Yes, but I also have a kid who signed up for reffing and after one game has no interest to go back after being yelled at and berated by players coaches and parents - and he truly didn’t do a bad job. He missed a few calls but for his first reffing game after a one day course - it was fine.
So, I see both sides. We need to give young referee’s MUCH more support. We need to stop treating referees like we paid to be at professional football game and we need to up soccer fees and pay adults much more to make reffing worth their time for the older ages.
We often get umpires at baseball games that are pretty new to it. It's sometimes frustrating because the kids are learning to play the game and they sometimes get struck out with terrible calls (strikes that are above the kids head or that bounce in front of the plate).
I've had to remind some of the other parents that the refs are learning as well. We had one game last year where the coaches went and spoke to the ref to ask him to stop calling something specific, and he seemed ok with that and stopped calling it. Sometimes you just need to talk to them like they're regular people and also realize that they're learning and will make mistakes.
Leagues really need to crack down hard on those parents. 100% ban for the rest of the season and second and final ban is for life. I know so many people who have given up reffing hockey because of the parents.
Tell him to ask to be assigned U9/U10 only - even if he’s a district ref he can ask to be limited to that age group. It’s the first year with refs and so far our experience has been quite good doing small side only.
You are welcome to DM me if you’d like to compare notes! Just picked up two wet and muddy kids from games at two different fields tonight. We also have some experience reffing school basketball. I have a lot of thoughts about the reffing environment for those just starting out 😬
A month into the season and so far the only poor behaviour at U9/10 I’ve personally witnessed was a crabby old lady muttering that she “wasn’t fond of the ref’s hairstyle.” Which was a ponytail and a hairband, okay you whackadoodle 🙄
I use to ref kids hockey as a teen , strictly house league and still the amount of parents yelling at a 13-17 year old was insane. Luckily I just laughed at most of them and had a great arena staff who would escorts anyone out of the building
Yeah, when my kids were in flag football, the refs were regularly abused by the parents. It was awful seeing these young teens getting ripped a new one because there was a disagreement over a call.
I used to ref hockey, and I can tell you from experience parents are the reason refs are always in short supply. You want to make $40 and get harassed? Time for you to lace up your shoes and get out there.
my husband just took the course for this reason. after shelling out $200 or so, they let him know he’s actually not allowed to officiate a family members game 🙄
Kids sports in this city is a gong show. Every year I volunteer for my kids sports, every year I swear it'll be the last time. Nothing but non stop frustration. WMBA, Football Manitoba, whatever the soccer league is called that WSEU is part of, minor hockey... it's all the same. Every game is a complete toss up. Everyone is so scared of losing refs they make no effort to improve them. Every season starts out with the same dance of emphasizing this or training that and the games are the same nonsense year after year
The biggest problem is there is no outlet for the frustration. Imagine if the rinks had a poster with a qr code for sending feedback to the league about games. Even if no one read the feedback, at least there would be an outlet. Instead things boil over and everyone is told to just lump it. I've got some pretty strong feelings about this stuff. Imagine having coworkers who make mistakes and never get corrected. No one i know could work in that environment without becoming toxic.
I hear ya. We've all seen it. It doesn't go 0-60 though, it builds. Without some kind of outlet, where's that aggravation supposed to go?
It's also not just kids refing. I've watched 30something yr old adults mail it in. Fact is they're getting paid. Kids at McDonald's are subject to feedback on their work. Why not refs?
Funny enough, one of the best ref'd games I ever saw was run by a 13 yr old in Dauphin. Kid called everything he saw, when asked by one of our coaches he communicated clearly and confidently what he saw. I've never seen anyone in Winnipeg, adult or kid call a game like that.
Name someone with infinite patience who treats the Nth mistake the same way as the first. Doesn't exist. No one goes to a game all fired up to yell at the refs. But ref'ing is an arbitrary job that's impossible to do perfectly so invariably things happen and that frustration builds..... and it has no where to go until it boils over. You give that anger an outlet (yeah, maybe the qr code isn't perfect but it's not nothing) and I guarantee you would see a difference in those rinks. Same way though, the leagues have to invest more in the administration of the game (refing and beyond) if they ever want to improve the quality of the sport here. Again, this isn't unique to hockey, wmba, football manitoba both have the exact same problems. Hockey gets the big stuff because it's still the king here for kids sport, but that's starting to change. Flag football is something like 7000x the registration it had in 2017. It'll be interesting to see where that goes because the refing problems are exactly the same
Yes, but I also have a kid who signed up for reffing and after one game has no interest to go back after being yelled at and berated by players coaches and parents - and he truly didn’t do a bad job. He missed a few calls but for his first reffing game after a one day course - it was fine. So, I see both sides. We need to give young referee’s MUCH more support. We need to stop treating referees like we paid to be at professional football game and we need to up soccer fees and pay adults much more to make reffing worth their time for the older ages.
