This only sort of applies to this story, but I thought it was a worthwhile addition anyways.
Last night (as I mentioned yesterday), I went to my city’s high school girl’s soccer playoff match with my three year old daughter. As my companion was up against a fairly strict bedtime deadline, I was only able to stay for the first half; however, due to a combination of shambolic defending, poor set piece marking, and (admittedly) what might have been a missed offsides call, I got to see the home side score five goals in what I imagine ended up being a complete dismantling of their local rivals. Go Rockets!
This game, however, gave me a chance to revisit a species of parent that I hadn’t run into since high school: the soccer parent.
If you’ve been to any youth or high school soccer game, than you’ve probably run into the soccer parent. Typically speaking, the parent in question is the father; he may or may not have played before, but he usually hasn’t. If he has, it’s fairly likely that he has a little less experience than the child he’s actually come to watch (maybe picking up a few games here or there on a Sunday team). He’s never watched the game on TV, and never would have picked it up at all if his kid hadn’t somehow gotten involved.
The soccer parent has, to his credit, watched a lot of games. He hasn’t really picked up the nuances of the sport (by which I mean “the rules”), but he figured out long ago that if he’s loud enough than nobody will point this out to him. Because the soccer parent has likely not had the benefit of formal coaching, tactics are difficult to grasp. However, he’s been around the sport since his kid was seven, so he’s got anywhere between eight and eleven years of hearing coaches yell out obscure things at the kids. He will undoubtedly repeat these things ad nauseum; they include, but are not limited to, the following:
- “Go to the ball!” (This will be yelled constantly, especially when a defender is purposely not diving in on a tackle)
- “OFFSIDES!” (Always with the “s” on the end. Yelled whenever an opposition player in a forward position touches the ball; there’s an accompanying yell of “C’MON, REF, (S)HE WAS ON!”, which usually means someone on their team was offside)
- “Great kick!” (While this shout will occasionally be yelled appropriately, the number of times it’s yelled strictly because the ball has gone really high in the air tends to invalidate the praise of the correct shouts)
- “It’s good!” (A shot has just gone over the crossbar. The shout is usually accompanied by the field goal signal from gridiron)
The soccer parent, when left to sit in the stands, is not usually a problem; every youth sport has their version of the amateur pundit in the stands. Soccer, however, is unique in one respect: for some reason, there’s a thought that the soccer parent should be coaching youth and molding them into players. There’s a misguided notion that his proximity to the sport somehow has passed on the ability to show kids how to play, and youth soccer organizations everywhere fall into the trap of putting these parents in charge of actual youth.
That means that when a kid is eight years old, there’s a fairly good chance that his coach is a parent who’s not been properly trained to coach. He’ll develop poor habits as a result of this; he’ll dive in defensively, he’ll try a long ball game, and he won’t come into the game with any kind of positional awareness that could be instilled as a youth. If he’s really good, he might pick some of that up; he’s still poorly prepared for anything past high school. Any innate skill he has (particularly speed) will get him to a certain point, and might certainly get him a scholarship to college, where he might even get a sniff of club soccer and MLS; the fundamental training years, however, will have been missed.
The USSF has tried to curb this trend by offering coaching courses and certifications, but whether or not those certifications are required is still up to each individual association. And by “association”, I mean mostly each city’s individual recreation department (at the recreational level) or their soccer federation (at the “travel” level). Not all of these organizations are invested in the build up of talent. Meanwhile, the organizations that likely do require coaching certification – the youth club teams – are all “pay to play” entities that cater to children who have some financial backing. Imagine the state of basketball in the U.S. if, in order to be fast tracked to the professional league, you were required to pay exorbitant amounts of cash (both in club dues and travel expenses) to a team that may or may not help your kid develop.
By himself, the soccer parent is not bringing down soccer; he’s supporting his kid. Unfortunately, when that’s taken too far and he’s an uneducated participant (as the U.S. has allowed and endorsed for years), you have a real problem crafting and molding the talent required for the sport’s continued success.
If I even attempt to address this subject I’ll end up banging my head against the wall for the remainder of the day. Suffice it to say, you’re right about all this, but have barely scratched the surface.
