Well, it's finally here! No, I'm not referring to Spring. That's a few weeks off. I am talking about the impending Spring season. I live in the Northeastern United States. The amount of snow we had this year was unbelievable so I can assure you I'm ready for soccer.
Last night we had our pre-season, local league meeting for referees. It went well, although I would say these meetings are most useful for the referees that are not going to show up in the first place. The state committe was there reviewing some points of emphasis which I found useful. The league reviews issues about filling out game cards and the like, but the neglect to review competition rules. You would think they would take advantage of having everyone in the same room. The referee assignors go over things like showing up to the field properly dressed and how to make nice with coaches. Again, these items are really not for the 80% that show up at the meeting. They are targeted to the 20% that do not.
With all the bad weather we've been having, I've been working like a crazy man to get my fitness level to an acceptable level. It has been tough between missing days because of snow covered roads, family schedule conflicts and just plain laziness. That said, I'm back up to 3 or 4 miles of running so I should be OK.
I put in availability for the first weekend (3/14), but the weather forecast is not looking good. I'm guessing we'll be rained out. Sooner or later, I'll be back on the field!
3 comments:
Heh, at least your leagues have orientation meetings. None of the ones do out here for us lowly referees: the assignors are clued in, and that's about it, and they don't always pass the information along.
Spring's always a confusing mess out in my area of So Cal, most of the leagues are in their secondary season, and as a result we get their second-best effort.
The major recreational league supposedly has games starting on 3/13, and yet we still have no schedules for the teams available.
So while most of the review may have been mundane for you, be happy with the fact you're not as disorganized as other areas :).
You're right. I didn't mean to give the impression that I am unhappy with the review. Actually, I think it's great. I was more lamenting the fact that the officials that really need the review never seem to show up!
Generally speaking, I would argue I'm fortunate in that the league for which I work is one of the best in the state, if not the region.
Yeah, that issue seems to be endemic everywhere. Cal South is organized into referee associations which do much of the assignments outside of AYSO here, and much of the membership is also "marginal" in the sense they generally do not show up for the meetings in the two associations I belong to.
The new SRA and his merry band apparently have had enough and put their foot down: mandatory that you attend 5 meetings in 2010 if you wish to maintain your USSF certification (their implementation of the 5-hour In-Service training mandate), and that if you ever want to be considered for upgrade, it's "highly recommended" to attend at least 10 of them. The training is now consistent between the associations as it's being provided directly by Cal South instructors, we'll see if it makes any difference in improving the quality of officiating :).
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