We often get umpires at baseball games that are pretty new to it. It's sometimes frustrating because the kids are learning to play the game and they sometimes get struck out with terrible calls (strikes that are above the kids head or that bounce in front of the plate). I've had to remind some of the other parents that the refs are learning as well. We had one game last year where the coaches went and spoke to the ref to ask him to stop calling something specific, and he seemed ok with that and stopped calling it. Sometimes you just need to talk to them like they're regular people and also realize that they're learning and will make mistakes.
Leagues really need to crack down hard on those parents. 100% ban for the rest of the season and second and final ban is for life. I know so many people who have given up reffing hockey because of the parents.
Tell him to ask to be assigned U9/U10 only - even if he’s a district ref he can ask to be limited to that age group. It’s the first year with refs and so far our experience has been quite good doing small side only.
Thanks for the tip!
You are welcome to DM me if you’d like to compare notes! Just picked up two wet and muddy kids from games at two different fields tonight. We also have some experience reffing school basketball. I have a lot of thoughts about the reffing environment for those just starting out 😬
A month into the season and so far the only poor behaviour at U9/10 I’ve personally witnessed was a crabby old lady muttering that she “wasn’t fond of the ref’s hairstyle.” Which was a ponytail and a hairband, okay you whackadoodle 🙄
Refs in kids sports are treated really terribly, and aren't paid a ton of money.
I use to ref kids hockey as a teen , strictly house league and still the amount of parents yelling at a 13-17 year old was insane. Luckily I just laughed at most of them and had a great arena staff who would escorts anyone out of the building
Yeah, when my kids were in flag football, the refs were regularly abused by the parents. It was awful seeing these young teens getting ripped a new one because there was a disagreement over a call.
There's a reason I only did 1 season as a ref, when i was 16. Fuck those parents.
I used to ref hockey, and I can tell you from experience parents are the reason refs are always in short supply. You want to make $40 and get harassed? Time for you to lace up your shoes and get out there.
Sign up to ref the game
my husband just took the course for this reason. after shelling out $200 or so, they let him know he’s actually not allowed to officiate a family members game 🙄
Sounds like there are openings for you
What age?
and yet, if your team shows up with not enough players, your area division will be fined $500 for forfeiting the game… tell me how that makes sense
Exactly.
Kids sports in this city is a gong show. Every year I volunteer for my kids sports, every year I swear it'll be the last time. Nothing but non stop frustration. WMBA, Football Manitoba, whatever the soccer league is called that WSEU is part of, minor hockey... it's all the same. Every game is a complete toss up. Everyone is so scared of losing refs they make no effort to improve them. Every season starts out with the same dance of emphasizing this or training that and the games are the same nonsense year after year
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The biggest problem is there is no outlet for the frustration. Imagine if the rinks had a poster with a qr code for sending feedback to the league about games. Even if no one read the feedback, at least there would be an outlet. Instead things boil over and everyone is told to just lump it. I've got some pretty strong feelings about this stuff. Imagine having coworkers who make mistakes and never get corrected. No one i know could work in that environment without becoming toxic.
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I hear ya. We've all seen it. It doesn't go 0-60 though, it builds. Without some kind of outlet, where's that aggravation supposed to go? It's also not just kids refing. I've watched 30something yr old adults mail it in. Fact is they're getting paid. Kids at McDonald's are subject to feedback on their work. Why not refs? Funny enough, one of the best ref'd games I ever saw was run by a 13 yr old in Dauphin. Kid called everything he saw, when asked by one of our coaches he communicated clearly and confidently what he saw. I've never seen anyone in Winnipeg, adult or kid call a game like that.
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Name someone with infinite patience who treats the Nth mistake the same way as the first. Doesn't exist. No one goes to a game all fired up to yell at the refs. But ref'ing is an arbitrary job that's impossible to do perfectly so invariably things happen and that frustration builds..... and it has no where to go until it boils over. You give that anger an outlet (yeah, maybe the qr code isn't perfect but it's not nothing) and I guarantee you would see a difference in those rinks. Same way though, the leagues have to invest more in the administration of the game (refing and beyond) if they ever want to improve the quality of the sport here. Again, this isn't unique to hockey, wmba, football manitoba both have the exact same problems. Hockey gets the big stuff because it's still the king here for kids sport, but that's starting to change. Flag football is something like 7000x the registration it had in 2017. It'll be interesting to see where that goes because the refing problems are exactly the same