SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Boys Varsity Soccer No More Soft Reds??

I found this on the NFHS website today:

“Soft Red” Eliminated in High School Soccer
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mark Koski

INDIANAPOLIS, IN (February 13, 2012) — In a continued emphasis on improving sportsmanship, the “soft red” has been eliminated in high school soccer.

Effective with the 2012-13 season, a second yellow card not only will disqualify a player, but the team will not be permitted to substitute for the disqualified player. Previously, a team was permitted to replace a player who had received a second yellow card.

This significant change was one of three rules revisions passed by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Soccer Rules Committee at its January 23-25 meeting in Indianapolis. These changes were subsequently approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.

Another change in Rule 12-8-1f now will disqualify a player who deliberately handles a ball in his/her own penalty area to prevent it from going in the goal only when the attempt to deny the goal is successful. If a goal is scored, the penalty is now a caution. Previously, a player was disqualified for trying to stop a goal from being scored, whether the try was successful or not.

“Obviously, with two of our three changes this year in Rule 12 (Fouls and Misconduct), the Soccer Rules Committee continues to focus on improving the level of sportsmanship in high school soccer,” said Mark Koski, NFHS director of sports and events and liaison to the Soccer Rules Committee.

The other change approved by the committee involves the taking of a penalty kick. If some unusual situation occurs after the penalty kick is properly taken and before the ball is played or touched by another player, or before the ball hits the goalpost or crossbar, which necessitates a temporary suspension in play, the penalty kick shall be retaken. Previously, this would have resulted in a drop ball.

“As an example, if the ball deflated immediately after a penalty kick was taken and play was suspended, the player now will have the opportunity to attempt the penalty kick again,” Koski said.

Soccer is the fifth-most popular sport for boys and girls at the high school level. According to the 2010-11High School Athletics Participation Survey, 398,351 boys are involved in soccer and 361,556 girls participate in the sport.

http://www.nfhs.org/content.aspx?id=6596

This will take effect next year in SC.

I think we should give our referees golf carts so they can keep up with play. Kind of like Senior golf.

I think we ought to pay Backscreen's $75 registration fee so that he can take the course. Stop hating and go make a difference.

That's always the answer, isn't it. How about putting the $75 toward a fitness class for officials?

And for what it's worth, I have officiated both H.S. and college athletics, but made a conscious decision to stop when I could no longer get where I needed to be to make calls with an iota of credibility.

I give you credit for backing down when you felt you could no longer perform at the standard necessary to do the job.

Kudos.

Having said that, given your experience, I'm sure you realize how difficult it is to officiate a competitive match when you have professional coaches, parents with lofty expectations, and (quite often) disrespectful players.

Magnify this at the U17 - U18 and high school boys levels, where huge levels of testosterone motivate them to "play the man" more often than the ball.

It's not a very easy environment to officiate under when everyone but the referee has a vested-interest. There's a lot of decision making that needs to be made (foul recognition / foul selection) in a short period of time.

****Disclaimer - Academy, ECNL and R3PL matches are much easier to officiate where I have found the players to be much more interested in playing the ball, rather than the man. Parents of these higher-level players have been around the block before and seem to be more tolerant of the refs. (Of course, it's usually the very best referees who are officiating these matches).

Anything that will get NFHS rules inline with FIFA is great by me. I hate there are different sets of rules for different levels in soccer. The only thing I can see that should be open to league interpretation is substitutions.

Hurst, kinda funny you mention the refs - we have seen a few refs do both high school and Academy - my son (keeping in mind this was a teenage boy commenting) said he thought that while they did a good job at the Academy matches, some of the same refs were horrible when officiating high school games.