Topic: A message to coaches

[74cb750]

This is my take on being a referee:

parents and coaches seem to forget that the main reason their kids play soccer is for enjoyment and love of sports.   

you might have spent a lot of time and $ to get your kids to play, but don't forget if the kids stop enjoying it they will quit playing.

Most referees are former players, and/or coaches themselves. It would be nice if at least the coaches knew the rules. They don't change just because your team is losing, and appealing to the referee about the score at the end of a game will not change the score. Your team lost, get on with life.

I had to wake up at 4;30am to make it to my first game at 8 am , so YES i am awake. 

No, I am not deaf, but if you keep yelling about all the calls I make that go against your team that will make me more prone to watch for errors/fouls both teams are committing. could be I'm missing something, we are not perfect. If I didn't hear what one player said to another on the other side of the field, right in front of you, it does not mean it didn't happen, just that I , nor  the other 2 referees didn't  hear it.



No i do not have eyes in the back of my head, and my glasses are working fine, thank you.

I am getting paid $25-35 a game. I am NOT doing this just for the money.

When I give a player a card for a foul committed after I signaled what the foul was, there is no need for you to continually shout
WHAT WAS THE CALL? WHAT WAS THE CALL? WHAT WAS THE FOUL? I heard you the first time, and so did everyone else. It is time for you to take a chill pill, or I will eject you from the field.

A hand ball is not always a hand ball. Depends. Your shouting HANDBALL! HANDBALL! HANDBALL! does not make it so. (I took the time on my break at a restaurant between games to explain it to a parent. I think they still didn't understand.)

 well most coaches are reasonable and know the rules, those that Think they do are the ones whom make it difficult for referees. I do take the time to explain the rules, After the game, if i have the time to either the players or coaches.

 Don't ask me to stop the game to explain the universal signals to you. Look it up in the rule book.

I will admit when i was a coach i yelled a lot and was loud, but I did not disparage the players......... or referees (well not much anyways, but the referees were so bad when i was a coach, you know?). so I know people can get emotional.

Don't be a sore loser. You as a coach are supposed to teach kids that you can't always win and you need to teach that. it is part of life. Everyone will not go home with a trophy, despite all the political correctness around that says otherwise.

Why do i do it? For the love of the game and the kids.

[demon78]

Could be worse it could be hockey.
Bill the demon.

[ekpent]

Tough job wearing those stripes. Good friend of mine is a basketball ref and I cringe sometimes when I would hear the abuse he could get from the 'fans'. Luckily he is  professional about it with very thick skin.

[Bailgang]

It's usually the parents not the coaches that give refs the most grief at least that's how it is around here with our little league baseball. I used to be a mouthy parent myself until on time I had to fill in as a first base umpire, that experience gave me a whole new perspective of what umpires have to deal with and I kept my mouth shut from that point on. Yes sometimes an umpire will make a bad call but they can't see everything from every angle every time and have to make a call on what they saw at that moment which may not coincide with what you the coach or parent in the stands saw so deal with it.

[Duke McDukiedook]

Man there are huge differences between how refs are treated from soccer to rugby. Pretty much all the time in our matches we addressed the ref as sir and usually you only let your captain communicate with the ref. The amount of abuse soccer refs receive is crazy.

[Tews19]

You want to see the hardest working refs?? Come to a youth wrestling meet! #$%*, I will even drive! Not one ref job compares to a gym full of screaming parents at a wrestling meet.... The worst parents are those of 5 year old kids who have no clue how to wrestle.