Craig’s OPL Notebook – Fall – Week 8
Games: 190 Positions to fill: 570 Unfilled Positions: 36 or 93.4%
Yellows: 40
Reds: 2
Mentored Games: 0
Recap:
Ah yes, back to normal. A couple reds, forty (40) yellows, I can see my breath at games…must be November now!! This weekend is going to be a killer. We have the high school playoffs on Saturday, we have fifty (50) games to finish up the fall season and then we also have the start of round robin games for the Director’s Cup. HELP!! I know everyone is tired but if we can get through this weekend we can coast all the way to “jingle bell rock”!!
Update:
Directors Cup Training Meeting on November 10th at 6:30 at Oregon Sports Offices
We are fine tuning the training weekend for the NW Champions League High School Boys tournament. We are planning on having training on Friday, December 9th with Pizza of course, Saturday, December 10th, and possibly Sunday, December 11th. We now know how many games each day. Remember that the age groups are: U15, U16, U17 and U18. This is the boy’s tournament, the girl’s tournament is being held up in Seattle. On Saturday they are having eight (8) games, the semifinals, with times of noon, 2:00, 4:00 and 6:00. Sunday’s games are 8:00, 10:00, noo n and 2:00. Sunday will have the finals, and third place games so we will also have eight (8) games on Sunday. Games will be played on Rec Center #1 and Rec Center #2.
Remember that we are working on this weekend so things are just a bit in flux. This is giving us an opportunity to have a training session during the winter. We do have the BTW (Big Training Weekend) just before the summer so this gives us a real opportunity to provide some quality education and training at another time of the year. It’s exciting to do this and give up and coming referees the chance to work with National Referee’s and National Candidates and the cream of the crop here in Oregon. AND…allowing other referee’s to see and understand what assessors and mentors look at in a match.
Coaches Corner:
We have a request. This is something we have talked about and talked about and because we do not have markings on the field, we are stuck enforcing the unenforceable. The…wait for it…”Technical Area”. How are we going to make sure we don’t have roaming coaches? Let’s think about this. We really don’t want to have to approach a coach who is down at the 18 screaming at his players with 10 minutes left in the game. We need to deal with this sooner. Here is a suggestion. Before the game, that’s right, before the game, approach the coaches and inform them that the OPL has decided to make the technical area a Point of Emphasis. What this means is that the coaches can roam, up to the half line, and ten (10) yards from the end of the bench toward the goal. Be courteous, be polite, but let them know this is something that the “league” is asking us (the referee’s) to enforce. Now let’s take this back a step. When you arrive at the field, check just where the benches are. I mean seriously, I’ve seen benches almost at the 18. It is up to you to place those benches where they logically should be. I would say that is ten (10) to fifteen (15) yards from the half line. I would lean toward ten (10). Move the benches if they are not situated there. Even if you show up and the early referee did not deal with this then you deal with it. Believe me you are the one that has to deal with roaming coaches…nothing worse…well there is the shouting coach but we will get into that in another notebook.
Suggestions:
We want to make the Weekly Notebook something that is of import to all of you. If any of you have suggestions about content or about training we would like to hear about it. We are trying to tailor the notebook to meet your needs in how you look at, officiate and want to progress in the greatest sport in the world. Please let us know what your thinking and what you would like to see more of in regards to programs, training and education in the youth soccer.
Craig Hill
