The never ending game

One of the many reasons I enjoy being a soccer ref is you generally know how long your game is going to last.  Youth games last 60 to 90 min + 5 min half, HS is 80 min + 10 min half, except we have 2 5 min extra time "golden goal" periods in Varsity regular season.  Simple, right?

And we're off!

Well I started my Spring season this past weekend.  Gotta love turf fields - even though you come home with 100s of those damn rubber particles in your shoes, the turf fields do permit nearly year-round play.  Few items of note:

• There was still some snow in parts of the field.  So it was 'pushed' off, but unfortunately all in the area where an AR-2 would be roaming.  So we decided to run a right diagonal to prevent AR-2 from slipping on ice/snow.  I was AR-1.  It was an interesting experience.  The level was mid level U-12 girls and the rest of the crew was experienced enough to pull it off with only a few gaffes that a referee would notice but no one else would.  Fortunately, the snow melted in time for my CR game, and we reverted back to the left diagonal.

Year in Review

Wow its been 3 months since my last blog post!  My how time flies.

So the summary and a look ahead:

• Worked a 1st round 5A HS playoff game as a Side Referee.  Disappointed I wasn't chosen to work a later round game.  This could be caused by the fact I had to turn back a 4A playoff game - or maybe not.  Or I had a few low game ratings (even though I ran CR on only 3 games - all 3 were 5A).  I'll have to find out.
• My overall game count for this calendar year was 70 Youth Games (33 as CR), 47 HSSO games, and 5 College Club games.  Given all the constraints on my schedule (work, kid playing soccer, other family obligations) that's about the most I will work.  I also generally limit myself to 3 games max per day, even in tournament season.
• I have come a long way in how I work games.  I still have lots to learn with coach management.  Parents/spectators are straight forward - either ignore them all together or remove them.  My player management improved too.  Can always work on it of course.

The bigger news for me is I am in the process of upgrading to a Grade 7.  That process has been less than smooth so far.  First, there was a disagreement with the number of games that 'count'.  Obviously REC games don't.  However, they were also ready to disqualify my pre- and post- season tournament games.  I fought back - arguing these are 'certified' tournaments using DSC.  They initially argued "well 3v3 tournaments are certified too."  Then I said "3v3 doesn't use DSC.  Also, we rarely log if a reg season game was suspended due to weather - does that count too?"  So they agreed to accept my games.  Then they told me to sign up for the fitness test - which oh BTW was happening in 4 days.  YIKES!  I was in decent shape, but not fitness test shape.  After two training sessions I took the fitness test.  The next surprise is that they asked me to run the distance for a Grade 6 at my age, not Grade 7.  Or I totally misunderstood the distance I should have trained for.  I barely - and I mean by 5 meters - passed that part.  The speed tests I passed far more easily since, well, I can still run.  I've already passed the recert test and I've completed most of my intermediate training (I still need a few more hours apparently).  So - all that remains is the on-field assessment.  To be continued...

Happy New Year!