After the first game at the Fort Mill Invitational, I walked over to the referees and told them I thought they did an outstanding job -- not only were they fair and predictable but they also treated the girls as "players" rather than "girls." Note: this was a 0-0 tie game, so my assessment of the officials wasn't based on winning or losing.
These referees weren't perfect -- for my money they seemed to allow defensive players to jump upon the backs of the offensive players and ride them like jockeys (this of course is more than a small exaggeration) -- but they did the most important thing -- which was to call it the same way both ways and to keep the game under control. As long as a referee is fair and predictable, I think that they are doing their job -- doesn't mean you have to agree with them.
Now...would I have done this if I hadn't seen the absolute worst job of officiating of my life the week before? I don't know. I do know that watching a (hopefully) once in a lifetime bad abysmally poor performance by a referee certainly helped me appreciate what the average (or in this case, above average) referee does.
