Game Management?

10 minutes into a high school match and my left calf let me know the lack of bananas in my diet was deeply troubling. Two days later I am still attempting to explain to my calf (with the help of a heating pad, electro stim and stinky rub), how sorry I am. It hasn't, as of yet, accepted my apology.

The game, which I was expecting to be relatively close, turned into a route by the end. The center midfielder for the team which was behind throughout the match, had been using his arms to push opponents off the ball. I'd called a few fouls on him (and others on his team for the same tactics) and things had settled down in the beginning of the second half. When the score had reached 6-0, the central midfielder, obviously frustrated (yelling at his team, aggressively moving to the ball, etc.), recklessly tackled an opponent. This resulted in a caution for him, after which he thought it wise to yell at another opponent in Spanish as he was leaving the field (a requirement in high school matches).

As I was attempting to bring the temperature of the match down and let the central midfielder know he would do better to quit talking in any language, I casually moved to the team's bench area. I heard something of a commotion behind me but didn't hear any specific words or phrases. After I'd verbally warned the player to keep quiet, I saw my assistant referee beckoning me and stepping on the field. He informed me a member of the losing team had dropped the f-bomb loud enough for him to hear from the touchline. I called the player over and issued another caution (another requirement of high school, no naughty language you kiddies).

Just before we were about to restart play, I overheard a couple of players discussing the second caution. Player 1, "What was that for?" Player 2, "He shouted, 'Can't we start the f'n game already?'"

Perhaps players, coaches and fans don't understand something. When a team is being thoroughly dominated, the losing team often can only stay in the match by committing fouls against the better squad. This then leads to an uneven amount of fouls called against the losing team, thus making it increasingly difficult to, "Call it both ways." I have found in these situations, I am more likely to favor the losing team as much as I reasonably can with fouls FOR them. Admittedly however, the dominant team usually doesn't commit many fouls once they are in obvious control of the match.

I'd think this little nugget of life would be apparent to the rest of the world, but it seems as if the referee community is the only one that realizes this happens. Pity.

The Podcast

Well, the middle of March has come and gone and I still haven't created the first podcast associated with this blog. I've been trying to get some material from the local referees to have enough content to put together more than one show of me talking. Trust me, a podcast with only me will bore you to tears.

In referee news, I've only had a couple matches since the last time I posted and very little has been noteworthy. Naturally, I've been hoping for a silly player or a mouthy coach but everyone's been well-behaved (save a gal who told an opponent to, "Shut the f*** up! -- resulting in a caution, as the match didn't need a send-off).

But the season is young and I am positive with two high school matches this week, someone will give me something to laugh about.

Stupid Assignors

For those of you who don't know what an assignor does, let me take a couple seconds to fill you in.

Contrary to ancient myth, officials do not just happen upon a game and figure since they have nothing better to do, they'll subject the teams, coaches and fans to horrors beyond imagination. Nope, someone else has to tell them to go there (to the game, that is).

That's what assignors do, tell officials what matches they are doing. Assignors receive game information from a variety of sources though typically it is from a league officer (preferably just one, who has all the information for the league). Then with this information, the assignor informs qualified officials (you may insert your oxymoron statement here) when and where to be.

This system works occasionally.

Today, not so much.

It's currently the first week of the spring high school season and after having most of the matches covered by officials prior to the season starting, several referees have given back their matches with little notice. As you can imagine this creates problems for the assignors as they must now reach into their bag of officials and magically pull out another official qualified to do the game (oh, if only such a magical bag existed).

Back to today (I am easily distracted by shiney things), I received a text message from a referee a couple days back wherein he stated he was quite busy with school and couldn't take on more assignments. As I had recently sent out an email request for help covering a couple of still open spots this week, I texted him back and stated I needed help this weekend, to which he agreed, being the weekend and all.

Yesterday, I sent out another request begging officials to help with a game today. I received another text from aforementioned referee asking about his assignments. I replied that tomorrow (today) was covered and needed him still on Saturday (the match in question was taken by another official before I received the text). I had neglected to look at the schedule before replying to his message. If I would have, I may have noticed he had an assignment today and may have guessed our conversation was not hitting on all cylinders.

