Fwd: feedback from referee/parents/coordinator to coaches

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Steve Glovier PTSA <sglovierptsa@verizon.net>
Date: Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 4:44 PM
Subject: feedback from referee/parents/coordinator to coaches

Commissioners,

Can you please forward this on to the coaches? 

 

Thank you.

 

Steve Glovier

PTSA Referee Coordinator

 

Each week one or more of the coaches provides me with appropriate feedback on the conduct of the referees; and sometimes provides suggestions as to how we can improve the referee's performance.  We appreciate this feedback and we pass this feedback on to the referees and try to stress points that the coaches are trying to convey to them.

 

This past week I asked the referees to provide us with feedback for the coaches.  We received 1 from the referees, 1 from a referee's parent and 1 from me (the referee coordinator).

 

Referee Feedback - Can the coaches please stay back (3 feet would be great) off of the touchline so that the referees can run the touchline and see up and down the touchline.

 

Referee Parent Feedback - When the lightening storms rolled in on Saturday afternoon and the games were postponed and/or cancelled - all of the coaches and parents of the players left the area, leaving the youth referees to fend for themselves (until their parents/rides could pick them up).  It would have been nice for one of the coaches to stay behind and make sure the referees were safe.

 

Referee Coordinator Feedback - I took this job last fall with the naive perspective that my responsibility was to schedule referees to work games - there are 118 referees with ~90 referee slots to fill every weekend - so I thought scheduling would be my primary effort.  But as it turns out I am also a mentor to the referees, which means I had to not only become a referee, but work games, so that I could relate to the referees and actually help them.  And some people think I'm also supposed to train all 118 referees so that when they step on to their 1st U-8 game they are capable of making all appropriate calls and 'running' a soccer game - that expectation is a little too high . . . .

 

For the U-8 and U-10 in-house games, clearly one of the problems with the referees is their lack of call making - they feel it is easier to not make a call - this is often lack of confidence.  Since we can't work with 118 referees (40 brand new ones) 1-on-1, we will start to ask the new referees to make at least 1 penalty call each 30 minutes of play - 2 per game.  This might mean that in the beginning they might call a 'push' when the player just slipped and grabbed someone to keep from falling . . . so please be patient . . . .  if we get them making calls and blowing their whistles, please don't then jump on them for making a wrong call - this is actually a part of their learning process.

 

Telling young referees that they need to be more confident, or constantly telling them to blow their whistle louder, won't necessarily help them become more confident.  Confidence is built over time, with positive experiences.

 

Thank you for your assistance and patience.

 

Steve Glovier

PTSA Referee Coordinator