Refreshing Game

As I mentioned in a previous post, I ended up with only 1 game last weekend through an honest mistake on my assignors part. It wasn't that big of deal, although reserving a large portion of ones day for a single game is problematic.
As is my pratice, I got to the field 30 minutes before the schedule game time. The home team coach arrived around the same time and his players arrived shortly after. Noticeably, the visiting team was absent.
One member of the crew pointed out that he had no interest in being the referee for the game, so the remaining referee and I flipped a coin and I ended up as the assigned center.
The appointed game time arrived without the visiting team. They arrived at the field 15 minutes into their 30 minute grace period. Apparently, they had played one day tournament elsewhere and did their best to get to the field.
It turned out to be a really good game. Both teams were skilled (for U-10) and played very well. The interesting thing about this game was there were very few fouls, and those that I did call were fairly minor. Not only that, but, after the game, it occurred to me that neither coach said a negative word to the referee crew, nor did any of the parents. How refreshing! We did the entire game and only had to concentrate on the play on the field. In fact, the coaches were nothing but polite and friendly. I guess it does happen on occasion. So if you are having some problematic games, try to relax. Your next game could be just like the one I had.