Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Referee Shortage
I always hear about how bad the referee was. How I can't believe he or she missed that call or the ref caused us the game. The parents complain, the players complain, the assignor complains (that they can't get enough referees) the coaches complain either that the ref is no good or they can't get referees. Is it any wonder that there is a shortage. How would you like a job where everybody is always complaining? Some coaches even acknowledge that they like to play the ref by yelling and complaining about a call early so they can maybe get a break later. (It doesn't generally work that way) If we want good referees we need to develop them as youth players and help them improve so that they will be ready for the bigger games. Coaches you want better referees how about laying off the U-9 referee who misses a call and letting your parents know not to scream at them. I wonder how many coaches could handle someone yelling at them everytime they didn't make a perfect substitution or coach a perfect game. I have a suggestion for every team, have someone record the parents and the coach during a game and play it back at a team dinner. That might quite the sidelines at least for a while and give us a chance to get in some new young referees.
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One way to cure the referee shortage is for youth soccer leagues to require at least TWO parents per team to become certified referees. When I lived in California, my kids played AYSO soccer. This is ALL volunteer, and this is the policy we had in our district. I refereed at least one game (sometimes as many as FIVE games) per week UNPAID. By the time my kids were in their teens, about half the parents on every team had refereed. You rarely heard parents complaining, because half had been in the referee's shoes and knew better, and the other half realized that if the parents who refereed weren't complaining, then they had no reason to complain.
Now I live near Houston, and the nearest AYSO is several hundred miles away. Our local youth league PAYS their referees, mostly high-school kids, to officiate. After they graduate from high school, most will stop refereeing for the rest of their life. There is little commitment to be the best referee possible ... only a desire to ref as many games as possible to help earn money for their prom, car, etc. So long as youth soccer leagues in Texas rely on mercenaries, they will get referees who only care about getting a paycheck and NOT about being the best referee possible.
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