Alister get your point but can't say we don't try.
In the lowcountry last year Cainhoy Athletic sponsored and hosted two ref classes (grade 8 and 9) on Daniel Island.
By sponsored I mean (we) pay for any candidate associated with our club taking the course at no small expense.
We had pretty good turn out and a number of the participants have continued to ref and boost the community.
Here is a novel idea. For all those entities associated with providing and hosting soccer (clubs, schools, etc.) and certainly those with a profit motive, consider refs a cost of doing business and help fund them. I'm all about low cost soccer and often I ponder why the only guy at a lower level game that is paid are the refs, but discounting that, I do think it is a reasonable ask for us to put some skin in the game, and for ref associations to LOWER the cost of certification. Certainly I'll state here that Cainhoy Athletic will work with local schools to provide ref clinics and to some degree underwrite said activities but I'd like to see some others like SCYSA, REF Assoc, School Districts, and other clubs pony up. How about that? Any takers?
The ref issue in my opinion is much bigger than just parental or coach abuse that obviously should be discouraged at all levels
I know several great refs and many who choose to longer ref local games due to many reasons beyond abuse. I personally would rather ref City of Charleston rec games on a Saturday because they are 'easier', scheduled back to back, on my backdoor step, and guaranteed.
Club games and I imagine High School are trickier animals as the scheduling falls outside central control and venues shift and change due to any number of reasons. Consider our lowcountry and the shift from LSYSA to Coastal League a while ago. One of the outcomes of that was decentralized scheduling. Of course that has pros and cons but the biggest problem is game alignment and ref consideration.
Offering clubs and even team level discretion on games is great for the coach who manages three teams but not so for scheduling simplicity
Politics and egos often restrict single venue games and all these issues add to the scheduling issues that make work identification and ease harder for the new ref.
Stopping now before I get myself in trouble.
