Monday 18th May 2009…a weekend of soccer

I left Nanaimo Friday morning on this ferry

you can see it carries very large vehicles.

Approaching mainland Vancouver.

It is about a 4 hour drive to Kamloops through some very beautiful mountain scenery.

 

 

 

 

 

My lunch stop by the river.

About 5.30pm I arrived in Kamloops which is named…

The soccer games that I was scheduled to officiate were at

and this is where Ramona and I are staying for three nights, a nice spot close to the fields, the river and the

 

I had a great sleep on Friday and on Saturday I did 4 game.  It is so great to have the luxury of my own kitchen, a place to sit and relax in between games.  The weather today was cold and windy.

Sunday saw me doing 4 more games but today the weather had changed to warm and sunny.

The fields when not being used and now with kids!!

At this tournament there is a tent set up for the referee’s where we have food and drinks and congregate before and after our games.  Whilst sitting there waiting for my last game there was about 7 youths sitting on the ground in front of the tent.  I don’t know if they were players or refs but one of them, a kid abut 17,  was telling the other kids if they got a chance to run into the opposing keeper to try and kick him in the head.  I was disgusted by these comments and could have said nothing but chose to tell him his comments were totally unacceptable especially so if he was a ref.  Of course he got loud and belligerent with me and I just told him he was out of order making those comments and I turned away and got ready for my game which was a boys under 15 match and who do you think was the assistant coach of the home team??? Yes the same mouthy kid!

I have played soccer all of my life and reffed for over 10 years, not being egotistical, I know I am good at what I do and I also know the laws of the game inside out.  I try to man manage the games as opposed to showing the players cards all the time.

I knew I could not let what happened before the game effect the way I reffed and the game was only five minutes old when this home team were down by two goals.  It was apparent they were not very skilled and I noticed a lot of dissent at my calls.

The game was about 10 minutes in when I called one of the home team players for a foul.  He was about 15 feet away from me, remembering these kids are 14 years of age.  This player looked me right in the face and told me I was a jerk, but he also inserted the F word there.  I asked him to come towards me and he just stood there and told me again that I was an idiot and again using the F word.

I quickly processed in my mind what action to take and decided that his actions warranted him being sent off so I produced the red card and ordered him to leave the field.  This brought out a barrage of swear words from him as he left the field.

I could hear his coach telling his players watch out for this ref he will red card you for nothing.  I could see where this game was going and immediately stopped play and went to the coach and told him he was out of order,  to calm his players down and if he uttered any more dissenting comments I would have him removed from the field as well.

I was I think at this stage the most unpopular man in Kamloops!!!!  The game stared again but there was one man in the bleachers making very nasty comments about my reffing, he really was disruptive and his comments very disrespectful.  I decided at this point to ignore him and half time came.

One of my assistants told me that the man making the comments in the bleachers was the husband of one of the soccer executive committee.  I decided at this point not to do anything with him.  Had this game been played in my home town I would have had the man removed from the area but I did not want to do this and just ignored his comments.

In the second half the game started with the home team clearly trying to intimidate and the hurt the opponents.  I stopped the game and brought the captains together and warned them that I would be now reffing this game very strictly and blowing for every foul and I would not hesitate to issue cards to any offenders and to make sure their team mates understood this.  The game finished without any incidents and no one made any comments to me after the game.  The man in the bleachers I never saw again.

This kind of game makes me wonder at times why I do this, subject myself to abuse every weekend but I choose to do it and I feel that I need to do it. Also I do it in the hope that it may save a younger official the same treatment.

This is the downfall of sports in my opinion the lack of respect and ignorance.

On Sunday I officiated the finals of the Girls Under 18 and the Boys Under 18 .  Both these games went smoothly and I enjoyed them both.

I am now in Kelowna staying with my friends for a couple of days.

Tuesday I helped my friend Larry install some windows in his 4 plex.  When I was here the last time I helped Larry lay some side walk and I am thinking I may never return here, does he not know I am retired!!!

To end another great day I receive this letter tonight from my girls……

Hi Les,

Thank you very much for your letters. We love to hear from you. 

We are happy you keep going to many different places.  We wish we could go with you one day.

Berenice helped us to draw a Happy Birthday Card for you. We will send it to you one way or the other. 

We love the photos!
We have to run back to our class.

Bye and please, be happy.

Daniela and Paola