SDL REFS

Jogabonita wrote:The sad part of the game where the referee to the parent not to say hustle is that they blatantly missed 2 obvious corner kicks, one went of the goalie's hands out of bounds and the other ws kicked out by a defender. I would say priority number 1 for the referee is the game, and number 2 is the sidelines. Obviously doing both is a bit to ask for. I do agree to let the kids play the game as it is the best teacher, but every now and then I need to give a quick, once every other game, a "work hard". Even as adults we need a quick "move your a-- and put the cold beer or glass of wine down" from the wife or "what were you thinking from our mom and dad" lol. I actually believe the sidelines were quiet by both teams as the game was being played.

One has to wonder how much different this entire discussion would have turned out if SDL used a full referee crew....

Agreed. 2 AR's are definetely needed. We have a full crew in Rec for this size field and age group.

Pop, there goes SDL fees up to $1500 season.

They'd still get it wrong.

Couple of the SDL refs just seem to get preverse pleasure out of making the wrong calls, especially that XXXXL ref.

While I have seen my share of bad refs through the years, I actually felt the refs were doing a pretty good job in my kids 02's games. They were pretty laid back when getting berated by some of the coaches we played, and they kept cool when getting screamed at by parents. I know it is part of the gig, but they put up with some real crap for their few shekels each week.

On the other hand, the one funny event I saw was a ref told a kid, "Just play" after the kid asked for ten yards on a free kick. The other team formed a wall about 5 yards passed the kid and the ref made him kick without moving the wall back. Guess he forgot that rule.

Number13 wrote:Pop, there goes SDL fees up to $1500 season.

The irony of it all is that a few years ago (probably a couple), SDL used a full referee crew for the older age groups and prices were actually lower than what they are now.

Without much competition (PAL was never a competitor) back then, SDL quickly monopolized the youth academy league world around the Metroplex for a few years. They realized that they could charge an arm and a leg for fees and parents would pay. Since then, many aspects of SDL have deteriorated unfortunately (i.e. fields, parking, scheduling, prices and of course the amount of referees). In the meantime, other youth academy leagues have emerged that are offering more for less (Primetime, EAL, UAL just to name a few).

It's all about supply and demand.

It depends. EAL/UAL etc require you to pay the annual association fees, I believe. So those cost an extra $500/season if you would not otherwise do that. SDL is about $100/head, which is less than non-competitive flag football leagues we've played in. The price includes USCS membership, which covers Primetime and gets you into (some) local tourneys without having to pay association dues. The competition is largely very good. They do schedule around the coaches schedules. Beyond that, not much positive to say.

I like Primetime.

Number13 wrote:It depends. EAL/UAL etc require you to pay the annual association fees, I believe. So those cost an extra $500/season if you would not otherwise do that. SDL is about $100/head, which is less than non-competitive flag football leagues we've played in. The price includes USCS membership, which covers Primetime and gets you into (some) local tourneys without having to pay association dues. The competition is largely very good. They do schedule around the coaches schedules. Beyond that, not much positive to say.

I like Primetime.

It does depend. If the annual association fees you refer to are the Youth Academy Forms, those could be fetched free of charge or very often at a reduced rate (depends where you live). If your local rec. association wants to charge you a full rec season out of it, you can either go to another rec. association or just suck it up, pay it and have your bb join a rec team (8-10 extra games a season playing up). Speaking of more touches on the ball, some other academy leagues offer 10 games (vs. 8 for SDL). Also these NTSSA sanctioned leagues actually keep scores (that could be a deal breaker for some).

As you correctly point out, the amount of tournaments your team is eligible to play in (without any added cost) increases by a bunch when you join one of these NTSSA sanctioned leagues too.

At the end of the day, do what makes the most sense for your team. No league offers it all.

