So there were a few u17 boys matches in town a few weeks ago that I assigned the officials for. When I talked with a few of the crew the day after the matches they mentioned that the coaches were unhappy with the officiating and I might hear about it.

Sure enough on Monday I got an email from the Club mentioning how the coaches weren’t happy with the officiating. Kudos to the Club for not complaining. The Dir. of Coaching just mentioned it along with other items. So I decided to follow up a bit. I had talked to the officials and heard what they had to say. I asked one of the coaches what he saw.

What it came down to, I’m afraid, is that the officials let the players dictate the level of physicality in the game. They, the officials, were comfortable with it but the players and coaches, overall, were not. In a game that is being played by more mature players you can let them dictacte, somewhat, how physical the game is. But with young men you can’t. They don’t have the maturity to deal with that kind of responsibility.

Where as in an adult game you might call it a little tight at first and let them go a bit as the game progresses and “let them  play”. With young boys (u15-18) you call it tight and pretty much keep it there for the full 90mins. It you let them go a bit you have to be ready to reign it in.

I think the thing I have found most exciting about coaching is, growth. Watching the players change, get better, grow. When we started this season in February some players had talent, some had little talent. In the past two months the change in all of them is noticeable, very noticeable in others. It adds another dimension to the game, watching them do things, right or wrong, but knowing that it was something we had worked on. I’m seeing the same thing with the kids team (under 12′s) I coach. Just not as noticeable since we only get to practice twice a week for an hour. There really isn’t time for them to learn something new and get comfortable with it, but I can see them growing. Even though they loose a game I’m proud of them for demonstrating how they have learned something new and used it on the field. That doesn’t make me very useful at the end of the game when the players are disappointed about losing and I’ve got a smile on my face cause I saw how hard they tried. In my mind they won the important game. They grew.

At their last game the Girls team was down 2-1 with 3 minutes to play. The final score was 2-2. They didn’t give up, they knew they could score, and because of all the hard work they put in during the pre-season, running the hills and all the suicides, they had the fitness to finish the match strong. In past seasons they hadn’t run nearly as much we made them, this bit of information came from them. So this increased amount of work and expectation was new for them. I heard no complaints. In fact, I had players show up for practice asking, “Are we running hill today?”, with a gleam of excitement in their eye. Not only were they ready for the work, some of them were looking forward to it. I can see this commitment paying off. They did the running in the pre-season and now, at the end of a game, they are still going strong. The obstacle of fitness is not in their way. They may not have the talent of some of the teams we play but they have the fitness to be in the game the whole time.

Worked a large rugby tourny this past weekend, 25+ men’s and women’s teams. The word for the tourny was, ‘disorganized’. Captians meeting at 7:00a.m., no one is there. First game’s to kick off at 8:00a.m., only 2 of the 5 fields are going by 8:15. It had been raining for most of the week prior to the games so the fields were in a bit of a state. One of them had a nice sized puddle in the corner. A few teams figured out that if you kicked into that mess the opposition would have a very hard time getting out. That made for some very messy games. Over all the teams played as well as the conditions would allow. With only 20min halves and all of the fields in questionable conditions there wasn’t much of a rhythm to most games so the play wasn’t all that great. I did 7 matches and didn’t see anything that would stick in my mind till the very last match. It was two female college teams. As we were walking onto the very muddle pitch a late 20’s, hairy, not all that fit pasty white guy with out a stitch on (not even shoes) came running onto the pitch. He ran out to the middle of the field and tried to kick the game ball that was sitting there. Missed the ball and fell into the mud. At this point I guess he decided that no being in the middle of the pitch was a good idea, so he ran away covered in mud. This was not something I expected to witness nor did I want to. I did turn to the teams and apologized for all males in the United States. Cause there was just no reason for what just happened.