Category: WIAA
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Ref Life: Role Model Mindset- Pay

How do we give the next generation of referees the opportunities they need to grow and develop? How do we let them focus on the game and not on the external factors that prevent them from feeling safe? I spent the past weekend working the Plum Kickoff Classic for PA West Travel teams. These are…
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Ref Life : Plum KOC Weekend 2023

Since I’ve been back in soccer there is one weekend that always gets me. First as a coach and for the last 15 years or so when available as a referee. This year I had games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Only one red card for excessive force. One of my partners sent a parent…
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Jr. High: High School, Competitive, Travel, In-house. . .

Since February, I’ve been watching a lot of soccer as a referee, working with people at the state organization for youth soccer to understand where issues in building the game have led us to the current state of affairs. If you are not aware of what is going on in youth soccer that is perfectly…
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Referee Recruitment for real…

The year is 2022. We are in year three of Covid-19 soccer here in the United States. We had the entire spring season of 2020 wiped out as the world learned how to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and began to study how to treat people who tested positive of Covid-19. Our fall season of…
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Burnout is real and it’s still April.

Some days the topic is coaching, some days playing, some days storytelling. Today’s story is a little bit of venting and a little bit of sharing. Over the past few weekends the cycle keeps repeating. The only way to change the culture is to tell the story, get it into the light so more eyes…
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Jr.High: Some VAR review items

The irony of this post– I started this on Monday morning before coaching today’s game, where one my assignors could only find one referee for the 3rd time this season. I bust my bootay and miss dinner time with the wife from September through October for the Good of the Game. Moment’s like today make…