Representing Arlington from the Sidelines

By Grant Smith, Director of Coaching, Arlington Travel Soccer Club

I recently attended a weekend soccer game to watch some young players enjoy the game of soccer with their friends and families.

The level of play in the game was fairly high and the teams were equally matched in ability. The referee system was a center and 2 assistant referees, the best system available to manage a game. The coaches were offering instructions and feedback to the players in a positive manner and the players were competing hard, but in a fair way. You could see that the kids were enjoying the match. What a great way to spend a weekend morning!

Something completely innocent happened that changed this wonderful scene.

Then something completely innocent happened that changed this wonderful scene. One team played a ball behind the defense into space for one of their forwards to run on to for a fast break. The AR on that side took a few steps to keep up with the play and then determined the attacking player was offside. The AR stopped and raised his flag indicating the offside. The play happened to be on the opposite side of the field forcing the referee to view the play with his back to the AR. Because of that, the referee allowed play to continue not realizing the player had been determined to be offside by the AR. At that point, you would have thought the referee had committed a felony because the parents of the defending team erupted. “Hey Ref, look at your linesman”” “Offside”! “Offside”! One team was cheering the player on and the other was screaming at the referee. And, the kids were oblivious to all of it because they just wanted to play.

From that point on, every call the referee or AR made was met with harsh, verbal criticism. Both team’s parents began to question every foul and offer up every opinion on what was happening during the game. Some of the parents on one team were even calling the opposing player’s cheaters, which of course made the opposing parents irate. The level of play dropped because the players were convinced that the referee was “out to get them”. The demeanor on the sideline became aggressive because of the comments by other parents. And, every call against one team was viewed as a make-up call for the other team. It was a really disappointing change in the way the game was being played and enjoyed.

I happened to be close to one team at halftime and was able to listen in to the coach’s halftime talk. The first thing this coach said to his players was they had to refocus on the game and not be distracted by what the parents were saying to the referee, the players or to each other. The 5-10 minutes of halftime was used to try to keep the players from being distracted by their parents instead of positive feedback on how the game had been played or some minor adjustments in tactics. The players were completely caught up in the situation happening on the sidelines.

The game became one in which everything the players and referee did was commented on and complained about. I was standing on the sidelines where the teams were and listened as every player that came off the field either complained about the behavior on the far sideline or the referee was doing a terrible job. They had become completely distracted by things that were out of their control and all of this because of one missed call. Which, by the way, did not result in a goal for the attacking team because the goalie had made a terrific save.

Please be aware of your behavior on the sidelines. Your comments
to the referees and players have a huge impact on everyone’s enjoyment of the game. Young players can pick their parents voices out of a crowd very easily and when they here those voices and what is being said it can really affect the way they view the game.

Represent your community and team they way you would represent yourself in your professional life. Everyone makes mistakes and if a missed call is the worst mistake you will have to deal with on that day count yourself fortunate!

Thanks,

Grant Smith, Director of Coaching ATSC

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