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Soccer America - Friday, June 1, 2012
Observations from 35 Years of Reffing (Part 1)
By Randy Vogt

Here are some of the things I have learned in 35 years of refereeing:

* I have officiated many good players as well as a few good players who thought they were great and let everybody on the field know it. Such as the high school senior playing forward in a New Jersey college showcase who kept yelling, “I’m not getting good service!” The kids who keep telling others that they are “premier players.” The interesting aspect of this is I never heard another thing about any of these kids, not in college soccer and none of them every received a sniff of the pros. Sometimes becoming pro players were the kids in youth soccer who were very good players and always worked very hard. Jesus was right, “Those who exalt themselves shall be humbled, those who humble themselves shall be exalted.”

* Good teams that have one go-to player to score goals win games but rarely win championships as an opposing team or teams figure out a way to legally mark that player out of the game.

* There are unfortunately some youth coaches who are way too concerned about winning instead of developing their players’ skills and character. These coaches often teach gamesmanship instead of sportsmanship. The same coaches who yell at their players constantly often wind up yelling at the referee. Many of these coaches learn to settle down. The coaches who do not had enthusiastic players at under-9 and often wind up with no players at U-14 as the kids find something better to do than get yelled at. Sometimes it’s the club that forces out the coach as they grow tired of being fined by the Arbitration Committee for their coach’s misbehavior. But the coach who loves to coach and develop players often winds up taking a young team after their son’s or daughter’s team graduates.

* When I’m refereeing youth games and when there are positive coaches, the kids will be having fun and people sometimes come up to me at halftime or after the game and say that I am “the best referee we ever had.” It’s so nice to be a smiling ref in these games. Yet it could be just my very next game having to ref a team with a coach who is way too intense for youth soccer and I need to ask him or her to calm down just a few minutes into the match. That coach’s view of my refereeing is not nearly as pleasant as the people at the previous game.

* Regarding my points above, maybe the next Pele or Mia Hamm was on an under-9 team with a bad coach who turned off the kid to soccer. For me, this is the area for those concentrating on developing our national teams should be concerned about -- the very difficult mission of making sure that every kid has a good coach rather than banning high school play for the Development Academy players.

* Just as there are coaches who should not be coaching, there are referees who should not be officiating. You know the refs that I am writing about, such as those who are way out of shape, those who only think about officiating after they put their uniform on, those who do not attend referee clinics and those who somehow believe the game revolves around them. Leagues and referee associations that do not have a ref shortage should be much more willing to force out the bad referees while other groups need everybody as they have too many games to cover for the number of officials they have.

* One of the saddest parts of officiating is seeing a good, enthusiastic young ref with potential quit before he or she really develops. Perhaps life such as relationships, marriage, kids, job, etc., gets in the way or perhaps verbal abuse by adults much older than the ref ends an officiating career. I am one of those who started as a teen and obviously stuck with it but I’m definitely in the minority.

• I’ll Have Another Sport. My long-deceased grandfather, Peter Ruocco, and I were subjects of a 2009 New York Times article on horse racing. It was great that the article appeared on my mother’s birthday!

(Randy Vogt has officiated over 8,000 games during the past three decades, from professional matches in front of thousands to six-year-olds being cheered on by very enthusiastic parents. In "Preventive Officiating," he shares his wisdom gleaned from thousands of games and hundreds of clinics to help referees not only survive but thrive on the soccer field. You can visit the book’s website at http://www.preventiveofficiating.com/)

By Randy Vogt

Here are some more of the things I have learned in 35 years of refereeing (Part II):

* In youth soccer, there are telltale signs before the match as to what type of game it will be. If the opposing coaches talk to one another before the game, some players on opposing teams are friends and the teams are lined up in order with shirts tucked in and are quiet when the ref is checking passes, chances are it will be a very pleasant game.

* Games at the U-10, U-16 and senior levels are all officiated differently. What looks like a red card in a pro game might not with younger players. You have to look at the intent. For example, studs way up on a sliding tackle, 99 percent of 11-year-olds would not know that’s a bad foul. A man or woman would. That would be a send-off in those games. At U-12, you simply blow the whistle very hard and explain, “Don’t do it again,” as someone could get hurt.

* What can be quite challenging about officiating youth soccer is the dissent from adults unfamiliar with the game can come from unusual situations. Some people yell if they believe the ref made a mistake -- whether it’s the direction of a throw-in at midfield or a penalty kick decision. Yet referees understand that a PK has a much greater impact on the game than the direction of the throw and question why people are getting so excited about a throw-in.

