It's in the cards

Lots of fun from the Mile High pitches of Colorado.

• I issued my first red card!  It was at a "C" HS game (i.e. frosh/soph).  For those of you who've read my blog, you know we generally work a 2 whistle system for sub-varsity games.  That means anyone can issue a card.  (Well, that's true for our Varsity games too).  My counterpart issued a kid on the white team a yellow for UB in a scrum that I did not call a foul (he did).  Well later in the 2nd half the same kid commits a late challenge from behind, not coming close to the ball.  I blow the whistle, tell him "come here."  He knew it.  So I issue the Yellow, check my book, and voila - he already has a Yellow!  So now he has a Red.  Never tell me I don't issue Red cards. :)

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.