Kind of humorous and true!
Improving the preps one idea at a time
CommentaryBy Clay Horning
The Norman Transcript (OK)
The prep soccer playoffs begin a week from today and though both the Norman High boys and girls must win tonight at Choctaw to reach them, I have little doubt both sets of Tigers will again partake in the postseason. Once there, here’s hoping the linesmen add to their repertoire.
Pretty much, all they do is run the sideline, complain about coaches or sportswriters obscuring their view, signal offsides and occasionally let a referee what he missed. Never will they stop a fast-moving ball, saving somebody from retrieving it while time ticks away.
It’s true no other sport is on the clock as much as soccer. But you’re kidding yourself thinking soccer’s an 80-minute game. The clock stops for goals, broken bones, torn ACLs, occasionally for bookings and little else. It doesn’t stop for whistles, substitutions or the chasing down a ball that’s rolled 40 yards off the field even though the linesman could have stuck his foot out and given everybody another 30 seconds or a minute more of a good game.
And good grief, is there s prep sport in which officials take themselves more seriously? Remember ESPN before it got the good stuff and you could come home to Australian Rules Football and there was that guy in the tie and labcoat behind the three poles at each end of that gigantic field? Well, if that guy can run the field, he’s got a future in soccer. Already, he’s got the humorlessness nailed.
http://www.normantranscript.com/sports/local_story_118013936.html