Letter to a soccer parent

I was surfing the web blogs for some new material and this letter caught my eye. I took the name of the individual that wrote it, but I back up every word that is written here:

"Dear Soccer Parent:

I meant to say something to you Saturday. There you were at Skypark in Scotts Valley, watching the 1:00 PM game on Field #3. I had just finishedworking a couple matches as a center referee on the adjacent field. I letmyself be in too much of a hurry-- trying to get on with my day, so we didn'tget a chance to chat.I think that the game you were watching was an Under 11 boys game. Thereferee had apparently award a penalty kick that was being taken at theopposite end of the field -- nearly 100 yards away from where you werestanding.The first thing that I noticed, even from that distance, was that the centerreferee on the match looked only five or six years older than the playersaround him. Unfortunately, that didn't surprise me. For all the parentsthat come out to watch a Saturday morning soccer game, very few get involvedwith officiating. These games are dependent on a relatively small poolofficials who receive a little bit of training and typically get assigned tothe highest level of soccer game that matches their experience. They don'tget every call right, but every one I've run into tries very hard to do so.I was thinking about the maturity of that young referee. He has to use hisbest judgment in a situation where a number of adults will disagree withhim. I can't imagine that would be a comfortable situation for any youngboy or girl. I could just imagine how tough that would be if that refereeknows any of the parents around that field, as a neighbor, or maybe even ateacher -- how difficult would that be! Maybe that's why for all therecruiting of young referees that gets done Santa Cruz County, there isstill a growing deficit of officials, meaning we lose a lot of new officialsand the remaining ones must work more and more games.Anyway, I'm disappointed in myself that I didn't come over for a word withyou. I hope the Positive Coaching Alliance hasn't had the opportunity to visityour club ­ because if they have, there's probably a team full of parentsembarrassed to be at the same game with you.By the way, the next time I hear you say, "Ref, you suck" to a human beinghalf your age, I'll stop by to let you know how gutless and pathetic youappear to me.

Signed....

The Referee

The american dream is dying.

I was once raised that you went to school, you got a good education, and you get a good paying job. Well I went to school, I never finished college, I have a decent job. I watched the cost of education rise in the community college level. I have to confess, I didn't go to the four year college and I was afraid to look and see what the cost per semester would be. I was afraid for what I would do, I would go, get a student loan, and be in massive debt.
In fact I did get into debt on a trade school student loan. After going to this school I didn't land a job in the field. It took 3 years and more schooling (this time on a full ride scholarship) and then I landed the job I trained for. I was still paying off my student loan and it took another 3 years for that. Oh it was for less than 10K but I also was deep in debt until I hit a small windfall.

That is when I read this article about a Chiropractor, just out of school, is working two jobs, less than 50K a year. I'm not putting down the power of education, but the cost of it is getting so high, I fear for my daughter to have a fighting chance.

Woman fined for peace wreath

If the neighbor nazis (home owners association) have nothing better to do, they can fine some poor woman for putting up a peace wreath.

What I am thankful for

I know thanksgiving weekend is over, but I think it should be a time of year to reflect what I am thankful for during the past year:

The top of my list is, I'm thankful I have a loving wife who has stood behind me, even when I haven't always deserved it.

I'm thankful my baby Gabriel has gone a year with no seizures as the docs predicted he would have. I'm thankful he has not gotten worse but better with him hearing better, seeing better, and he is off the oxygen. We even went on a 5 day trip without the tanks. Not because we forgot them. Because we truly felt he didn't need them. And he is weening off the Phenobarbital quite well.

I'm thankful that I have a beautiful daughter inside and out. Outside she is just a pretty girl, but inside, she is unselfish, loving, easy going, and loves her baby brother so much. I couldn't ask for a better daughter. Well she could score a goal or two, but that would just be gravy.

I'm thankful the soccer season is over and even through my U8 team didn't have the best record, they had the best heart.

I'm thankful I got my grade 5 and even more greatful I have the card stating I am a grade 5 before the 1996 year is over (a first). I know next year will be interesting, but it will not be as tough as this year. I'm futher more greatful I had several upper referees watching my back in more ways then one. I honestly can say, I could not have done it alone.

I'm thankful I'm financially comfortable dispite all the financial set backs we have had. I was able to take a vacation with my wife without worrying what it costed.

I'm thankful we got a vacation with just the two of us. Made us realize we need to do that more. I almost forgot how fun it was to hang out with my wife even when doing nothing but watching a Dr. Phil scam.

