You know, I had kind of thought that with soccer season being over, I would have a weekend at home for once. However, with the wedding schedule still going, and then with this weekend’s trip out to Rapid City, there is still apparently no rest for the wicked. Er…wicker. No…um…weary. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

I’m heading off across the state with several other of our referees for a clinic on getting certified as referee assessors. Whee! Why do we call it “Rapid” City, when it takes so damn long to get there? Anyway, I’m writing this while finishing up a set of wedding proofs so I can go clean the mini-van up because guess who’s driving? Don’t take that the wrong way, I actually prefer to drive on trips like this.

I’m looking forward to the clinic. Almost since we moved out here and I put myself into the local program, our SRA has been having me mentor with younger and less-experienced referees, and I have greatly enjoyed doing so. Just as with instructing, I find I learn more when I’m mentoring. Obviously, as I get older and have to eventually consider tapering back how many games I do each season, assessing is a viable and beneficial way in which I can serve our referee development programs, and I’m excited about the formal training on the subject. Our instructor already had us do pre-clinic “homework”, so it promises to be a class I can sink my teeth into.

Unfortunately, though, it means another weekend away from the family, plus I miss out on belt testing for TaeKwonDo, so #1 Son is going to out-rank me once again for another week or so, because I’ll have to test next weekend. Bah. Humbug. But, of course, it’s good for him.

Hrm….I must be multitasking or something. My concentration keeps wandering. Heh.

The real reason I’m going—and probably the motivation for most of us as students—is that there aren’t enough referee assessors here in South Dakota right now. As well, I thought I’d get started on this track now so that I have plenty of time to upgrade later on and be able to assess State referees as well. There’s plenty of time for me to do so, especially if I get this initial certification and training requirement done in the near term. All part of our endeavors to accelerate our referee development out here and do more to incentivize referees to upgrade. The Game is, after all, growing out here, and more of us masochists are needed.

I’ll see you on the other side of the weekend. And if something good comes up in the meantime, I’ll try to get it posted while I’m gone.

Our tenth annual SD State High School Soccer Tournament went fairly well up in Aberdeen, methinks. There were, of course, some anomalies (ever-present at such events, and which I believe were handled quite responsibly by the parties involved) that made for an interesting four days, but for the most part, I think the games went off quite well despite the inherent tendency of a bunch of know-it-all referees (myself included) to quibble over details while simultaneously enjoying the tournament atmosphere, the accelerated level of play, and the opportunity to work with people other than the same small group of yahoos we’ve been with all season. All that was completely tongue-in-cheek, by the way. I think we all did quite well overall, and I want to thank the several referees on Friday and Saturday games who took it upon themselves to free me of my status as the only referee to award red cards or to have an overtime game!

It’s funny how these tournaments work out, though, isn’t it? I didn’t see the Pierre girls all season, and then I wound up on their last three games. Same with Belle Fourche girls, too, actually (two out of three, anyway). And then I basically spent the whole tournament not seeing teams that I had worked with all season long. Although that, undoubtedly, was a blessing in their eyes. Heh.

The Saturday morning games were indeed a first for me with the cold fog. The weather up here is obviously not bothered by any sense of consistency (and note how I tactfully refrain from drawing comparisons between referees and weather ~ i crack me up). But at least we didn’t have to run through frozen puddles or have the snow swept off the fields this time! There’s a lady from Sturgis that took a photograph of me working the touchline on the Sturgis/Belle Fourche game with half my face and beard covered in mist. I was a bit chagrined that I wasn’t able to bring a camera myself to shoot some referees, but I had to leave the good sports lenses with my assistant to cover the Augustana games here. I always find it fun to shoot referees, and goodness knows the parents often want to! That, too, is entirely tongue-in-cheek, my friends. Truly, I heard very few legitimate complaints about our officiating, and indeed, most of those few complaints were driven by ignorance of what it is we do as referees and the several elements we have to consider in order to make a determination on what constitutes a foul.

The instructor in me does wish that we were completely and universally in synchronicity on how we manage the games we serve, but I recognize also that to a certain extent, our personal differences are part of what actually enhances The Game. And truthfully, we are remarkably similar in our methods of control given the relative distance between many of us, and the varying states of our local programs. As in the past two High School tournaments I’ve been able to attend, I was impressed with our diligence and dedication to do what we feel is right in the context of each game. So, my hat’s off to all of the referees who participated in the tournament, whether they were there for all four days or only one. I even enjoyed working with that funny guy from Wisconsin and the Brit. I’m very much looking forward to next year’s tournament already. Even if it is in Aberdeen….again! Perhaps I’ll even come in a car with two working headlights….

