Monday, November 29, 2010

Another season down the drain (figuratively speaking)

Well, here we go with another season just about under our belt.

I wonder if other Regions are as confused as our is?

Let's see, so for just U7 alone various SNAFUs we dealt with included:

    One day the RC decided not to bother opening up the bin so we could get out little things, such as the GOALS.

    The RCA decided not to have any meetings with the non-competitive coaches; thus nobody knew how to setup fields, practice times, game length.

    The Schedule changed day to day, with three different versions floating around at any given time.

    We didn't get enough medals for the members of our team.

    There was a "phantom" team that was on the schedule, but never seemed to show up…so someone was always missing an opponent.

That's enough for one day…

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Gearing up for the new season

It is time to get ready for September.
As such, I am soliciting input to help develop some standardized pre-game instructions for the coaches, players, and assistant referees.  This should help us present a unified front as a Region and (hopefully) make the games run a little more smoothly.

Germany out of the World Cup Final?!

Well well well.
Having lived in Germany for several years in my younger days, I was hopeful that they would make it to the finals.  I guess Mueller shouldn't have gotten that yellow card - better luck next time.

Go Holland!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Non-competitive divisions - to foul or not to foul

Currently in our Region, the non-competitive divisions don't allow "fouls."
We look at refereeing as a teaching moment, and restart with a dropped ball.
If the behaviour continues too much, we may indeed allow a free kick - but always indirect.

Now, the question is:  Should we continue this at all non-competitive levels (U5-U8)?  After U8 comes U10, where the kids now are expected to follow all the FIFA rules (except for field size, # of players, etc).  Fouls and misconduct exists, as to direct and indirect kicks.  Are we doing our players a disservice by dumping them into this situation after "playing nice" for so long?

Life goes on.

Well, it has been a long time since I posted anything. In the off season, so very long ago now, my oldest son died. Since then, it has been somewhat of a struggle to even carry on, let alone enter things into a blog. But.. life goes on. I have a daughter who is going into U14 this year, and another son who is excited about U7 - and I've coached him for the last two seasons.

Yes, life goes on. I became an Advanced Referee, started teaching referee classes, was the Assistant Regional Commissioner, and now I am the Director of Instruction. How did this happen when I wasn't even looking? When I just want to crawl under a rock until the sun happened to start shining again? Life goes on...sometimes kicking and screaming, we have to do our best. And in doing our best, sometimes the best takes over without us even knowing why.

A moment of silence, then life, indeed, will go on.