Ochocinco wrote:

Number13 wrote:It depends. EAL/UAL etc require you to pay the annual association fees, I believe. So those cost an extra $500/season if you would not otherwise do that. SDL is about $100/head, which is less than non-competitive flag football leagues we've played in. The price includes USCS membership, which covers Primetime and gets you into (some) local tourneys without having to pay association dues. The competition is largely very good. They do schedule around the coaches schedules. Beyond that, not much positive to say.

I like Primetime.

It does depend. If the annual association fees you refer to are the Youth Academy Forms, those could be fetched free of charge or very often at a reduced rate (depends where you live). If your local rec. association wants to charge you a full rec season out of it, you can either go to another rec. association or just suck it up, pay it and have your bb join a rec team (8-10 extra games a season playing up). Speaking of more touches on the ball, some other academy leagues offer 10 games (vs. 8 for SDL). Also these NTSSA sanctioned leagues actually keep scores (that could be a deal breaker for some).

As you correctly point out, the amount of tournaments your team is eligible to play in (without any added cost) increases by a bunch when you join one of these NTSSA sanctioned leagues too.

At the end of the day, do what makes the most sense for your team. No league offers it all.

You probably can find one that will do it but any reputable rec association will tell you that you must register through the rec association that covers where you live. Most do not charge the full rec season rate.

Its all cool. We fully concede that we'll eventually have to pay the association fees as the kids get older. But for now, at least for our U9 group, the vast majority of the competitive teams play in leagues that only require USCS. And we have yet to encounter a tournament that we wanted to play in that forced us to get an association stamp. We play at least 100+ games a year, not having paid association fees doesn't seem to be limiting our touches much. And I certainly haven't felt inclined to go around with a bottle of wine trying to convince some random Registrar to sign a sheet for a reduced fee.

At least for my case, the non-SDL/PTS leagues would require some level of extra fee to play, which makes SDLs fees more palatable. I'm sure my2cents knows better than I, but thought KSA was like $40/season per kid.

Still learning as we go.

That sounds about right on the cost. It is been a few years since I have been involved in that aspect. I am pretty sure it is for the soccer year, fall and spring, not just one season.

Number13 wrote:Its all cool. We fully concede that we'll eventually have to pay the association fees as the kids get older. But for now, at least for our U9 group, the vast majority of the competitive teams play in leagues that only require USCS. And we have yet to encounter a tournament that we wanted to play in that forced us to get an association stamp. We play at least 100+ games a year, not having paid association fees doesn't seem to be limiting our touches much. And I certainly haven't felt inclined to go around with a bottle of wine trying to convince some random Registrar to sign a sheet for a reduced fee.

At least for my case, the non-SDL/PTS leagues would require some level of extra fee to play, which makes SDLs fees more palatable. I'm sure my2cents knows better than I, but thought KSA was like $40/season per kid.

Still learning as we go.

Yeap, at the end of the day do what makes the most sense for your entire team. No league offers it all for sure.

As for my initial comment, I still wonder if this discussion would have changed any in a full (3) referee crew environment. I found the original post interesting from a refs perspective.

Sprint wrote:While I have seen my share of bad refs through the years, I actually felt the refs were doing a pretty good job in my kids 02's games. They were pretty laid back when getting berated by some of the coaches we played, and they kept cool when getting screamed at by parents. I know it is part of the gig, but they put up with some real crap for their few shekels each week.

On the other hand, the one funny event I saw was a ref told a kid, "Just play" after the kid asked for ten yards on a free kick. The other team formed a wall about 5 yards passed the kid and the ref made him kick without moving the wall back. Guess he forgot that rule.

Agreed and will add that most of the Refs in SDL are solid. My experience is that there are a few lose cannons who would probably be better served doing something else. This post was originally started regarding a ref that in my opinion, may fall into that category. Some folks simply aren't cut out for reffing. Cannot handle the stress and respond poorly when challenged regardless who's doing that.

