As summer tournament season is upon us, many families are traveling far and wide, and spending hard earned dollars on tournaments and other sports travel. Inevitably, there will be a game or a match where a referee makes a poor decision, or gets a call wrong, and this can often lead to yelling, screaming, and increased tension and pressure for our athletes. This usually adversary effects their performance, and their mental state.
I recorded a few thoughts for you on my experience with referees, and a few things to keep in mind as your support your young athletes this summer. We must remember that kids listen to what we say, but they remember what we do, and how we deal with the adversity and intensity of a bad call, as well as how we show our kids to respect authority, are lessons that will stick with them well beyond their youth sports career.
As an added bonus, if you watch the video to the end (its only 5 mins) then all the You Tube crazy sports parents videos come up! Enjoy, and if you like this, please share it with your team, your friends, and perhaps with a referee you know, with a word of thanks for all they do.
If you are new to this site, welcome, and thank you for coming. If you would like more posts like this, please fill out the contact form to get this and other blog posts directly to your inbox, or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter @coachjohnnyo.
As a sports referee (lacrosse and baseball) this was wonderful. As a coach and association president, I could not agree more. When I start with a new team, I tell them that there are three teams on the field for every game. (They never guess correctly.) Our team… the other team … and the officials. I go on to discuss how we hope that every team brings their best game to every event. Further I ask players to talk about situations when they left their best game at home and why that might have happened. When they think about the officials in the same light, they are much more understanding.
Thanks for the feedback Dan, I really like the way you put it in terms of three teams out there, and we need to show them all the same respect. Refereeing is a thankless job these days, and we need more sport clubs and schools to hold everyone accountable for treating them with respect. Please share this message and lets get it in front of as many folks as possible.