10 Apr 2005
Today, i learned two things:
1) Don't stay up all night working on a website, and then go straight to your refereeing assignments in the morning. Especially when you have four games to referee.
2) That insane intramural league has hardened me more than i thought.
So, i was so excited about getting my new website up and running after 7 months of development (www.refplanet.com, by the way), that i stayed up all night tweaking the php scripts and perfecting the categories for the resource listings (and starting my crawl through the Internet searching for new entries). Before i knew it, it was 530AM, and my alarm was set for 600! So i made my pasta and stayed up, and went to my first game, which was an U14 boys game at 910.
The game went well, but at one point i created the most deafening silence possibly in AYSO history.
Alright, so it's Blue v. Red. The ball is rolling deep in Red's defending end, towards the corner. Blue touched it last. A Blue player sprints to the ball, and, just before it goes over the line, saves it, but just ends up kicking it over the goal line anyway, for a goal kick. I signal the goal kick (for Red), and the Red coach starts yelling that it's a throw in (for Red). Why he wanted a throw in instead of the goal kick is beyond me, as the goal kick is in a better position than a deep throw. I continue to verbally alert to the players that it is a goal kick, and the coach gets louder about the throw in. His players are starting to get confused about whom they should listen to.
Finally, i find a quick way to resolve the situation: as loudly as i could, i say "HEY!" directly at the coach. When he looks, i put my finger to my mouth for two seconds, and then tell the players that it is a goal kick. The coach turned white, the parents were silent, and the players were...well...they looked relieved, because the coach was geniunely confusing them. I could honestly say that this is something i would never have done before February with those insane Uni students in the Rutgers Intramural League.
In my other game in the middle (i had two games in the centre and two as an AR, 20th overall AR cap), a Girls U14 match, i had to silence another coach, who was arguing that his player was not the last to kick the ball before it went into touch. He was right; his player was not the last the kick it. It was kicked off of her shin, and then it went into touch. It does not matter who kicked it last, just whom the ball touches last. This coach was a bit more embarrassed about the matter, and came to me at halftime to apologise, so i told him not to worry about it. I don't take things personally, but i like the game to run smoothly for the players, and coaches yelling things that are contradictory to my decisions are confusing for young players.
I think my "hardening" will benefit me in the long run, because it taught me a lot about player/coach management, and it helped me to be a bit more fearless when it comes to dealing with unruly players.
Brooklyn AYSO has offered to keep me on their roster for the Spring Season, but i was not told which division they expect me to officiate. If i do it, it would be an extra trip into New York every week, and matches on both weekends. Depends on the division, i suppose.
Appearances:
-Referee: 65
-Assistant: 20
-Chas