RefBlog

Add another reason I don't like high school

Gads - I don't even have to be reffing high school to find another thing that bugs me. Recently, the sectional playoffs for high school soccer ended, and teams have won the right to play in the actual high school tournament. I've reffed it a few times, as I've mentioned in the past, and it's fun and interesting, and exposes some more hypocrisy of (at least this state's) high school sports governing body.

This year's thing isn't huge, and really isn't an injustice, but merely shows how vastly unappreciated the referees are in high school sports. So, the high school association holds a big to-do for the athletes and parents/guardians who make the tournament - cool, nothing wrong with that. But the scope is... out of proportion. They rent an arena used for mid-sized to major concerts (5800 seats, according to the website) for the banquet for maybe a few hundred people. Did I mention the upper deck wasn't used? Umm, hello? I understand you wanting a place that's big enough to have the event - but I know that there are plenty of places big enough (anyone looking for wedding reception sites could tell you that), let alone one that is going to be monstrously more expensive than any of the alternatives. Plus it's a catered event. I don't know for certain, but I'm pretty sure this is indirectly paid for via taxpayers.

Now as for the gripe of referee treatment - nobody expects refs to get the same treatment, although for many of us this is just as big a deal as if we were a player (I mean, there are damn few players who play high school sports that get this far - maybe they do it as a ref?), and rightly treat it as the pinnacle of their career. Ok, so no catered event in a gigantic area - but we don't even get freakin' Subway sandwiches at our ref meeting.

The USSF referee committee, at least in this state, does better for their refs - even on a smaller, non-taxpayer funded budget. Feh.

02 February '10 - 17:22 - - | No comments yet - § ¶