You forgot the weekly emails (cc’d to the athletic director and principal) from the parent of a player- who is only on varsity because the school has a “no cut” policy- asking why she is not starting in place of a player who has been on varsity since 7th grade (and went on to be an All-State player and to play Division I soccer)?
I wish I was making that up.
It kind of makes me wonder why I’m actively looking to get back into coaching next year…
I’ve considered going into coaching, but it seems like a tremendous hassle. I’ve also considered renewing my refereeing certification, but that seems like a worse idea than coaching.
Magnakai,
I live in Los Angeles, and I’m trying to be a referee. Can you point me to WHERE to get started?
Thanks!
Actually, at 6:00 tonight at Mystic Canyon, the first of two “intermediate” refereeing courses is going to be held; according to the flyer (.pdf), you need to go both today (6:00-10:00) and Sunday (10:00-5:00 at the Chino Hills library) to complete the course. Incidentally, in perusing the AYSO website for your region, it looks like your organization has really gone out of the way to provide a lot of resources for parents, coaches, and referees; that looks like a top-notch program over there.
It mentions that you need to preregister, and I can’t find a contact number; that flyer has a couple of e-mail addresses, though, and I’d bet they’d be able to help you out. I’m also not sure if, in this case, “Intermediate” is the second tier and if you need “Beginner” to attend.
Personally, I took refereeing courses when I was in high school; it was a great job (good hours+good pay), but it negatively impacted my attitude with referees when I was actually playing. Referees sometimes rely on the fact that the players and coaches aren’t aware of the rules; the “Liverpool beach ball incident” (where multiple players and both coaches were seemingly unaware of the applicable law) is a great example. If you have gone through the basics, it’s harder to understand how, for example, an offside call can be blown when you’ve got a linesman to assist or how a card wasn’t given for a particular foul. In high school I engaged in a lot of arguments with refs (partially, this was because I took the class with a guy who ended up becoming a ref for games I was playing in, and I know I got a better score than he did on the final test).
My goal is to be a Professional Ref. at the MLS games level. I understand I would still have to start somewhere. Would I still be starting at the AYSO level?
Ah, MLS is different. To be an MLS ref, you need to work up through the system, first getting your local, then state, then national (you may actually be able to stop here to do MLS), and finally FIFA levels (for international games). According to the Cal South Referee Registration page, there’s a Level 8 course this weekend; I THINK Level 8 might actually be an entry level (this Word document appears to imply that), but I’m not 100% sure. Your best bet is probably to contact them at (888) 429-7276; either way, you start off local and then move up.
Actually, disregard my first comment; I found a more accurate answer.
The Grades go in reverse, so Level 8 is the beginner level, Level 1 is the top. Level 8 is kids; Level 7 is older kids. Join AYSO, get Level 8 certification. Do some matches and get to Level 7. Level 6 is state refs; move up to that level. Level 5 is USL, Level 4 is MLS.
In between those levels, though, there are match requirements (i.e., you need to officiate a certain number of matches in order to move up the ranks; it isn’t just about taking more coursework) that have to be met. It can take some time. Also, remember that high school/college have different rules than FIFA (particularly in regard to substitutions), and you’ll probably end up needing certification in multiple areas to meet the match requirements.
Thank you so much for all the information! It seems like a very long journey before I can get to MLS level. Are you, by any chance, belong to any of those ‘Levels?’
Just out of curiosity, in order to be ‘ref-ing’ the World Cup, does the Ref’s own nation have to qualify to the World Cup?
Honestly, I think the class I took (which was about 18 hours) was my Level 8, but it was back in like 1996 so I’m sure it’s expired; I took it more to learn the rules (which, in theory, should make you a better player) than to officiate, but I did officiate a fair number of youth games when I was in high school (nothing over like ten years old, though).
I THINK the top rated officials go to the World Cup regardless of whether or not their host nation does, but I’m not 100% sure. There are probably fewer refs involved than countries, so I’m thinking that it’s more the top officials per association (i.e., UEFA gets “X” number of delegates, CONCACAF gets “Y” number, etc.) than it is a country-by-country thing.
Thank you very much, again, for all the information.
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