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Hurst: My original observation stands. Too many high school officials are not fit enough to officiate upper-level boys' matches, REGARDLESS of parents, coaches, testosterone and whatever other issue prevails.
When an official is consistently 40 yards from a call, and seldom ventures outside the middle 15-20 yards of the field, he/she is:
1) Unfit; 2) Unwilling to work; 3) Unaccountable; or 4) Any combination of the above.
In fairness, this problem is not unique to soccer. That doesn't change the fact that high school soccer officials currently are not expected to meet specific fitness standards/times; but rather, simply to fall somewhere (generally, kind of, sorta) in the middle of the group.
Not acceptable.
While I don't sanction it, I can not blame a "crazed parent" or even a hot-tempered player for dissent when an unfit official gets a call wrong from 40 yards away ... when a gentle 5-second jog would have closed the gap to 20 yards.
The very folks who should NOT accept this are the officials who are fit, work hard and genuinely care about the game and the kids who play it. Instead, they make excuses.



Backscreen, agree for the most part. Being an ex-ref I feel a physical test should be a requirement at all levels of reffing with the bar set higher as you move up. One area that would also help is more frequent and 'honest' assessments. This would include flagging those refs that should not be asked back if performance doesn't improve. I stopped reffing after double hip replacement as I felt I couldn't earn my money and do the job right I was being paid to do. Some of the existing refs should go thru that same thought process. If an assignor wants to send a lower caliber ref to a game, then let the teams pay a lower rate. The teams are paying good money and should get good reffing. P.S. Training for refs needs be on-going!