Show 002 is up!

Click on the title to access the podcasts.

This past weekend held a couple different events for idiot-boy here.

Last year one of the local soccer associations put together a 3 vs. 3 recreational tournament. The tournament director contacted the referee association about providing referees for the event, but because the tournament was put together relatively quickly, instead of using licensed referees, the director brought in high school players (as a fund-raiser for their soccer programs). The event went off pretty well for being a first year gig although as the assignor, it was a bit messy.

The director contacted me at the beginning of 2008 to assign the tournament again, stating that this year we would use the tournament as an instructional event for the referee association's younger referees. He then informed me about a month ago that we'd again be using high school soccer players as referees. Needless to say I was disappointed. It was around this time I asked the director to provide me with the schedule of matches as soon as he could so I could piece together something.

A week before the tournament, I still hadn't received any information in regards to assigning the gig. On Monday the tournament director let me know we'd be running 14 fields every half an hour, but didn't give me start times or the number of high school players I'd have to work with. On Wednesday I received the list of high school players and the times they were planning on being at the tourney as well as the start time of the gig. I put together the assignments based on the information given to me and Friday evening at 9pm I received two emails from the tournament director. The first informing me that two individuals had changed their availability for the tournament the next day. And the other email was a breakdown of fields, times and age groups. Along with this was a note from the director suggesting I use the older kids on the U-14 matches. As I didn't recognize more than 4 names on the list, I had absolutely no idea how old the people were I was assigning.

The information regarding the times and ages was for 12 fields, not the 14 I was originally informed. Also, there were several time slots where all fields were not in use. So Friday evening I reworked the entire tournament schedule, staying up until 1am to try to assure every referee had breaks at regular intervals, worked when they were available and were not idle for extended periods.

When I arrived at the tournament on Saturday morning, the director introduced me to the high school players who were being briefed on the modified rules for the 3 v. 3 play. He then handed me an air horn and let them know I was in charge of the keeping time on their matches, which was to be controlled by the air horn.

The coach of the boy's soccer team was in charge of the kids and informed me that a few people hadn't arrived so the assignments may have to be modified from what I'd put together. We discovered 5 of the referees weren't there and this trend continued throughout the day. As I was blowing the air horn every 12 minutes to signal the start of matches and half-time, I had to try to modify the assignments between the blasts of loud. All in all, the day turned out with every match being covered (albeit several from the soccer coach, another volunteer and the father of one of the players (who was leaving early to attend the Brazil vs. Canada in Seattle)).

I will not, however, be assigning the tournament again if licensed referees are not used, if I do not receive a workable schedule at least two weeks before the event and if I am responsible for keeping time for the matches. While compensation made to me last year was fair (I have yet to be paid for this year's debacle), I do not find the role of horn-blower interesting, nor is what I was doing assigning referees (as I have come to understand it).

Oh and then there was LPT's yesterday, but that's a lengthy story, worthy of the podcast.

Thanks for your support.

Jonathon