Sunday, May 3, 2009

Soccer in the mud and mudslinging...

I had a (mostly) great time yesterday coaching and refereeing soccer games in the Tri-County Soccer League's tournament in Caldwell, KS. I spent the whole day tromping around through the mud and muck of rain-saturated soccer pitches. (We actually started at 10:00 in the rain.)

The U12 team I help coach played extremely well. They won their first game 3-0 against host team Caldwell. There were a few excellent passes that led to easy shots on goal. I was so proud of "my" kids. They lost their second game 1-2...a real heart breaker. They played as well as any time, but got beat on a beautiful arching shot that dipped into the top of the net just out of the reach of our goalie. He felt bad, I think, but he played that shot as well as anyone could've. It was as good an end to a season as anyone could ask for short of a championship trophy.

I wish I could stop there and call the day great, but there was some really ugly stuff during the day too. I saw grown men and women act less maturely than the young players on the field. Twice I saw coaches, men who should have known better, charge onto the field of play to confront players on the opposite team. It happened once in a game I was refereeing. The guy doesn't know how close he was to going home. If I really thought he was intending to harm a player, he would've been history. (Probably shoud've thrown him out, but I assumed he was reasonable and not given to stupidity. He apologized for his actions later.) I saw women, who I'm sure in other settings were as genteel as any, scream in the face of an official following what I thought was a fairly well-called game. They were sure he was biased against them because their team beat the team he was playing earlier. Oh, and did I mention there were coaches and parents yelling at each other across the field and coaches yelling at referees. Not unusual you say to the last one. Granted, but how many times have you heard a coach asking a ref what referee school they went to? (It's unfortunate that the referee, a high school foreign exchange student from Denmark where soccer is much more popular and better understood, had to endure that. Wonder what he thinks of Americans.)

ADULTS! I'm hoping that in the future you'll show your kids how to enjoy a game and act in a sportsman like way. See you next year...I hope.

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