This upcoming weekends games are the cancelled ones from a few weeks ago so the schedule is very light. Unless something changes, this is the last weekend of games for 2018. Make sure to verify your game count by Monday night. The financials are being sent to John for payments on Tuesday, 3/6.
A couple of things from John Branca to share with you all:
"I was watching game at Connetquot today and at end of the game I saw a coach come over and flip the score. I looked at the score and saw that it now showed as a 5-5 tie. I first thought that I missed something since the game had just ended, perhaps the side ref did not get to the flip score yet. When the other ref came over (Bobby Baldwin) I asked what the score was - he checked his scorecard and told me 5-4 I then explained what the coach did to show a 5-5 score. I approached the coach after and I think he said he was just fooling around. If Bobby, had not been keeping his manual score sheet, the coach may have gotten away with it."
Flip Score - starting to regret bringing them back, even on a limited basis - only to be used when two referees are doing a match - and the official not using the flip score MUST keep a manual record (see above story)
Foul recognition - saw an instance of two players (BU15/16) at Oakdale last week in 8 am game, fighting for possession of the ball and started to lock arms and push each other off the ball - no foul was called, but soon after they disengaged their arms, a retaliatory foul was committed - foul then called which put one team over the limit - the player receiving the penalty kick decision then started clapping over his head which was quickly responded to by the opponent also clapping over his head - nothing escalated past that. I did mention this to the referees after the match - other than that, I thought both did a very good job.
I know I am commenting with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, but think if players don't quickly disengage within 1-2 seconds, the officials should call a foul. If it can't be determined who precipitated, then a double foul should be called. It may reduce the incidents of the retaliatory foul, but certainly not a guarantee - in the red card game of two weeks ago, which resulted in a player being thrown to the floor after players initially interlocked arms, I don't see how the referees could have acted any quicker. If you agree, I will advise the coaches before this week's game.
Referee Shirts - if a referee does not receive one after this weekend, I will put it in the mail, One referee needs a larger size; if there are any others, I will re-order and exchange.
Thank you to everyone for your tireless efforts this season and to those who went way above and beyond the call of duty as well. I would like the pool to grow next year so no one needs to cover 6-10 games a day but I would rather have a smaller pool like the one this year of high quality referees than 100 people, half of which have no idea what is going on.
Thank you again!
All the best,
Steven Wowk