Matches and Games- 221 for 2023

 Good day dear readers and followers, 

I have wound down and wound out of the calendar year's soccer officiating.  A record of 221 matches or games- whichever you prefer was covered.  If not for some weather related cancellations it would have been over 240.  The legion of youth sports officials is getting ever shorter.  Soccer in particular.  If not for a solid grouping of older referees, like myself, staying in the game then there would be no games.  The problem is the behavior of the fans, coaches and the players too, and it is getting worse, which is unfortunate. 

Playing sports when I was younger brought great joy.  It was fun, we got out, got exercise, socially engaged and made new friends.  There are still great people out there, for sure.  I coached with a terrific group of people and we were very engaged in the community- to invest in the children.  We paid our own way through coaching schools and clinics.  We all donated our time, all 12 months of the year. We made a positive difference in the lives of others. I still run into many of my former players, now in their 20's and 30's.  Some have children of their own that now play.  But there has been a tidal shift to paid trainers,coaches and with that has brought entitlements.  The laws of the game change a little bit each year.  Not everyone bothers to follow them.  This causes problems.  

The game, whatever you play is, there for the joy, the competition, gamesmanship and teamwork.  We were taught to respect the game(s), the officials and the coaches.  Now we see sportsmanship slipping away.  According to Sport Illustrated's Pat Forde, "Officials take more abuse than ever.  Now there are simply fewer people willing to do the job."  One of my referee buddy's, Kevin, with nearly 20 years of experience and over 3,000 games of experience, said "behavior is at its worse."  There are paid coaches that drive higher costs and entitled adults and players,- that has been a big change.  Officials are tired of the behavior.  One of my former coaching brethren, who is still coaching, stated that they have seen the shortage, sometimes not having any referee at all.

The National Association of Sports Officials (NASO)  ran a survey , asking Is Sportsmanship getting better or Worse?  68.61% responded that is is Worse, only 10.14% felt that is is getting better, with 21.25% labeled it with no change.  I participated and I am part of the 68.61%.  Behavior is shameful.  In one of the late season tournaments we had a senior crew mentoring a new, young female referee, who is only 16 years old.  We had all worked with her older sister, who is now 19 was always a great team member.  The coaches were not considerate and luckily there was also an evaluator at the site who took time to provide some upbeat feedback and run interference with the coaches, telling them "I'm here to make sure a young referee doesn't become another young former referee."

The average age of soccer officials according to NASO is 55.96.  I am a year plus older.  I have worked with 14 year olds and septuagenarians.  We are all getting older as a workforce.  My younger daughter, now 30 years old stuck it out for three years.  I know several young referees that also came and went in a year or two.  The main group of us that officiate together try to mentor the young  folks.  However, we use words like "protect her, or him."  It is really terrible that we have to monitor behaviors for the lack of respect.  The fact that we have to "protect" a youthful referee from adults is just nauseating.

Why did i cover 221 games?  Because the game needed me.  I could have done 321, maybe 421, there were so many openings just in Southeastern PA every week.  I know a couple referees that hung up their whistles.  One, my friend Rodney is the one that got me back out there, my buddy Kevin that I mentioned earlier, left and came back.  He had a run in with a foul-mouthed dad that he sent packing to the parking lot last weekend.  I had an entire sideline of parents that I nearly removed -until one took control and told the other alleged adults to "not say another word."

Humans, humanity, has to do better as a whole.  In some places the poor parental behavior is punished by making the offending parents officiate. We need to be better.  When I was coaching it was a privilege and we ensured that our parents, coaches and players conducted themselves with respect.  If there was boorish behavior it was punished.  We terminated coaches.  Think about that one.  We fired volunteer coaches for setting a bad example.  The Anserman says "Be better, set a good example.  Just once I would love to follow a coach around, rant and rave at their coaching decisions and critique players for bad decisions just so that they would know what it is like to be targeted.  No one is perfect, which makes us all perfectly human."