(You must have seen this coming) I receive a phone call at 3.50pm today from the ARs on a match the said referee had been assigned, stating he was not there, they had called him and he had told the ARs, I had gotten someone else to cover the match for him. The match was to begin at 4pm. I called the referee back and we realized, finally, we had made a horrible mistake in our communications. However, he was currently stuck without a vehicle some 30 miles away from the game. After many frantic phone calls to other officials, I managed to reach someone (who hadn't been drinking) and could cover the match.

Is there a point to this story? Be nice to your assignors? Be clear when discussing things with simple-minded assignors? Assume your assignors have NO idea what you are talking about, ever? All of the above?

Regarding the podcast, I've been getting interest from local officials about participating and once this week is through (it's almost done...thankfully), I should start work on the meat and taters of the show.

Do call in if you have a story for us.

Gearing Up

Hey again,

Before we get to the release of the first show, it'd be good to have some material. Well, material that isn't me talking about how stupid I am.

I've set up a voicemail box where y'all can call in and leave me a message.

The first few shows will feature the following:

1) Most memorable coach and why
2) Most memorable player and why

Please give a call and leave a message for me:

(641) 715-3900 ext. 91965

I am just trying out this service so if the sound quality ends up sucking (the test from my landline actually sounded pretty good), I'll keep looking. But for now, it's free, so we'll see.

I'll be editing out all the personal information so please leave an email address I can reach you at in case the masses would like to hear more about a particular coach or player.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Jonathon

Sense of humor?

One whole day after admitting I need to think more before opening my mouth...

The home team is up 3-1, the forward takes on three defenders entering the penalty area. She loses possession, receiving a couple bumps from the defense during the play. However, there is no push, no hold, no kick and no trip on the play, just a fair shoulder to shoulder challenge which results in the forward making contact with one of the other defenders. The ball, by this point, has moved beyond the forward's playing distance. There is no call to make, so I make none.

Afterward, I approach the forward (keep in mind, I've officiated this gal's games for a few years now and while I am not on particularly friendly terms with her, I've been joking a bit with her teammates prior to this play) and say to her, "Ya know, I'm gonna let them assault you down here." She replies, "What? Why?" "Well, you're up 3-1..." I smile.

Shortly thereafter she is subbed. From 20 yards away I hear her relay what I recently said to her coach in a none too amused tone. I realized, of course, there was little I could do at this point to either assure her I was joking (with hopes of making nice) or prove I was to this particular player (as she wasn't on the pitch). I did tighten up my calls for the remaining 20 minutes, yet the damage had been done. The home team did end up winning 3-2 and there were no injuries or highly debatable calls.

While I think the result of the match was correct, I would have been well-served by not joking with this particular player. I was however, making comments to a couple other players on the home team (and being continually berated by another but that is our relationship, she bitches...I card her on occasion). I done went and got in a good mood and suffered the consequences for it.

So much for thinking before speaking...

In other news (if you can call it that), one of the AR's and I had a good laugh about one parent from the visiting team who made comments about almost every play and call or no call of mine. I was wanting to stop the match and write down some of her comments for posting here and they were so magnificently idiotic, I immediately forgot them (the parents at several recent matches have been so ill-informed concerning the Laws of the Game, the moronic comments all run together).

A Day with the Family

11:45am The first phone call was from a referee at the field. The crew was supposed to be doing a GU15 match and there were just a bunch of guys practicing there. I checked the schedule I'd received, twice, while the referee was still on the phone and there was the match, scheduled at 12noon, on the field the crew was currently watching.

11:47am After attempting to reach the person in charge of the schedules (and failing), I called the crew back and told them to head on home as I wasn't going to ask them to travel to other fields looking for a game.

1:58pm The phone rings again. A person I work with to schedule State Cup games was curious as to where the crew was for the 2:00pm match at the field my crew was at two hours prior. I was also informed the visiting team had traveled from the Tri-Cities (at least four hours, maybe, I haven't actually been there) and money had already been paid to secure this match. I mentioned that a crew had been there and it was unlikely I could get the same crew back in a timely manner but would make efforts.

2:06pm After several calls to several referees, I'd acquired a crew who was en route to the field to cover the match (many thanks to those who dropped what they were doing and helped continue the illusion that I am indeed a miracle worker). I called the field back and informed them a three-person crew was on the way, should arrive within 20 minutes and the match would be underway in about half an hour.

4:20pm The center referee called to inform me the Tri-Cities coach would be protesting the match as it started late. We laughed.