A note on last week...and also on Referees

I was overall very pleased with last week's two games. JV got a win and a draw! Varsity tied both, 1-1, against strong opponents, and we more than held our own. We showed strengths and weaknesses, but the week should give us confidence.

We are still very thin with our rosters, and have significant injuries which will linger into this week. Nonetheless, we performed very well, had less experienced players step up big time to help the Varsity team. This bodes well as the season progresses, and injured players return and that bolsters our depth.

I told the players at halftime of the Northfield game that this would be very difficult to close out. That obviously proved true, as they scored either just before, or just after, regulation time had expired. It is my hope that we do not dwell on the disappointment, but rather, that the experience reminds us in other big games how mentally tough and ruthless we need to be to finish tight games where we are ahead, or to be resolved to grind out an equalizer if we are on the other side of the situation.

It is a very thankless and difficult job to referee high level games. I consider the referee of the Northfield game to be one of the two best in the state. In fact, when he showed up to the game (on short notice, replacing the originally scheduled center, since the game had been rescheduled 24 hours earlier) I could not believe our good fortune. Indeed, he got the temperment and safety of the game right - keeping players safe, making balanced and good decisions, and staying centered and calm. After the final whistle and all of the disappointment with the goal being allowed, he gave us time for discussion, explained his decision, and allowed us to register the dissatisfaction with how the last bit was handled, so that he could use that info in the future. He expressed his sincere disappointment as well that such a good game ended in controversy, but I honestly also understood why he made the decision he made. Everything was very respectful.

Yesterday we texted back and forth very amicably, and I told him I hoped we would see him covering one of our big games soon. I sincerely mean that, and hope all of us take that to heart. He wished us very well in our season, and passed along his praise of our girls - for their play, and their respect of the game and his referees.