Quitting From a Young Persons Perspective
 

I have officiated football for 14 years now. This year my son, who is six began playing Myte which is meant for 7-8 year olds. A few weeks ago he played a night game against another city. The afternoon saw one of the most freakish snow storms for October we have ever had. It continued into the night with heavy winds, snow and very cold. My son played the game but never cried or complained too much. After the game, the coach told the players how proud he was that despite losing they never gave up or quit despite the poor conditions.

On the way home, I related a story to my son about when I officiated a Myte game where the weather was very bad. In that game, the visitors won the choice and kicked off. The home team did not move (they were shivering) and the visitors jumped on the ball. The visitors then went on offense and since the home team did not move they scored a touchdown. This was repeated on the next kick-off and another TD was scored. So after only 18 minutes of playing, the home coach told me disappointedly "Okay, we are going home now."

So I told my son that I was proud that he did not quit like the team in my story.

His response was "We were allowed to quit? I didn't know we could quit! The coach told us we were not allowed to quit!"

That's pretty funny.

While the story is funny, I have to wonder about the safety issue if the weather was a terrible as you mentioned. Getting hypothermia is no laughing matter - especially for a 7 or 8 year-old.

I guess it is a matter of being prepared and being watchful in such weather. A veteran college official told me one story of the Canadian University Championship (called the Vanier Cup) being so cold that whistles would not work. At a certain temperature, the water vapour from your breath will freeze in the whistle!

I've heard that there weren't any whistles ever blown in the ice bowl- Dallas/Green Bay game back in the 60's. -15 degrees and you have to stick a metal whistle in your mouth. I don't know if it's true but it makes sense.

Whistle issues in very cold games are true, at least with the use of metal whistles. Freezing in the mouth and tearing out lips have happened. Even guys with cracks in the plastic cover have had problems.

I think the foxes will still work in very cold weather. The pitch may be different and there may not be as much sound. I'd recommend the CMG version for below 30.

I used mine in 9 degrees once. No problem. When Fox came out and the pea was gone, it made all the difference. When I first started, the standard was the Acme Thunderer.

tape your whistle

The CMG works, taping works, or putting a pipe bit on your whistle works. All the same...

I think the CMG whistle looks the cleanest.