[johnnyrao]

I do not understand the reasoning behind all of this. I have been a long time soccer coach and, to be honest, when the game is over I could care less what the officials do. I would love to know what the Mass HS coaches think about all of this? In most cases, coaches only seem to want me around after a game when they feel they got a raw deal from the crew. If they have no issues with us, it never seems like they care at all.

What's next, "silent basketball games"? This is another wonderful idea from the soccer world where on certain days, the games were designated as "silent". No one (I mean NO ONE) was allowed to speak at the game except players and the officials. Coaches could not coach, spectators could not cheer or speak. There were even game management officials walking the field who would remove anyone for saying anything at all, positive or negative.

This one baffles me. My guess is the reason that soccer officials started remaining on the field after a game is because the safest place to be from the fans is standing in the center circle. Also, at least at the international level, the teams and officials usually use the same tunnel to get on/off the field so the officials wait until the teams have left and emotions are died down before leaving. Most things we do at lower levels we learn from the higher levels, so I would assume we started doing this in HS soccer because "that's what the big boys do". As stated earlier, the safest place for the basketball official is off the floor. I wonder if anyone did any analysis on why soccer and hockey do it or if it was just a grand generalization that brought this on?