Category: LOTG
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Ref Life: NE Regional 2025
Ref, drink, sleep, repeat. Ref, drink, sleep, repeat. Ref drink, sleep, repeat. Lots of games. Approximately 44 just for me of the 1087 that were played between Friday and Monday. Lots of work for the crew of around 80 officials covering 20 futsal courts inside the Atlantic City Convention Center. Lots of decisions. The average…
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Ref Life: Reducing Clutter: Mental, Physical, at home, scheduling.
On the pitch: No room for dissent. No room for abuse. Make decisions that will benefit the development of new and learning referees. Continued reflection after each match and after working with new team members. On the physical front: Remove boundaries that impact my overall health. Practice saying no to more games. Practice only scheduling…
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Ref Life: Homophobic slurs in a U9 game?
Football is supposed to unite. Football is supposed to be for everybody. Football is the universal game that reminds us we are all on this same planet together. In Lancaster this past winter my ears heard it from one of the parents in a U9 pool play game. Luckily the little GK didn’t speak Spanish…
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Ref Life: Heat, Waiting for Advantage, Hand to ball in a natural position, video learning.
Quick review of the past weekend. It was hot. Hydration breaks were added, since this was the first week with air temps over 80 degrees F, then add in the turf temp. The real feel with humidity was close to 100! Sometimes you clearly see a foul, but realize that players may be able to…
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Ref Life: Story Corp – Parents
Is there anything you wish parents understood about being an arbitro? This beautiful game is not basketball where every time we see something we need whistle the play dead. Wait and let the players learn to play through a foul, maybe they will show you something magical. Just like life, futbol teaches us to work…
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Ref Life: Story Corps- Red Card memories.
Do you have any favorite stories from issuing a red card? Normally a 2nd yellow card for unsporting behavior is an easy red card to issue. Normally I don’t think twice about the caution. Normally I let the laws of the game guide me and don’t double thing the situation. Normally I don’t take into…
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Ref Life: Story Corp in Pittsburgh
Ok so this may not be truly about being a ref, but in the spirit of reflection and sharing our stories, this was an item I wanted to share. I have been blessed to have great mentors in my soccer life as a player, coach and referee. Some of my mentor’s may have told me…
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Ref Life: when questioning isn’t questioning.
Originally this was published for the referee community. After bouncing it around with a few of my colleagues I figured it was time to share this with all. Remember be kind to your referees. They are likely giving up family time to make sure you have a game. Can you name US Soccer’s 6 tasks…
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Ref Life: When you miss something in real time.
Guess what? As a referee we are human and do make mistakes or miss things. Yep that includes me. I had an epic miss last night during my match. However as a referee team, we caught the miss and made the correction during the normal flow of the game. Did you know as a referee,…
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Ref Life: What does your map look like? Pennsylvania edition.
I’m reaching the midway point of the high school soccer season in the Pittsburgh region. As a referee this is a crazy time of year with games available 7 days a week between USSF, PIAA and adult soccer. The coach in me does not like the approach of 2 games and 3 training days per…
FCArmstrong 