Comments about ‘High school soccer: Sportsmanship requested’

World soccer is worst sports. Europe and latin america have quite a few deaths. AS for refs is it possible to play soccer at night because it is hard to find refs to get off work early.

In Idaho 8 man football we played at 4 in the afternoon and refs went somewere else to ref on friday. However for getting off work can cause problems.

Its hard to get off work early for a high school game. Thats why I referee club games they start at 5:3o. The schools don't want to turn on the ligths on the football fields. If they played on the football field. You can control the fans, start the JV game at 5:30 and Varsity at 7.

I am not sure if my first attempt went through so if it did I am sorry that I posted twice.
As a coach I have not received any official notification that soccer is on probation. All I know is what the newspaper has reported. When will UHSAA send out official notifiation of the probation? Soccer had no brawls last year and we are on probation. When will football, which had 2 brawls, and basketball which has already had 1 brawl, be put on probation?

Why such a high level of poor sportsmanship in soccer? It would be interesting to hear from people who are really into the sport.

For me, soccer is about as entertaining as watching paint dry. So I wonder if the boredom factor may have something to do with it. As a spectator, your choices are to pick your nose or to yell at the ref and opposing players? Possibly.

One of the main causes of this problem is the lack of good officals. The sport is relatively new to the state and the officiating base is not as large as the other sports. many of the officials have never played the sport and as a fan and player who has played since i was four find it harder to respect them. There are good officals but there are far to many who lose control of the games and that is when the ejections come. All that being said it is not all the officials faults.

Soccer has no more incidents of poor sportsmanship than any other sport. The problems lie in the fact that players can get ejected for things like hard fouls or continuing to foul players. In basketball it is referred to as fouling out. In soccer you can be given a red card or in this case usually 2 yellow cards which equals a red. So in soccer it counts as poor sportsmanship but in basketball it is nothing but getting 5 fouls.

As for your comment about soccer being as entertaining as watching paint dry - you obviously have never watched a real soccer game. Turn on the tv and find Gol TV or Fox Soccer Channel. These games in Europe are intense with top notch athletes displaying unbelievable skill and speed. Maybe at the high school level it is not all that exciting to watch soccer but neither is high school football or basketball.

Thanks for you take on the sportsmanship issue. But if the unsportsmanship level is the same in other sports as it is in soccer, why would the UHSAA put the whole sport of soccer on probation? I've never heard of that before. It sounds kinda bad.

I honestly have tried to absorb soccer as a spectator. I've been to pro, college, and high school matches, but to me they are all yawners. You have a bunch of people running around a field playing keep away with the ball. Once in a while they will lob the ball in front of the net hoping a defender will screw up so one of their players can get a free look at the net. This goes on for two hours, with about 30 seconds of good stuff, and in the end, woo hoo!.. the score is 1-nil. And the only thing good I can think to say to my friend is, "Your son certainly runs after that ball well." Sorry, not for me.

I have watched my son play competitive soccer for 8 years now and find consistency of officiating to be one of the biggest issues. As long as a referee calls the game the same way the whole game then the players have an expectation of what they can and can't do. It is referees who are not balanced in calling the game that frustrate the players and parents. Another problem with high school ball is that it is a step down from club ball and therefore you do not get the quality of play. This results in more physical play, less skill and more fouls. Change the times and pay the refs more, then you will get the better refs to the games. Hey, just one persons opinion.

I agree with "To Why?" about the basketball "fouling out" and soccer receiving two yellows and being ejected which also equates to missing the next game. I witnessed a game in playoffs last year where the referee announced that he had run out of fouls and yellow cards and preceeded to give automatic RED cards for minor infractions. He lost complete control of the game and it was reported as such in the newspaper. Our team did not go on, but the team that did had to face the next game minus two players that did not deserve to sit. Our coach even called and expressed concern about the game to the UHSAA about the cards that were given to the other team and the unfair impact it would have on them. I agree with moving the Varsity games later so that there are more soccer officials available would make a huge difference. The boys and parents are just as frustrated as the association with the issues. I believe they can be controlled better. I believe it would also help to have more UHSAA officials monitoring the referees at games on an unannounced basis.

The only consistency in officiating you can expect at the high school level is consistently poor. The funny thing is, it is consistently poor for both teams, so it becomes a non-factor. It is an interesting phenomena that parents and spectators can only see the poor calls made against their own team. Almost without exception, they are blind to the poor calls against the other team. So you accept it as part of the game and move on. Those who obsess about it will be forever shaking their heads in disbelief and denial.

Basically, poor officiating is a constant in all sports. That still doesn't answer the question as to why the higher level of unsportsmanship in soccer than other sports.

