Post by twinder on Jun 4, 2011 10:46:36 GMT -5
Good grief! I need to vent a little.
We went to Jersey Shore this morning for our girl's soccer game. Early in the first quarter, one of the kids tripped and slid at another player and ended up making contact with the ball. The other player lost her balance and went to the ground. The referee called a penalty, "an illegal slide tackle" and gave the other team a free kick. Our coach said; "it was all ball" and the ref yelled back to him; "I'm sick of hearing that." This was about 4 minutes into the game.
From the side line, I said to the ref; "She tripped, it was obviously not a slide tackle." I should mention that I've been an AYSO referee for more than 25 years and I know the referee who made the call. He stopped the game and came toward me and said that he would call the game, not the side line. I said that I was merely saying that she tripped, it wasn't intentional and he should continue to call the game. Apparently, he took offense to this and felt more like trying to argue with me than keep the game going. It is a hard and fast rule that the officials should never do what he did. Officials are told to ignore the spectators unless they are verbally abusive towards a player.
The game continued and at the break between first and second quarter, which is only to be long enough for substitutions, he left the field to converse with his wife. The entire second quarter was played and I and the other parents were cheering for the kids. It was a pretty good game and was going back and forth with two fairly matched teams.
Then at half-time, the referee gathered the two linesmen and walked across the field to confront me. Other parents were saying that he was "coming for you, Todd." I didn't think so because we weren't arguing with him for over 35 minutes of playing time. Wrong.
He came to me, raised a clenched fist at me while I was sitting in a chair and told me; "This is you first warning for questioning my game calling, do it again and you'll be gone." I told him that I wasn't questioning his call. I only said that she tripped and didn't purposely slide and that as a referee myself, he has no business coming to the sideline like he was to confront a spectator. He told me to leave or the game was over. I called for my three girls to cross the field as we were leaving if that's what he was doing.
Our coach talked to the ref and he came over and asked me to sit in the car so the kids could play, which I did for the second half. Even parents from Jersey Shore came to my car (which was five feet behind my lawn chair!) and said that he was wrong and very unprofessional. One said they were embarassed by his actions.
One of our parents caught the entire thing on video and said that she was going to send it to the National Headquarters for AYSO as this "gentleman" has anger issues and she has seen him do this same thing at other games.
It's too bad some people suffer from bruised egos as children and have the need to pump themselves up in such a manner. A little bit of authority goes straight to some people's head.
What was really difficult was that one of the linesmen asked me earlier in the season to assist him at Jersey Shore for another one of our games because they didn't have enough people. I did it and the guy said that he couldn't believe all the calls I was making against our own team. I kept calling my own daughter "offsides" and she was getting mad at me for it. I told him that I call the game fairly, even if it is against my own child. I also told him that it gets tough with three kids on the same team. Well, he was in front of us the whole first half and surely, he knew that nothing was said that would warrant the ref doing what he did. When the three came over, he stood there, just looking at the ground like a coward.
It was a Hell of a morning.
Now I'm off to a funeral for a fellow firefighter. Have a good day kids.
We went to Jersey Shore this morning for our girl's soccer game. Early in the first quarter, one of the kids tripped and slid at another player and ended up making contact with the ball. The other player lost her balance and went to the ground. The referee called a penalty, "an illegal slide tackle" and gave the other team a free kick. Our coach said; "it was all ball" and the ref yelled back to him; "I'm sick of hearing that." This was about 4 minutes into the game.
From the side line, I said to the ref; "She tripped, it was obviously not a slide tackle." I should mention that I've been an AYSO referee for more than 25 years and I know the referee who made the call. He stopped the game and came toward me and said that he would call the game, not the side line. I said that I was merely saying that she tripped, it wasn't intentional and he should continue to call the game. Apparently, he took offense to this and felt more like trying to argue with me than keep the game going. It is a hard and fast rule that the officials should never do what he did. Officials are told to ignore the spectators unless they are verbally abusive towards a player.
The game continued and at the break between first and second quarter, which is only to be long enough for substitutions, he left the field to converse with his wife. The entire second quarter was played and I and the other parents were cheering for the kids. It was a pretty good game and was going back and forth with two fairly matched teams.
Then at half-time, the referee gathered the two linesmen and walked across the field to confront me. Other parents were saying that he was "coming for you, Todd." I didn't think so because we weren't arguing with him for over 35 minutes of playing time. Wrong.
He came to me, raised a clenched fist at me while I was sitting in a chair and told me; "This is you first warning for questioning my game calling, do it again and you'll be gone." I told him that I wasn't questioning his call. I only said that she tripped and didn't purposely slide and that as a referee myself, he has no business coming to the sideline like he was to confront a spectator. He told me to leave or the game was over. I called for my three girls to cross the field as we were leaving if that's what he was doing.
Our coach talked to the ref and he came over and asked me to sit in the car so the kids could play, which I did for the second half. Even parents from Jersey Shore came to my car (which was five feet behind my lawn chair!) and said that he was wrong and very unprofessional. One said they were embarassed by his actions.
One of our parents caught the entire thing on video and said that she was going to send it to the National Headquarters for AYSO as this "gentleman" has anger issues and she has seen him do this same thing at other games.
It's too bad some people suffer from bruised egos as children and have the need to pump themselves up in such a manner. A little bit of authority goes straight to some people's head.
What was really difficult was that one of the linesmen asked me earlier in the season to assist him at Jersey Shore for another one of our games because they didn't have enough people. I did it and the guy said that he couldn't believe all the calls I was making against our own team. I kept calling my own daughter "offsides" and she was getting mad at me for it. I told him that I call the game fairly, even if it is against my own child. I also told him that it gets tough with three kids on the same team. Well, he was in front of us the whole first half and surely, he knew that nothing was said that would warrant the ref doing what he did. When the three came over, he stood there, just looking at the ground like a coward.
It was a Hell of a morning.
Now I'm off to a funeral for a fellow firefighter. Have a good day kids.