SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer Refs

Coach Chass,

You require no response.

What's next...that's the last resort of someone who has none.

(Interestingly enough, the response I did not require was actually done through PM...a "polite request" to "keep your self-righteous pontifications to yourself." My apologies for obviously not knowing the definition of "self-righteous pontification," because I was not aware that I submitted one...in my lack of USSF or NSCAA certification, I was under the delusion that I had posted a valid question/suggestion for discussion. Mea culpa.)

As a USSF ref, my reasons for not working the HS games are much more simple than any fundamental problems with the HS game. I have two kids playing, and I'd rather watch their games than officiate someone else. During club season, I can work games before, between and after their games. Since they are also certified, we go work tournaments together. In a few years, I'm sure I'll be working the HS circuit, and I'm hoping eventually my boys will too.

Coaches, please strongly encourage your players to get at least their Grade 9 certifications this summer and have them start spending their Saturday mornings working the local rec league. Some will fall in love with this part of the game, and become the good refs of the future.

Lurker,

That's the best reason I can think of for not currently officiating. Building a love of the game now ensures the quality of the future...and yes, family first, lest a labor of love becomes "work."

To the serious part of all of this amazingly entertaining dialogue; several questions:

• ...The SCHSL is an obtuse organiztion that only changes when they cannot forestall legal action. That raises an interesting point -- that the SCHSL might one day change their stance on officials by someone litigating against them for an unsafe environment. Do you anticipate that occurring?
  
• ...but the fact is that there are literally not enough officials to go around on a Tuesday or Friday night for everyone to have three... Are there literally not enough officials to "go around?" In other words, do we suffer from too few people with the necessary qualifications or do we suffer from too few people willing to do the work?
  
• So...they refuse to participate because they feel overqualified for the job? Seems a bit counterproductive...I would think the more certified officials we have in the ranks, the higher the overall level level of officiating would be--accepting, of course, that a certification necessarily indicates a higher level of performance (not always true). Perhaps it would help if more officials with higher certification would come and bring examples of officiating to the masses, rather than walking away... Let us suppose that there is a busy brain surgeon who is absolutely wonderful at digging ditches. While those who wish the ditch to be dug might bemoan the fact that the brain surgeon doesn't choose to live her life at the bottom of a ditch, others might come to the conclusion that the brain surgeon is making a rational choice. What would lead those properly credentialed officials to conclude that officiating in high school is a rational choice?

Now to the fun part of it...in reading this I was taken back to my favorite curmudgeon and misanthrope...

...I suppose that the inferiority of the teachers of [English] is largely due to the fact that they are recruited from the lower moiety of pedagogical aspirants. The more ambitious fellows tackle something that seems more recondite, and hence better worth knowing. A prospective teacher of biology, say, or mathematics, or physics, cannot outfit himself for his career by reading a few plays of Shakespeare, memorizing the rules of grammar laid down by idiots, and learning to pronounce either as if it were spelled eyether; he must apply himself to a vast mass of strange and difficult facts, and mastering them requires a kind of capacity that is not common. The stupider fellow turns to something that is easier and more obvious, which is to say, to the language that every "educated" man is presumed to know, and the books he is presumed to have read...

H.L. Menken

I believe there are quite a few good referees who do not do high school because of the 2-man system. For 5 years I did not referee high school because of this. I have been doing high school now for 4 years but am seriously considering discontinuing it because I do not feel like I can do justice to the game in the 2-man system.

I felt some optimism last year when the referee assigner in our district began assigning 3 referees upon request. He notified the schools of this and several schools requested three referees for region games. About 3 of the regular season games I did last year had 3 referees, but the majority only had 2. This year it appears that the schools have not been requesting 3 referees even for region games. All of the games I have refereed this season have had only 2 referees.

I guess this is a catch-22 situation. Not enough referees to have a 3-man system because they don't want to referee in the 2-man system.

To me, another big reason why there are not enough referees to go around is that the games are scheduled primarily on 2 or 3 nights per week. If the games were spread out across Monday-Friday, perhaps there would be enough referees to go around. This is especially true for referees whose sons or daughters play in high school. When my daughter was still playing, I was not available to referee on the nights when I was needed the most because I was sitting in the stands.

Chico—In Menken's day (and before and a bit after), teaching English was a low paying slot among teachers. My dissertation is on one of the most influential and famous English teachers in American history, and her degree was in LATIN because she wanted to make decent money when she began teaching in 1907! As many writers do, Menken has a disdain for teachers of English—especially since English classes often do more harm to reading and writing than good.

Ironically, this particular thread is mixing knowledge of two systems—grammar and the laws/rules of soccer/football. Seems we might be better off if everyone had better command over each. (Along with understanding the fundamental concepts of each.)

As to good quotes: "Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it." HD Thoreau. Think about this with respect to both grammar and SCHSL refs.

I still get a chuckle from a mother that was just riding this poor Ref that couldn't have been but 18 or 19. And then she started to berate this poor kid so I stepped in and asked that she calm down and not make any personal comments to the Ref. Of course she then started on me which was fine. I am very thick and in every way. But the comment that just dumb founded me was when she told me that the problem with all the Refs was and I quote, "Young Refs allow themselves to be intimated by the fans!!!". Are you kidding me? I am not sure why a mother screaming at you and why you are the worst person on the face of the earth, would be intimidating to a young person.

chapin,
You could have just quoted to the lady the old Spanish proverb 'Live with wolves, and you learn to howl.'
purple,
My life is in the hands of any fool who makes me lose my temper.
~ Joseph Hunter