Jogabonita wrote:The sad part of the game where the referee to the parent not to say hustle is that they blatantly missed 2 obvious corner kicks, one went of the goalie's hands out of bounds and the other ws kicked out by a defender. I would say priority number 1 for the referee is the game, and number 2 is the sidelines. Obviously doing both is a bit to ask for. I do agree to let the kids play the game as it is the best teacher, but every now and then I need to give a quick, once every other game, a "work hard". Even as adults we need a quick "move your a-- and put the cold beer or glass of wine down" from the wife or "what were you thinking from our mom and dad" lol. I actually believe the sidelines were quiet by both teams as the game was being played.

Agreed here. I could add more instances of missed calls but won't pile in. I will say that the game was better than the officiating. Like I said, the Ref's weren't terrible. I simply thought one of the Ref's was either having a bad day, didn't care, or is just not very good at it period. Was a fun game however. You guys played well.

Yea overall it was a great game by 2 great teams. Oddessey keeper made some great 1v1 stops and the game was a tight one all the way to the end of the whistle.

Refs will always make good and bad calls in a game. It will happen in every game and life goes on after the game.

SoccerDad12 wrote:

Jogabonita wrote:The sad part of the game where the referee to the parent not to say hustle is that they blatantly missed 2 obvious corner kicks, one went of the goalie's hands out of bounds and the other ws kicked out by a defender. I would say priority number 1 for the referee is the game, and number 2 is the sidelines. Obviously doing both is a bit to ask for. I do agree to let the kids play the game as it is the best teacher, but every now and then I need to give a quick, once every other game, a "work hard". Even as adults we need a quick "move your a-- and put the cold beer or glass of wine down" from the wife or "what were you thinking from our mom and dad" lol. I actually believe the sidelines were quiet by both teams as the game was being played.

Agreed here. I could add more instances of missed calls but won't pile in. I will say that the game was better than the officiating. Like I said, the Ref's weren't terrible. I simply thought one of the Ref's was either having a bad day, didn't care, or is just not very good at it period. Was a fun game however. You guys played well.

Running wrote:

my2cents wrote:

bigD17 wrote: I SAW A VERY GOOD GAME IN SDL OVER THE WEEKEND AND HEARD A PARENT TELL HIS SON TO STOP WALKING BACK ON DEFENSE AND TO COVER HIS MAN BECAUSE HIS SON WAS DOGGING IT A LITTLE. THE REF TOLD THE PARENT NOT TO "COACH THE PLAYER ". THE REF THREATENED TO THROW THE PARENT OUT WHEN THE PARENT SAID "THAT'S NOT A RULE"
I THINK THE REF WAS OUT OF LINE. THE PARENT WASN'T COACHING THE PLAYER, HE WAS TELLING HIM TO PICK IT UP BECAUSE HE WAS HURTING THE TEAM. I FEEL LIKE THE REFS ARE WAY TOO SENSITIVE AND THEY WANT EVERYBODY TO ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR ALMIGHTY AUTHORITY. MAYBE I'M OUT OF LINE FOR FEELING LIKE THAT, BUT I'M CURIOUS WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK.

I do think your out of line(you asked). Evidently it is a league rule so you and the other parents should be aware of the rules of your league and adhere to them. If you don't then the ref IS the authority of the field and yes you should acknowledge it if your behavior forces him/her do have to interupt the game to deal with you. BTW I also think it is a great rule condsidering the most common coaching commnts from parents are
- "Kick the ball!!!!" I really think the kids have figured that part out.
- "SHOOT,SHOOT, SHOOT!!!!!!" I think they also figured out the shooting and scoring angle in this game.
-" Go get the ball!!!" Usually flat out bad advice that puts the player out of position.

Me personal favorites are :

"JUST BOOT IT!!!" followed by great cheers when a kid just kicks it hard, but right to the other team,

"PASS,PASS,PASS"

"SWITCH IT" While a kid has three players on him,

and,

"RUN FASTER" Like a kid wants to run slow.



I could not agree more with you by the way. I was guilty of all of the above in the past.



"

Ok, that cracked me up. Even though this is an old thread. Thanks! So true!