A Case for Referee Fitness

     My daughter was playing for her high school soccer team the other day in a neighboring town and I was somewhat amused by the lineup of referees that were assigned to the match.  The center ref was probably relatively fit for a nearly 70-year-old, the near side line-judge (I know…assistant referee) kept reaching back to rub his hamstring every time he had to waddle down the line to watch the game, and the far-side assistant…well, do you remember the character on Saturday Night Live named “Pat”?  Nuff said.  The advantage to having a slow assistant ref is that my daughter got away with a couple of off-sides calls because he couldn’t get there to see.  Unfortunately, so did the other team.  The center ref covered a generous 30-square-meters or so of the field and did the best he could but what really shocked me was when he showed his AARP card instead of a yellow.  And Pat, more or less watched the game from his/her patch of sod kind of like a tourist surveying the buffet on a cruise ship.

     There is certainly something to be said about an official’s ability to call a good game by virtue of his or her ability to position themselves in the proper place on the field to make the best call.  There are a lot of things for one of these people to do but they are certainly more hindered by lack of fitness.  Of course eyesight, knowledge of the laws of the game and good judgment are vital, so is fitness.

    One ref who I have become friends with over the years told me once that he referees for love of the game and to keep himself in shape. We have disagreed several times over the years about his calls, but after the game we remain friends.  We may not talk for a few days after a particularly eventful match but we’ll be friends for a long time.  The thing with him is that he is in great shape and constantly works to improve his skills as a referee.  As a coach I respect that and can accept that occasionally he makes a bad call.  When you are assigned a ref who makes bad calls and can’t physically do the job, I for one am more likely to use words I shouldn’t use and push the limits of getting thrown out of a game (by the way, that hasn’t happened yet).  Howard Webb comes to mind when you consider what a ref should at least look like physically.  I would be less likely to argue with Howard than with Pat or Mister AARP.

     Question of the week:  "How to improve the physical quality of referees in the game?"