I'm thankful for the support my friend and family during the emotional hardship we had with Gabe's health in the beginning. Without them, I don't know how we would have gotten through half of the things we endured.

I'm thankful I have a great boss who I can come to for problems, solutiions, or ideas without feeling shot down, even when rejected.

Crossroads was fun to watch

Spent the good part of the day yesterday watching District 3's finest youth referees. I will tell you, the majority of the youths were the most appreciative that they had someone to watch them and tweak their refereeing skills to make them better. Saw two of those youths keep a cool head when confronted (non violently) by coaches.

After watching some of the games and talking with the locals, a Dublin referee was asking when Dublin referees would get some mentoring. I agree as I'm trying to offer my services to DUSL for referee training. My goal...get it so they would have a meeting on say every first Wednsday of each month starting from Aug to Nov. We'll see if that flies.

A relaxing getaway

My wife and I spent the last couple of days relaxing in Calistoga. It was my first time there and I let my wife do most of the steering. I did my very first mudd bath. That was an odd, but relaxing feeling. The only thing is you tend to wash mudd out in places I didn't think I had. Then we did a 50 minute massage. After the whole ordeal we didn't want much to do of anything so we relaxed until dinner time where we downed a few beers and ate good food and dessert. The night before we hit a nearby sushi bar.

When I got home, in the mail greeted me my packet which contained my 2007 badge and grade 5 card. No more waiting for the paperwork to either complete or slip through the cracks.

Wednsaday night I had dinner at the Radsison. It was nice and I got to sit with the Mayor of Danville and of course her hubby Tony.

MLS cup 2006 analysis of the Referee

In the first 8 minutes there was a miscommunication with the AR prematurely bring up the flag and then a advantage take back after 3 seconds of the foul.

More mentioning on how Kinnear emulates Yallop's style. Will Dom ever be his own man?

11th min DeRosario is fouled.
12th Reis having a good game despite the sun in his eyes.
16th minute. Franchino gets a card for a late tackle on Mullen. Ref again showed late call, waiting to see if an advantage materialized.
Seruioux did a risky tackle in the 18th minute. No call in the box. Nice no call.
So far so good for the referee.
23rd minute Davis gets a card for a late tackle on Heaps.
Announcers mention how Twellmen has been having a difficult year in soccer and personal life. For the record, I believe Thelma should have been picked for the US National team. He was also passed over for
24th minute. Great save by Onstad from a great shot by Twellmen
32nd minute. Joseph took a love tap to Davis after Davis fouled him. Nothing done. Davis already has a card.
33rd. Chastain wanted to know if Dempsey will play. Nicohol said he does
DeRosario took a hard hit from behind. No call. DeRosario is pissed off.
35th minute. If soccer were like Texas Hold em, Dynamo started off with a chip lead but NE took it from them. Nobody is out yet though.
38th minute, the announcers love to make it a point for the 3rd time that Ricardo Clark is out due to a yellow card suspension.

39th Great save by Reis by DeRosario.
40th This is a goal keepers game as both keepers are coming up big.
41th Bloody hell!!! Danglish is not making any waves last the conf championship.
42th Joseph's getting fouled. May me a matter of time that someone gets a card for a PI
43rd. Heaps commits the foul. Heaps holds up the ball to delay the restart. No card. Didn't the referee read the same memorandum as the rest of us?
45th minute. Two players take each other out off the ball and the referee saw it because he raised his arm to it, but no call. Nobody is making a thing of it.
1 minute of stoppage
I fail to understand why referees have to wait until the ball is in play until the whistle for half time.
Half time stuff…

They showed Brian Ching's goal of the year and I have to say I did vote for him. This year was a tough choice, they thought Deosario would get it because he scored 50 yards from the line. Truth is the keeper's position or lack of helped him. Where Ching's goal was all skill and a lot less luck.
Day Break series premier sounds good.
So Don Garber stating they want to have one player per team without a salary cap. They are scoping on Beckham. Basically were looking at Bawling like Beckham the sequel. Also looks like it's going to be a lopsided season next year as Toronto is going to be the only ones coming in the fold. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I want to see more teams. Don't get me wrong. I just hate so see a lopsided number. What happened to Seattle? Or San Jose?

