SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Boys Varsity Soccer High School Officiating - Is It Getting Worse?

Sam Chester, I'm from the Myrtle Beach area so feel free to read my two prior posts on pages 2 and 3.

we had a game tonight and there was an incident with me and the ref. I disputed a call, respectfully, and the ref started yelling at me pointing to his cards, so i said ok thats fine, but it was still a questionable call. He comes towards me at the sideline and is stil yelling telling me to be quiet or get carded. Of course i dont appreciate the fact he's yelling, so i said im just letting you know what hapened. He carded me, which i probably deserved. When he cards me, he's still yelling, i said play the game, sat down on my bench. He comes off the field and gets right in front of me in the bench and keeps yelling telling me he can kick me out of here. So, my thing is what can i do about that?? Second time he's yelled, first time at my player.

I feel the officials in the Low-Country are good. They are fair and they are good at managing the coaches. The key is we don't expect perfection from coaches, we don't expect perfection from players, but we do expect perfection from officials. We all strive for perfection, but it is hard to reach. Ever consider the officials are also trying for perfection. Regardless, my main concern is the safety of my players. If officials keep the game clean, the balance of the calls is irrelevant to me (my assistant disagrees!). The guys down here do a good job.

Couple years ago I got a yellow for dissent as well. My situation was pretty stupid too. When the ball went out of bounds I was signaling the call on ours to get my kids to make quick throws. The ref comes over and says let me ref the game, you coach. My comment back was simply, I'm trying to get my kids to play quick. He says not another word. I say yes sir. He walks over and gives me a yellow card. My jaw about dropped as did my players. My assistant walks over and asks what did you get a yellow card for? I said I wasn't sure.
Obviously we have some guys in our state who either bring their bad day to the pitch or they are on power plays, or want to be the show. That was in Loris, so I assume the ref was from the beach.
When we went to NMB this year for their tourney, I thought the officiating was pretty consistent and good.
In the Pee Dee region we have a fair number of good refs who call it pretty close. We have a few who could use a refresher course in the rules, but again, I try to focus on what we can do to win rather on hoping the calls go our way.
I think we have a society that always wants to place the blame on someone else. The ref is an easy scapegoat. I see it in almost every sport. My students who play football will come in after losing a game and say the ref didn't make any calls our way. They would lose 44-14. Basketball players too after losing by 20.

What if you lose 2-1 to a tough team because someone disallows a goal by calling offsides on a throw-in? HINT: THERE ARE NO OFFSIDES ON A THROW-IN.

What do you do?

Situations like that may occur. Remember my story about losing 2-1 in the playoffs last year. Look at the big picture though. What kind of ref were they the rest of the game? If they are consistently missing calls or seem to be one sided, request your assigner not use them at your games anymore. I have done that when I felt a ref was not objective.
In the offsides situation, it only applies to the person who receives the ball. Once they receive the ball anybody who is beyond the ball is now offsides and if the ball is passed to them they are offsides. Not knowing the full scope of the situation, I'm not sure how to make the call.

What do you do? Live with it and remember to carry your rule book with you and let your assigner know. If it is your assigner, let them know at the league office. Losing your temper and yelling at the ref is just going to make matters worse. You are not going to change his/her mind by screaming at them. If anything, they are probably going to hate you that much more.
All yelling and screaming does is makes you lose your voice.

I'm not looking for perfection, because I'll never find it in anything in this world. The only thing I'm looking for is a fair shake and a little respect in all aspects of the game from refs - rankings. Socastee seems to always be treated like the red headed step child, (my respect to any red headed step children out there) but they do not recieve any. What Coach Suarez has accomplished there(3 state appearances in 5 yrs) is amazing considering he never has more than 4-5 club players during any given season. And to be able to compete @ the level that they do it's a great accomplishment. As far as the rankings go the past two years they start out #2 and as soon as they lose a game they drop 2 or 3 spots. And other teams if they lose they stay in the top 3. Well I guess it really doesn't matter in the big picture. The main thing is that the team shows up, plays hard and hopefully they can pull out the W. Maybe being the underdog is not such a bad thing. But just like the other top teams in the state everybody likes to be appreciated and acknowledged. After all were talking about a game that children are involved in and it is after all just a game, a very beautiful game I might add! Cheers to the players of the game!

you know i asked one of the side refs last night if there was offsides on throw-ins just to see what he says, and i kid you not he said "if he's not too far ahead of the defense then no, but if he's reasonably ahead of the defense, then yes it would be offsides" .......And when we had free kicks and one of my players asked direct or indirect, the ref said "just kick the ball"

I have noticed that the overall level of officiating in soccer has decreased over the past several years . . .
HOWEVER -
as far as Palmetto is concerned, we have received better officials as we have improved as a program. When we play another top team (especially in Region) we seem to receive the better officials. When we play teams that are down and not as highly ranked, we get officials who are not as qualified. Now that we are considered one of the top teams in Upper State, we get better assignments of officials.
Second Thing - Palmetto had a reputation for years as being "tough" on officials. As that has changed (with fans, coaches, and players), it is amazing how the attitude towards us has also changed by the officials. They should not carry those thoughts onto the field, but just as every comment on this board is biased to a degree . . . Oh, well, nuff said!

those referee responses even made me cringe!!!