The UHSAAs decision to put soccer on probation is very disrespectful to those schools whose coaches and players are playing by the rules. As we all know, coaches, players and spectators get very frustrated at many of the decisions made by referees. In defense of soccer referees, having to make split-second decisions is not easy. When a referee has not had the best view of a particular incident, that task becomes even more difficult. If that referee does not have a great deal of experience as a player or referee to draw upon, we then have a recipe for disaster. However, that disaster is averted when coaches, players and spectators are able to show enough restraint to avoid dissenting behavior when poor decisions are made by referees. As coaches we need to keep encouraging our players and spectators (and ourselves) to stay calm and accept such decisions even when we are unfairly penalized as a result. When we fail to do so, the UHSAA is entitled to review the situation and hand out disciplinary measures where appropriate. That is straight forward enough. However, when unsportsmanlike behavior is deliberate, premeditated and cold-blooded ...

... when unsportsmanlike behavior is deliberate, premeditated and cold-blooded that is when the powers that be should get tough and impose significant disciplinary measures on that particular school. I know of one school whose coaches and players deliberately go out to play aggressively and intimidate opposing players. Their unsportsmanlike behavior has often resulted in their players being ejected. However, their poor disciplinary record has never been highlighted in the media. In one instance last year they were allowed to persuade an official to change his mind about a red-carded player AFTER the game so that the player could play in the next game, which he did. The previous year, that same schools coaches coached their players throughout the two-month dead time period when other coaches followed the rules and kept away from their players. They went on to win their region - much to the dismay of the other coaches in that region. That school has never been exposed for its blatant breaking of the rules. Come on UHSAA, punish the real culprits, those coaches and players who tarnish the good name of soccer.

The UHSAA needs to take a hard look at how the red card/ejections are being over done by the soccer officials. Been around rec, club and HS sports as a player, coach, ref, and dad (all 7 play soccer, football, basketball, wrestling, etc.)

Trained as a official to ignore remarks made in protest after a tough call unless verbally abusive and loud directed at me personally.

The only way to get ejected from other boys sports is to be physically abusive or be involved in fights or commit ecessive or flagrant fouls.

Soccer refs seem to be trained to look for trouble especially of a verbal nature and use the yellow and red cards too liberally for non physical abuse.

That's mainly why there are so many ejections in HS soccer.

In response to "News for you..." I believe that soccer officiating is worse in soccer because it is a relatively new sport (last 15 or so years competitively) in Utah and those that are officiating have not played. You can definitely tell the difference in officiating when the referee has played before. They know the game. In basketball, football, etc. They have referees that have played the sport more consistently and understand the game. I do not disagree that there is difficulty in all sports, but I believe Soccer is getting the reputation because the referees do not truly understand that game and the players to get frustrated because of the lack of consistency. I feel there isn't any higher level of unsportsmanship in soccer than other sports. There was not a brawl at any highschool soccer game I went to in the past three years, but there has been in both basketball and football. However, soccer gets the punishment. Cards are so much different in soccer than any other sport. Football infractions (late hit, unsportsmanlike contact) get 15 yards, soccer players get a red card and ejection from the current game and the next. Those are the differences.

Last year I had boys ejected from games for not getting up off the ground quickly enough, saying "whatever" to a ref, and two in a playoff game when the ref decided to "put away" his yellow card. A lot of the refs we get have never played the game and don't have a sense of when they are losing control until it is too late. Then they have to resort to cards to regain control. The good refs control the game with the whistle and very rarely resort to cards to keep control. Are there problems in high school soccer, yes, but most sportsmanship issues would disappear with a better pool of referees and a better understanding of the game. It used to be you had to throw a punch to get thrown out of a game. Now if you look at some referees wrong they will give you a card.

I feel the same way about basketball glorified keep away.

Thanks for the perspective, Soccer Dad. It sounds like UHSAA maybe is inexperienced with soccer and is misinterpreting all the ejections as serious misconduct when it maybe really isn't. Interesting.

Yes, to those who were always picked last on the playground as kids, basketball is "glorified keep away." That's why they have to settle with soccer. It's not so glorified, so they find it easier to succeed. They also like the fact that they get a free ride on a stretcher every time they take a dive or get kicked in the shin.

To all of you who said you've been playing for years and are still complaining about the lack of experience or quality of the ref's, step up and sign up to be an official! Sounds to me like you've got what it takes to serve your comunity!

These comments about refs may be true, but the bottom line is there are alot of good soccer, basketball, football, baseball ect former high school or college atheletes who wouldn't dare put on the stripes and call a game. The idea of civic duty doesn't even cross there minds. Look at a jazz game, the god fearing people who yell and swear at refs, then repent on the sabbath, unbelievable. Yes, the time frame is very tough for refs to make if the game is in the middle of the day. Just relax and enjoy the sport.