I coach my kid's rec league U-9 soccer team, and last Fall we played against a team with a coach who was screaming from the top of his lungs the entire game. The parent I hoodwinked into acting as flag ref came with his hands on his ears, because the guy was screaming that way three feet from him as he tried to do his job during the game. Many of our parents were astounded by the noise, and they sat on the other side of the field. Our kids were clearly anxious and distracted by it. It seemed to knock take them out of the game. But, the fact was his screaming was aimed at his players. Oh, he did go after the ref once, but the ref, a high school kid was in the right (one of our guys was off side, but the ball had been kicked so far down that he wasn't going to get to it before the other team's goalie, and it's not called off side in that situation), pointed it out and calmly told him to keep his comments for after the game. Oh, and the guy jumped up screaming, "Yeah!" Again, at the top of his lungs, when one of our kids missed a penalty kick.
I had to keep it to myself, but it was the one game I left happy that we'd won. We won all but one game, with a draw or two, but I never gave a crap. We have a bunch of kids who could easily play competitive soccer, but whose parents want them to have lives. They have fun, and that's all that matters. They had the same smiles on their faces the one game they lost, as well as on the draws. It's really not that big a deal to them... unless the parents make it a big deal.
What scares me is the possibility of that going exponential as my kid gets older.
Refs have very tough jobs, and the fact remains that we need them. Why so many people fail to understand that is beyond me.
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