Owen Patton on Ref Shortage in Youth Sports
Owen Patton
Ref Shortage in Youth Sports
Claims and stances
Transcript
- 0:00 Yeah, I completely agree.
- 0:02 As a current uh certified US soccer referee, um I've found in my experience that a lot of the times when I'm going to ref, I show up and one of the crew members isn't there, and then it not only makes it harder on me, um, but it makes it harder on the crew as a whole because we're down a person, and usually we all would have three people to officiate and watch the game.
- 0:24 Now we only have two eyes on the field to keep the players safe and to have a fair officiated match.
- 0:29 So it's kind of like a never-ending cycle.
- 0:32 This problem with parents uh being harsh on refs and them quitting or them not showing up to these games creates uh refing crews that have only two refs instead of three, and due to this demanding schedule and constant schedule of youth soccer games, we are we have to start the game either way.
- 0:51 So we end up having to ref the game with two people in a two-man system instead of a three-man roughing system, which makes the game uh not be able to be officiated as fairly or as tightly because you only have two compared to having three.
- 1:08 And then also I've found over time my assigner has had trouble, more and more trouble getting refs to come to games and having last-minute cancellations, um, which has required me to have to reach out to my friends and other people uh more often to try and get them to come and ref.
- 1:25 And yeah, this sorted shortage sucks for current refs like me.
- 1:30 Um, and I'd really like it if parents were more thoughtful of the network of refs they're affecting, because without refs, the kids can't have a fair and fun game.