[hooper]

Originally posted by Ref Daddy

... don't mean to be defensive intentionally but opening a thread on a referee forum indicating (suggesting) that the game was called VERY loosely by the refs seems to this responder to be a bit of a complaint.

As you identify yourself as a coach - I read "advocate".

That said a foul is a foul. The other stuff is "advantage/disadvantage". One coach's "rough play" is another coach's strategy to win. The referee has NOTHING to do with strategy.

You also say I don't fault the refs for favoring one team over the other and that suggested to me that it might be coach speak. Further you write that our team discussed forfeiting which sounds like another anti ref attitude.

Hence a tad of defensiveness perhaps.

To answer you directly: If you honestly feel the officals were putting saftey in question - call the association assigner and report that concern. It will be addressed I'm sure. I'd ask the other coach to chime in too.

... and thanks for working with the kid's Coach.

Thanks for the suggestion about contacting the association assigner. That's the type of information I was looking for, along with any suggestion on how to handle the situation during the game.

And yes, I did have a complaint about the officiating (and being a newish referee myself, ableit at a rec level, I appreciate the difficulties of the position.) When I said "I don't fault the refs for favoring one team over the other," what I meant was I didn't think they were calling the game unevenly between the teams (as in the usual coach complaint "You have to call it both ways.") I think the non-calls (and calls) were equally distributed among the teams. My concern was their decision not to call fouls that seemed worthy of calls, thus resulting in injuries, tears, kids not having fun, etc.

I know myself that when I officiate, I make decisions all the time on what kind of contact warrants a foul call. My concern in this game was that the level of contact needed to get a whistle was extremely high. My feeling is that it became a safety issue for players on all teams.

I am by no means commenting on all officials... and in fact the refs in our area are generally very good and keep the game safe and fun for all! Thanks for your response.