Ironman

No I am not participating in any triathlon.  I'm not a runner. :)

In my context, "Ironman" is what we call running a JV / Level 3 game all by yourself.  For those games, we generally run dual refs, but for some reason we were really short on HS refs last week.  I was surprised we were so short on HS refs considering there have been very few weather related cancellations.  I could understand if the schedules stacked up due to a lot of makeups due to rain or snow outs, but that hasn't happened this Spring.

NOTE:  We never run Varsity as an "Ironman."  At worst case, we'll run dual refs as opposed to double dual (i.e. 3 refs).

Tax Day

Well it's Tax Day.  Which reminds me that my 1040 will be more complicated next year due to all the different organizations paying me to ref soccer.

I had 5 games this weekend not including my usual parent volunteer AR for my son's home games.  Three of them were back in the State Cup, although they were for U12 girls (good), all of which were already eliminated from playoffs (not so good).  I worked with a good crew at the State Cup, so it was fun and I learned a few things.   So after technically being 1/4 of the way to working enough games for USSF Grade 7 qualification, here's my progress report.

Offside or not offside. That is the question.

Monday:  First, I'm going to whine about my knees.  OUCH.  They are killing me.  I am a mtn biker and skier, not a runner.  I have not had a good chance to train my legs since my cold in early March and the subsequent Spring Cup.  So I go week to week with some ailment.  Today, both my knees are killing me.  I hobbled through Continental's Houston hub today, which I think requires the most walking of any major airport in the US and has the least amount of moving walkways.  Maybe except for O'Hare, if you ever have the fortune of going from gate C23 to F11.

OK Soccer!  I had two HS games (one JV, one Level 3) and 3 President's Cup games this week.

Seeing Yellow

This weekend we had typical early April weather along the Colorado Front Range.  Namely, a record setting high temperature day (Saturday) followed by snow the next day (Sunday).  Welcome back Spring, we missed you.

This being a soccer blog and not a weather blog, let me summarize this weekend's trials and tribulations:

1. Worked a U-17 Div 2 Boys game on a turf field on Saturday as AR2.  Late in the first half, Team A's player has the ball near the penalty area, I look away to reset my offside, and out of my peripheral vision I see Team B (defender) take a good fall.  No call from me, no call from the CR, and lo and behold, GOAL.  Uh oh.  Parents are not pleased.  Literally 2 min later it is halftime.  So obviously we talk about the 'foul.'  I glanced away, so I saw the effect but not the cause.  CR was in a trailing behind position, so he didn't see an obvious push.  Trail AR said there 'could' be a foul.  Offside is my primary responsibility, but my lesson at the higher levels is to take a better angle or learn to count 'one' then reset.  This is so I can give better information to the CR.