The next generation

As I've said many times, parents on my son's team know I'm a referee.  They ask me about every controversial call.  Mostly I have to bite my tongue when I think the CR (or AR) has made an incorrect call.  Or I'll say something generic as "well they have a totally different angle then we do, and they are the closest." Which is code speak for "no way in hell was that the right call."

There is however a difference between a referee making the wrong call and a referee which clearly needs mentoring.  Which brings me to what happened during kickoff weekend.  Fall kickoff is a double header weekend the weekend before Labor Day.  The teams usually play 1 game Saturday and 1 game Sunday.  The good news is there is no Rec/Option 1 games to further dilute the number of available referees.  The bad news is, in many cases, this is the first action for our newly certified referees.

In my son's Sunday game, I see this really young girl walk over to our touchline.  Likely no more than 11, obviously has a Grade 9 badge on.  OK maybe she's making the next step.  Well the first thing I notice is she takes position on the center line with her flag horizontally across her body.  Uh-oh, she doesn't even know where she's supposed to be.  2 minutes later, she's barely moved, even though play is going on.  My son is playing in a mid level U-12 league - some teams in his division play President's Cup - so although not top level U-12, clearly this isn't a level for a new Grade 9 to be working.  I quickly call the Assignor - who I know and who I saw earlier - to plead for him to come over and mentor her.  He was dealing with another issue on another field, but offered to pay me to mentor her.  Well I can't obviously do that since I'm there to, well, watch my son!  So I - quietly - let our parents know what is going on.  To their credit, they leave her alone, even trying to help her out a bit.

However, the end result was still the same.  Although the CR gave her a few pointers and our team's parents did leave her alone (even helping her a few times), she was with her Dad I think at the end of the game in tears.  She was overwhelmed.  Did we just lose another referee?

This leads me to my soap box:

1. Why was she given a U-12 mid-level competitive Boy's game?
2. Why wasn't there a Mentor there to help her out?
3. Why do we even allow kids that young to get their Grade 9 Recreational badges?

#3 is my biggest problem.  My son is interested in becoming a referee.  I'm going to 'encourage' him to wait another year.  I know that, in theory, the only games he should ref are U-10 and under.  I also know that ignorance amongst parents and coaches is highest at that age group! He's tough, but what young kid won't cry - and likely quit - if parents are screaming at him or her?  Especially since the ones doing the most screaming are the most ignorant!

I know there are no easy solutions.  We need more referees.  We want to start our refs at a younger age so they can get good youth experience, then when they turn 18 become a Grade 7 and become identified as future high level referees.  At the same time, I think we're doing ourselves a big disservice by throwing young kids to the wolves so to speak.

How does your area work with your youngest referees?  In fairness, some of our assignors do a good job getting the new Grade 9s out to some early season tournaments to observe and literally shadow an AR.  Unfortunately, things happen like what happened to that young referee.