I also greatly enjoyed getting to go out with “the guys” (and “the gal”) each evening. Since the last two tournaments were in Brookings, and I drove back and forth each day, I missed out on that comradery during the past two tournaments. It was…er…interesting (enlightening…frightening…informative…inspirational…intoxicating…?) to get to know some of our referees better on a personal level. And I must say it truly amazes me how we can crawl out of bed the next day, get out there on the fields, and still do a frankly great job of controlling the games, while some of the coaches who went to bed hours before us still don’t have a grasp of what “participation” means in terms of Offside, or why not every little contact that occurs with their darling players is a “foul”. I suppose such conundrums will always be largely rhetorical, though.

It took me a couple of days to post this because I had a bridal show to attend yesterday (hurray for standing around all day and trying to talk to brides and grooms who are already overwhelmed by the information overload). Today I get to deal with the (damn) ticket. I swear, this state is worse than Texas when it comes to the nitnoids and not telling you whether or not they’re going to do something stupid with your license just because you pay a ticket at the last available moment. What doesn’t make sense to me is that our governor can hijack our taxes to buy an airplane and fly it around wherever the heck and for whatever reason he wants, but if I do so little as to pay a ticket at the last minute, I supposedly no longer have a valid driver’s license. Pfft. Whatever. But thanks for pointing out that the headlight on my wife’s car is out, Officer IncrediblyBoredWithNothingBetterToDo. I’m sure your life was as enriched by the experience as mine was, and will be, in getting my license straightened out. At least I know now that something’s up with it, and thank goodness I had other people in the car.

Enjoy your per-diems, guys. It sounds quite a bit like one way or another, the state is going to get mine. Bah!

oy. i…am…SO…tired….

we are drawing near to the end of our high school soccer season here in South Dakota, so the games are starting to get fairly hot. although it was just a Tuesday night last night, i wound up doing three games, assisting on a boys’ junior varsity, centering a boys’ varsity, and assisting on a girls’ varsity after that. (we don’t use the two-referee system here) anyway all six teams like to run, run, run and pull fast offside traps. even when i had a couple of Saturdays when i served four high school games in a day, they weren’t like the teams that played last night. i think even my eye-lids are sore! it was almost non-stop running for the better part of six hours last night.

but, o man, they were GREAT games! on the game i centered, the 4th place team came from behind to tie the 1st place team. a tremendous effort, and they boys really did outplay their 1st place opponents, even while managing to keep it a pretty clean game. it was wonderful to watch them play from that ‘best seat in the house’, which has left me not wanting to sit much today! i was getting a developmental assessment on the game, which is the real reason why i’m so sore today. my assessor wanted me to work on staying wide and ahead of play as much as possible, and for the most part, i managed to do so and had a favorable assessment. whoo! it’s nice to have that out of the way for this certification period already.

i leave a week from this morning for our state high school tournament, which is up in Aberdeen this year. the teams have really improved over the past couple of years, and the style of play out here is starting to become more competitive with the larger clubs in our Region, so this year’s tournament promises to be quite challenging. just the way i like it! there are some preliminary competitions next Wednesday to determine who actually gets to participate in the tournament, and i’m slated to referee a couple of those, so i’m in for four days of joy and not getting much work done. they don’t pay us much up here, but i think it’s well worth it. the sooner we can bring this sport to a higher level here, the better it will be for the players and their community of supporters. that requires a hearty spirit of volunteerism in the meantime.

i guess it’s back to work for now. well, that’s not exactly true. i guess the old man here is going to stretch for a while, and then i’ll sit my ass in a chair and process photos until i have to pick up the kids. thank goodness i get Wednesdays off from refereeing! go kick a ball for me.

{the photograph is from the 2004 AYSO National Games in Bakersfield, CA. i wonder if that kid has figured out how to hide his fouls a little better by now. er…undoubtedly, i would imagine. that complex in Bakersfield seemed so cool to me at the time, but my goodness how the quality of those fields (at least at that time)  pale in comparison to the quality of fields that we enjoy here in Sioux Falls today}