BCPL Referee Shortage?

[peg leg]

Haven't posted in a while but enjoy the reads. This topic is totally relevant to me. My daughter who is an excellent ref was only doing small sided games. Easy peezy. She is 18 going to first year university and I challenged her to do big sided games, she said she would do it if I did it. So I did! Even saw @knvb last week and said I was following in his footsteps which maybe isn't wise but I digress...

I personally love it. I do mostly U-14 to 18 games up to Metro. However, the bitching is real. If any of you know me, that doesn't bother me. I just smile and keep going.

However to an 18 year old girl or heck to a 14 or 15 year old kid, verbal abuse is awful. That is why we aren't keeping refs. For instance a coach from a team went ballastic on my daughter after a game arguing over a yellow card she gave to their team during the game. The manager came in as well and was abusive. Thank goodness, the other teams manager was there and cooled things off to a degree. After hearing the story, my daughter said it was strange because the game wasn't even close. The abusive coach and manger team won 6-2. My kid did report them , B.C. soccer gave them 3 games but of course they appealed and who knows where it ends. The point is there was NO reason to do this.

My daughter is still reffing and we need women refs, good ones. I admit I wasn't great when I was coaching at times towards officials, I understand the will to win but this referee shortage will continue if parents and coaches don't improve their attitude and behaviour towards young referees. So what are we left with: old guys who are slow, can't keep up with the play and generally call nothing. And guess what, they do 6-8 games a weekend. Give me a young ref over these guys any day of the week!

 

[Dude]

I nodded off a quarter the way through @Dude post....

You can be forgiven. Reading isn't your strength.

 

[Dude]

I don’t feel it’s my role to “teach” the ref. It’s my role to make sure he comes back. Feels confident.

Great perspective.

I feel pretty solid in that I had an otherwise good record w/ refs, and had the same mantra. I blew my lid on that occasion more because of the cheap shot on my player, but 100% handled it the wrong way. So, if you are hyper competitive, yeah, your day is coming. The only thing I did right there was admit wrong, fast, apologize, fast, and be contrite and humble in facing the music. As they say, by then, damage done.

Good for you, @peg leg. I love my daughter, but I'd have said fcuk that. My weekend hours are also there for me to enjoy. I spend most hours of most weeks dealing with Muppets, don't need to deal with another 22+ in my spare time. I enjoyed coaching, 100% positive I would not enjoy refereeing.

 

[whistle blower]

Whistle blower on the other hand well I yell at you so I don’t yell at my wife. I take my yellow card and move on. My wife says thanks.

Wanker

 

[knvb]

You can be forgiven. Reading isn't your strength

I have facebook if I wanted a nap reading about you. I try and keep awake midday.

@peg leg I told you, you would take way less abuse if you didn't wear your thick readers on the pitch. That said, they may also approve your play. It's a no win for you.

 

[utah]

Haven't posted in a while but enjoy the reads. This topic is totally relevant to me. My daughter who is an excellent ref was only doing small sided games. Easy peezy. She is 18 going to first year university and I challenged her to do big sided games, she said she would do it if I did it. So I did! Even saw @knvb last week and said I was following in his footsteps which maybe isn't wise but I digress...

I personally love it. I do mostly U-14 to 18 games up to Metro. However, the bitching is real. If any of you know me, that doesn't bother me. I just smile and keep going.

However to an 18 year old girl or heck to a 14 or 15 year old kid, verbal abuse is awful. That is why we aren't keeping refs. For instance a coach from a team went ballastic on my daughter after a game arguing over a yellow card she gave to their team during the game. The manager came in as well and was abusive. Thank goodness, the other teams manager was there and cooled things off to a degree. After hearing the story, my daughter said it was strange because the game wasn't even close. The abusive coach and manger team won 6-2. My kid did report them , B.C. soccer gave them 3 games but of course they appealed and who knows where it ends. The point is there was NO reason to do this.

My daughter is still reffing and we need women refs, good ones. I admit I wasn't great when I was coaching at times towards officials, I understand the will to win but this referee shortage will continue if parents and coaches don't improve their attitude and behaviour towards young referees. So what are we left with: old guys who are slow, can't keep up with the play and generally call nothing. And guess what, they do 6-8 games a weekend. Give me a young ref over these guys any day of the week!