* It’s understandable that many people have difficulty grasping the subtleties of the offside rule. Yet many involved with soccer do not know that all defensive restarts inside the penalty area (not just goal kicks) must clear the penalty area to be in play, the kickoff still must be played forward, the coin-toss winning team only selects which side to attack (the other team gets the first-half kickoff) and all players on the field including keepers should have their shirts tucked into their shorts.

* The moment that I think that I know it all is the moment that game becomes very challenging.

* Many refs quit within their first two years of officiating with verbal abuse by kids’ parents being the number one reason for quitting. So before you yell at a ref or AR, just think how you might be exacerbating a referee shortage by doing so. And if you are so certain that the officials got the call wrong, why don’t you become a referee?

* Leagues with sportsmanship programs that place a high value on these programs have fewer discipline problems than those leagues without a program.

* Did you have a good time at the last tournament you attended? Chances are the tournament format had a lot to do with it. I’ve refereed hundreds of tournaments and have found that people tend to be happiest with tourneys that use a straight round-robin with a championship game if need be. The worst format is modeled after the World Cup: a couple of games of group play followed by several elimination rounds. It’s in the elimination rounds that things can get hairy with people scurrying to the tournament tent to complain about an officiating decision or that “our team did not give up a goal all tournament and was just eliminated in a shootout.”

* When I briefly lived in Florida over two decades ago, I officiated in both Orlando and Tallahassee, the state capital 250 miles away. All games U-13 on up had more than one official in Florida. I thought that when I return to New York, it will be quite challenging again as I’ll return to refereeing all games by myself plus have many more ethnic rivalries in New York than in Florida. Slowly, the situation in New York during the past two decades became better so that all youth games U-13 on up have three officials. Sadly, at least one New York senior league still has difficulty having all its teams pay for three officials per game. An example of how this plays out: I was an AR for a youth game while a men’s game on the adjacent field had no ARs. That game had as many cards as our game had fouls.

• Twenty-five years ago this summer -- as a young man refereeing the Pele Cup in Brazil -- I had the great pleasure of meeting Lynn Berling-Manuel, Paul Gardner, Dan Woog and Michael Lewis for the first time. What’s most memorable about that journey, a quarter-century later, was the surreal trip as our plane was diverted to some pretty exotic places. But that’s another story for another day …

(Randy Vogt has officiated over 8,000 games during the past three decades, from professional matches in front of thousands to six-year-olds being cheered on by very enthusiastic parents. In Preventive Officiating, he shares his wisdom gleaned from thousands of games and hundreds of clinics to help referees not only survive but thrive on the soccer field. You can visit the book’s website at http://www.preventiveofficiating.com/)

Thanks for sharing it been a long time since i have posted but i would like to add a little bit to the mix since i was once one of the Coaches guilty of complaining to the Referees until I attended a residential coaching course and during one of our lectures the speaker asked how many of us have ever had bad referees we all raised our hands he then asked how many of us have yelled at a referee we all raised our hands once again and he asked what would be one of the most important questions i have ever heard he asked while we are busy yelling and telling the referee how to do his or her job who is doing ours who is coaching our team so whenever i find myself in a situation where i might want to question a referees decision i just channel that into coaching my team.

I also referee and I feel that too many times referees are subject to the misguided interpritation of Coaches and Fans an example of this is while officiating a Development Academy game a Coach wanted my AR to flag an offside when the striker received the ball directly from a goal kick and he proceeded to yell that he wants my AR to make sure he is in line to be able to make the call and as such the fans were all yelling for an offside call was this as as result of bad refereeing ABSOLUTELY NOT yet the Coaches and fans now believe that to be the case. In the same game there was an offside call in the penalty area (18 yard box) and the goalkeeper passed it to the Centerback who was also in the penalty area I then proceeded to blow the whistle and explained that the ball had to leave the penaly area at which point the same Coach and his players proceed to tell me its not a goal kick i then smiled and quickly explained to all involved what needed to happen the coach then told me i am holding up the game once again it would seem that the referee crew is no good in the eyes of this coach and some players and fans but is that really the case so before you go passing judgement on a referee especially the younger upcoming ones just ask yourself are you absolutely sure you know what you are talking about.

Just my thoughts, Just my thoughts