SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Boys Varsity Soccer Poor Form by Officials in some games

I wanted to comment on an event that happened in the Hanahan-Berkeley game on Tuesday.

We have some officials who are acting in an unprofessional manner during our matches and the SCHSL and the local assignors need to clamp down on this behavior. Certainly there can be disagreement's on 50/50 calls involving fouls etc.. that is sports, and I believe the accuracy of the officiating in the games I have watched has been fine and fair.

Where I have an issue is the unprofessional comments from officials to players. In the game mentioned in the thread, the Berkeley Goalie and a player from Hanahan had some words in the box. The official said to the goalie.. "Get back in your box before you get scored on again". This was heard from numerous players... A second Berkeley player stepped in and said something to the official about it and walked away. The official then called the aforementioned player to him, the player ignored him and subsequently was red-carded.

Should the player have come to the official as requested? Yes, he should have. The official had incited this issue and had lost the respect of the players as a "neutral" party. Earlier in the season, an official told a Berkeley player who asked about a foul, "don't worry about it, we know who is going to win anyway". In a girls game, an official addressed a player with the phrase " zip it" . I don't think that is an appropriate way to address a player on the field, especially from an official. An AR addressed a girls player with the same comment, AN AR!!!!

This cannot be tolerated from officials, just as it cannot be tolerated from players or coaches. If you are an official reading this, and it does not apply to you, please clean up your crews in your games. If the officials cannot maintain a standard of professional behavior, how can they expect to be treated with respect on the field. This is unacceptable.

Full disclosure, I am a certified soccer official, a SCHSL Baseball Umpire and Basketball Official. I also referee football for SCISA. This is not how you address young men and young women.

Done with my rant....

If there is video, then you have more support that the official said something and the proper discipline can be administered. Skip always tells us, "Even if it's something simple, if you have video I can see what you see"

I agree that officials should model behavior before our young people as they learn the game. They should act with professionalism at all games.
But if you read the other post on "Shortage of Officials" - I believe that the lack of officials is causing an overworking and additional stress on the referees, which leads to shorter fuses, less patience, and being just plain tired. All areas of the state are facing this crisis of not enough referees. Tuesday is almost a gamble when it comes to scheduling games as there was not enough last week for the midlands area and (from what I heard) 8-10 games were cancelled due to lack of referees (Dennis Cook warned coaches that he had a larger than usual number of referees out that day [injuries, illnesses]). Bucky Jones, who schedules in the Charleston area, indicated that Tuesday is a difficult day for him to schedule as well due to not enough referees.
We as a group need to get more referees qualified. We fans, coaches and referees we all need to be more professional and in our roles - modeling sportsmanship for our young players.