I disagree with the comment about ref's not talking to parents. Last February my daughter was playing a torunament in Savannah. Before the match the ref came over to the sidelines introduced himself to the parents and asked if we had any questions before we got started. He was very nice and welcomed our team to the area and told a couple of jokes. He said that if there were any bad calls that it would be the line judge Ralph's fault. He did the same thing with the other team. It was a very close match and very physical, but the parents stayed absolutely quiet except for kidding about Ralph's bad calls occassionally. He had personalized himself to the parents and no one wanted to be rude to someone they now knew. At half time he even came over and asked if we had any questions. One parent asked about an off sides call. He explained the rule and why the player was not off sides. He again reminded all of us that if there were anymore bad calls that it would be Ralph's fault. Ralph played his part perfectly - he just smiled and nodded. It was a wonderful experience and as you can tell has stuck with me.
