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Ckicks notes will be posted on Friday, but I wanted throw this out for early discussion because I know it will create some...I mean a lot.
Now remember, there are some bad coaches, bad parents and some bad reporters - so let's not use this to rip on officials. It's the toughest position on any field at any given moment.
Here's the debate:
1. Should officials be paid more?
2. Should every soccer game in the state have three officials for every game?
3. How often should officials be retested?
4. What do you like most about some of the best officials?
FYI - A new policy is now in place for blogs, per last week's notice. Following in the footsteps of what Taylor Bell put in place last year, names and email addresses are now required for responses. While some people have been blocked by the system already, because of language and responses, many people have no problem putting their name on responses.
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Joe,
Hard to comment on some of these points because I don't know what they are paid,or how often they are retested.
What I do know is how large a role they can play in determining the outcome of a game (maybe more in soccer than any other game).
Most competitive games are ties or determined by a single goal. This means any judgement call(or no-call) in the offensive area has the ability to have a significant effect on the outcome. The players on the field deserve better, more consistently officiated games than I have seen this spring.
To your specific points. I am not sure three refs is a requirement. I have seen the two ref (both on the field) system work well. I would rather see two on the field working well than a three man crew with the AR either afraid to signal fouls or consistently overruled by the center.
As for frequency of evaluation - is there a fitness evaluation? If not there should be and this should be annual.
Finally, I am tired of watching centers stop play to engage in heated discussion with coaches. This is a game that has flow. There are not time outs and teams who are playing well should not be penalized by stoppage for a ref to "return fire" on a coach. Card the coach and move on.
Officials are paid anywhere from $45-$58 per match depending on what school they work at.
Officials should be seen and rarely heard. When their making calls every 30 seconds usually most of the calls are bad calls. And officials CAN UNQUESTIONABLY affect the outcome of the game because I’ve seen it happen at least once in a high school game this year. And the number of times that I’ve seen it affect the outcome of a club game ( where many times the officials are closely associated and arranged by the home team ) are too numerous to mention. There’s a big difference between simple aggressive play on the ball and a player foul. Just as there’s a big difference between a simple inadvertent foul and a DANGEROUS foul to draw a yellow or red card. Yet there are clearly some officials that don’t know the difference and their calls are wildly inconsistent. And some officials don’t even seem to take the time to read the rule book. And , in my opinion, line judges should be concerned primarily with calling line violations and offside and refrain from calling field penalties.
Now you might say I’m ripping officials but I’m not. 95% of the high school games I’ve seen have been pretty well officiated but not ALL are. ( Club games is more like 75%. ). Yes it’s preferable to have 3 officials but I’d say a reasonably good job can be done by 2 officials that know what their doing. And they should be paid equitably but paying more will not necessarily do away with bad calls and bad officals.
I'm starting to wonder if people can read or if once again this proves a point of mine - soccer people just complain and don't try to help. I said here's the debate:
1. Should officials be paid more?
2. Should every soccer game in the state have three officials for every game?
3. How often should officials be retested?
4. What do you like most about some of the best officials?
No where in there does it ask anyone to rip on officials. We all get it and know it - some officials are good, some are bad, blah, blah, blah. Heard it before, heard it again and again and again and again and again.
Come on people - read.
Sorry I did not answer your questions directly enough.
1. $45 to $58 for a 3 hour commitment is not very much. If paying more = better quality, than yes I support paying more.
2. Ideally every Varsity HS game should have three well qualified officials (and someone qualified to run the clock. Lower level games can be run by fewer official;s.
3. Officials should be evaluated annually. This evaluation should be an on field evalaution and could be as simple as tape review of prior season games
4. Best current officials are the ones who let the kids
play, but also do a good job of communicating (play on, etc.) their decisions.
This blog was a lot more fun when you didn't have so many rules...what happened to the old open-ended questions????
1. Should officials be paid more?
---No. If IHSA raises it's fees high enough to attract the NCAA pool, the NCAA will raise its fees and we're back where we started. If soccer raises its fees higher than other IHSA sports, then we attract the "jack of all trades, master of none" type of officials. Adding more incentive for American football referees to crossover is not a solution. I have a statistical promotional/relegation model that would created varied pay levels based on mandatory reviews, but you told us to only answer your questions.
2. Should every soccer game in the state have three officials for every game?
---One whistle. Then make your decisions. Two whistles is basketball/football mentality. Soccer has one whistle. One A/R seems weird, so I guess three officials. Or one, then just no complaining about offsides.
3. How often should officials be retested?
---Question presupposes that IHSA should test the officials. The IHSA spends 80% of its time on football and basketball and has two wretched mistakes in their own b-ball tournament. They cannot be certifying officials in the sports they don't care about. I have had D1-bound soccer players return from club and we had a 20 minute talk about IHSA rules versus the laws of soccer. It invariably includes a lot of giggling and them asking me about things like the clock, shootouts, or throw-ins and why high school is so messed up.
IHSA needs to remove their rules and let the laws of the game guide the sport. Then, the entire FIFA ref pool is 100% on the same page.
4. What do you like most about some of the best officials?
---Give me a few advantages that don't develop that are properly brought back. I love seeing a booking 2 minutes later when the official was indeed correct to let play continue and issue the caution at the next stoppage.
Joe,
I am a certified IHSA soccer official with 15 yearsof experience and have worked several state final matches. I thought you might like an opinion from the other side of the whistle.
1. Should officials be paid more?
-No. Most of the officials have full time jobs and participate mostly for the connection to the game. It should be noted though that soccer officials are paid way below their counterparts from other IHSA sports. See Volleyball.
2. Should every soccer game in the state have three officials for every game?
-In theory yes, however, there are not enough officials available to cover all the matches. I know that 95% of the Varsity matches have 3 officials. Rarely will you have two officials for that level, usually because an official no shows or scheduling conflicts.
3. How often should officials be retested?
-Officials are required to take a test every fall. It is open book; a test none the less. They are also required to attend a mandatory rules interpretation meeting.
4. What do you like most about some of the best officials?
-In my opinion, the best officials possess three traits:
1) They know when and when not to blow the whistle. Think advantage rule here.
2) Communication, not dictatorship, with coaches and players eliminates 99% of confusion.
3) The officials work as a team, not a lone wolf, on the field.