quite a long time" and then jokingly ask "Are there any other referees out there that we can get in place of these guys?" And then I get about a dozen "Come on ref!" or"Did you SEE that?" or "You've got to make that call ref!" every game, plus an unlimited number of groans.

Still, other refs in the area this season alone have been chased on their way out to their cars, have had entire sidelines yelling at them and insulting them and have felt the wrath of many unruly coaches. Thus far, I've gotten off lightly compared to that. But I think it's also because I haven't done many varsity boys games. We'll see what's in store for me next season.

Anyway, most of it I think is funny. It really does make me want to laugh, and sometimes I have to suppress myself from laughing. It's funny to me because most of the time the parents that are complaining don't know the first thing about soccer. They don't understand what it means when I stretch my arms out to my side and motion my hands forward after their kid has been fouled but maintained possession. They have no concept of offside. They don't understand the difference of ball-hitting-hand versus hand-hitting-ball; to them, everything is a handball. I don't know what a "high kick" is but I do know what "dangerous play" is.

Ultimately I've taken a lot of crap but it's a part of the game. I often think to myself how infinitesimally more difficult it is for professional referees. You've got instant replay and thousands of sets of eyes, each seeing a different thing, and playing before thousands of people, not to mention the enormity of games and the speed of game... thanks but no thanks. The abuse is bad enough now; I could just imagine how tough it is at the pro and international level.

Hence my pledge.

How I've spent my winter break

MLS Cup came and went, and then us West Coast-based soccer writers went into hibernation. Okay well, maybe not, but there wasn't much to cover here in the months that followed (I was unable to cover InterLiga due to personal issues not related to this post FYI). Now, the US national team will play a game and the local teams are starting to come out of their respective winter slumbers. Still, the games at Home Depot Center won't come at us quickly until mid-March, when Chivas USA hosts Colorado on March 21 and the Galaxy hosts DC a day later.

But that doesn't mean I've done nothing soccer-related over the last two months or so, and no this blog doesn't count.

Since the first week of December, I've taken up a new side job if you will, a part-time job even though I don't exactly punch in a time card or anything.

I've become a referee.

Yours truly has been officiating high school soccer games in and around Riverside and San Bernardino counties for the better part of two months now, and I've still got another month to go. Actually, the season ends the week of US-Mexico so I've still got plenty of games to officiate.

Now, I didn't want to share this until the season was coming to an end but I decided to write about it now because I feel like I've finally gotten my feet underneath me in terms of being able to properly officiate a game. Also, with US-Mexico approaching that will dominate this blog and my thoughts, so might as well get this out now.

I could seriously write thousands of words on refereeing, and I still might, but if I do I'll be sure and break it up into several different posts.

You're probalby wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to referee soccer games. Well, sometimes I think the same thing. Actually, I've asked myself that a lot over the last two months. Why? But there are a few reasons.

First, it fits well with my schedule. Since I freelance, I didn't have to get permission from my employer or anything like that. Also, it's decent money; I won't say how much but it's more than 50 for a varsity game and more than that for a junior varsity/freshman game, the latter of which you do by yourself.

Another thing too, I'm in shape. I can more than keep up with the players. I ran two 10Ks and a 5K last year and will try my first half-marathon in April, so the running-around part is actually something I embrace. I'm not some morbidly overweight soccer writer/blogger who sits on his arse all day anymore. I run for fun these days, so it helps keep me fit.

Also, though, I love the game and this has given me the chance to see the game in a whole different level. I've seen soccer games from the press box for so many years now that when I got the chance to work around soccer this way I was intrigued by seeing it from the field level for a change. I know the rules of soccer so that part hasn't been difficult; I've just had to adjust to high school rules (ie unlimited substitutions but teams can only sub in when it's their throw-in or corner, no subbing on free kicks, etc).

Overall I'd say my experience has been pleasant... okay, that's a load of bullshit. It's been rough at times and I've slowly, um, well, let's just say I've been improving. Knowing the rules of soccer and applying them are two different things. It's taken me a while to go from thinking "Oh, that looked like a foul" to actually blowing my whistle and calling a foul. I tend to let a lot of contact slide because I have a general rule that I don't like for officials to decide games so I don't call a lot of the little stuff. Soccer is after all a contact sport, but a lot of parents and coaches don't necessarily agree, and they let me know.

Like any official worth his/her salt, I've taken my share of abuse. It was a little hard at first but people have been talking shit about me for years so the only difference now is that I hear it instead of read it. Like I'm going to let the parents affect me? Ha! Okay, the first time I heard it, it started to get in my head but now if I hear somebody talking mess to me it doesn't bother me. I just laugh it off because most of the time they're complaining because they want me to call fouls that don't exist. That and a lot of people don't understand the concept of advantage. Anyway, I'll get more into the abuse part of it in the future because there is a lot I want to say about that.

Anyway, I'm spending the better parts of my weekday afternoons (and some Saturday mornings) blowing my whistle, getting questioned and yelled at, and running around soccer fields in the area. Do I want to make this into some sort of side job beyond what it is now? That would be a resounding NO. I want no part of club soccer. I don't want to think about reffing junior college or college soccer. I'll stick to high school soccer, which is plenty to keep me busy during the winter months.

Well, I just wanted to share that with you trusty readers. Again, look out for more stuff on this as it's what has been dominating my time since early December. As I said, I'll definitely get into the abuse part and share some of what parents have said to me. Until then, I'll probably be busy collecting more stories to share.