Good job Peggy. I feel you will make an excellent ref.
You can't hear the bitching from the sidelines, you can't see them fingering you and you don't get too worked up. Good ingredients for sure.

Also, good job keeping your daughter in the soccer culture.

 

[Rangerforever]

As WB said, more players need to be refs.
So good on you Peg Leg, and your daughter too - Def need more female officials.

My buddy Bear is one of the best refs I've ever seen and he'll only do women's matches now.
He's the same kind of guy like PL and laughs it off given the high level he's played at, but he just can't be arsed anymore to listen to it.

 

[robino]

Again, nobody is promoting shouting and yelling at referees at any age. It is a wrong behaviour to demonstrate to your players. However, as a coach you should be able to ask questions to referees on a decision they make. Why was that a penalty kick for an example? Politely and with respect. If you are not able to withstand anyone asking you a question then this is not a good fit for you. Not everybody can be a ref. I always found the best referees are the one who are able to communicate well and answer questions that the coaches might have. This is called communication and as a referee you need to be able to explain things.
I can also point out to clubs sending out young refs to ref who have no idea of what is happening. How can you ref if you have no clue what the rules are? You as a club are putting them in a position to fail. Proper training is a key. It takes time, but train them well so when they are at a field they are competent and confident. Three weeks ago, at a tournament we also had a ref carry a phone and kept checking on it. But I guess thats a norm now as phones are all around us.

 

[Dude]

Again, nobody is promoting shouting and yelling at referees at any age. It is a wrong behaviour to demonstrate to your players. However, as a coach you should be able to ask questions to referees on a decision they make. Why was that a penalty kick for an example? Politely and with respect. If you are not able to withstand anyone asking you a question then this is not a good fit for you. Not everybody can be a ref. I always found the best referees are the one who are able to communicate well and answer questions that the coaches might have. This is called communication and as a referee you need to be able to explain things.
I can also point out to clubs sending out young refs to ref who have no idea of what is happening. How can you ref if you have no clue what the rules are? You as a club are putting them in a position to fail. Proper training is a key. It takes time, but train them well so when they are at a field they are competent and confident. Three weeks ago, at a tournament we also had a ref carry a phone and kept checking on it. But I guess thats a norm now as phones are all around us.

You are missing the plot.

It’s not your job as a coach to train them.

Secondly, we’ve already established it is a low demand job, and specialized. Are you going to further whittle that down right at the beginning of their young careers by judging if a kid can properly communicate or not? Seriously, you lost me way back at U9!

Get real, seriously.

 

[trece verde]

Holy fcuk. I'm actually agreeing with Dude?

robino, you have some very good ideas about other aspects of development for the game, but you're way off on this one. Unless you're a trained referee yourself and acting in a mentorship role with your club, you have no business talking to any small-sided game referee and asking them to justify their calls. This actually is something I do in my position for our club, and have for a long time. It's a huge fcuking challenge to retain young referees - most of them have had it after a season, primarily due to having to deal with so called "adults" who get in their faces during or after games about rules they frequently have only a sketchy understanding of themselves. Think of yourself as that 12 year old kid reffing 8 or 9 year olds and then remember how well you would have communicated in that position. It's extremely rare for kids that age to not be intimidated by an irate adult coach. Maybe that wasn't you, but can you say that you always know how you come across to kids that age? This is why we tell coaches that if they do have issues or problems with a referee to bring them back to the club and let us deal with them, and they only acceptable thing to say to a ref that age is "thanks, ref."

Yes, youth referees need more training. They also need experience to understand how to manage games, and especially people, how to deal with unpredictable reactions from adults releasing their inner 12 year olds, be responsible for the safety of players and determine whether field conditions permit a game to actually be played. That is a lot of responsibility for kids at this age.

I was told by a somewhat reliable source that we have gone from about 3200 active provincially-registered referees in this province pre-COVID down to about 900 now. This affects games at ALL levels, not just SPL. It means no ARs for a lot of the older kids' games as well, and a lot of games where coaches have had to ref this season. We're training new refs now, and thankfully the first post-COVID course we've been able to offer sold out in less than 30 minutes, but we can't replace the lost experience at the district level anywhere near that easily.

I need to have a good rapport with most of the referees and schedulers I deal with, so Whistleblower is the only one I yell at...