Have a mention how much I despise Bruce Arena. He's a prime example of a great leader gone bad. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

47th minute. Referee got too close to play. Got hit with the ball. Life goes on. Side note. Bruce is criticizing Dom's line up. Bruce, I screw up at the world cup, is criticizing Dom. Bite me Arena!

50th minute. Smart coaching by Dom. Cut off the interview to watch the game. There was one interview when Lorrie Fair
51st Another Delayed call by the referee. He is consistent. If you read Bob Evans' blog, you would understand why the scrutiny.
53rd minute. Fanchno's day is done as Smith takes over.
55th minute tough call
Not that I am one to talk and I', probably late in the game, but what the hell is with Dynamo players and beards?
58th minute. Bruce finally admits he doesn't always make grear decisions. Wow it took him 5 months to admit that.
61st minute. Dempsey is coming in. Is this a smart move by the coach or just giving the fans what they want?
63rd minute. Cochron caught the announcers attention with a good reading. Not much has been said about him. Did you know he played for the Sounders which won the A league championships? He was a major factor in that game. Also, coincidently, was the day my son was born.
68th minute…Let the players play Arena said. Thanks guys. Give Arena the floor to bitch about the referees in the world cup.
71st minute Dempsey proves how deadly he can be unmarked.
84th minute. Moreno gets an elbow by A. John. No red? This is gonna get ugly.
89th minute. Very slow foul by Mullen. Starting to see a bunch of aggressive, but clumsy fouls
One minute of stoppage time.
Had to feed the baby so I couldn't get into the analysys except Mullen has been fouling enough to get close to a PI.

2nd half OT
Twellman does a nice placement in the corner and then Ching answer less then a minute later with a goal of his own.

PK's This is what I call a goalkeeper's game. Reis guessed right and made the effort, but only saved Davis' Despite the stats of Reis getting more practice, Onstad's average was better and proved it.


In short since this is for the referee's while I'm not impressed with his history, he did a decent job in refereeing. He didn't do a great job. I felt he missed that elbow in the face. But take that out he did a good job.

On a winning streak.

Finally took up my local comic book shop owner's invite and played a tournament with regulars who usually place poker when I arrive. Basically mopped the floor with them all. All in a day's work.

So you want volunteers, eh?

Last night I went to my local soccer BOD meeting. Reason, my team had not one but two women who stepped up (that's an understatement) to be team moms. Both of them for what tasks they took on, did an awesome job. In all my years (not many but a handful) as a coach, I've had team mom's do a good job and some that did the minimum. These two really out did themselves. Where am I going with this? It is noted that there is an unwritten rule that states there is one team mom per team. The board was willing to vote that they could split the work deposit. To their defense, and I have to admit this is sound, they start doing that, then they would do it for all parents. Of course this is where a written rule should be allow.

Next week I'm going to do something I never done before. I'm going up to Calistoga with my wife. She's been dying to do this. I thought of Cache Creek, but one, it's expensive, and two we all know why I would be interested in going. The gambling of course. They even have Texas hold em. Problem is if I'm the one gambling, then were not really spending the quality time we should be and it's her turn, so my eyes are wide shut and I'm just going to try a new experience. Although after what Paula told me about the mud bath (the aftermath) I think I'll stick with the mineral. Perhaps some wine tasting will be in order. I love wine tasting.

Birth of the Joker

In case you wondered.
This little movie clip did a pretty good job explaining it.

Blog may be a bit slow for a while

I have decided I am going to take the entire High School Season off. This may include State Cup and Association Cup. My knee isn't going to get any better if I don't start taking care of it. I also want to train when it does get better so in the early spring I will be ready for whatever soccer throws at me.

Still reeling over my poker winnings. My wife tells me I seem to have an obsession with one player whom we seem to go back and forth. He was won the last one, and now I won this one and he was knocked out so bad that he didn't even take any money home. He usually does, even if it's just a buy in. Me? 95% of the time I at least broke even if not made a profit. At home, I have always made money, which I went in just not caring if I won or not so some other people would have the chance. Yet this round I seem to have taken out many of the heavy hitters this time.

A closing season, big pots, and going out with a bang

I open the post by announcing the end of the U8 Cheetah girl's season. No, it wasn't like U6 where we dominated most games, but for the ones we took in with no soccer playing experience and developed them into playing machines. Hopefully we get the same teams. We ended with great coaches gift as we got rolling duffel bags. I mean these were awesome and it has "Coach Giancarlo" on it. How cool is that?

At night we had my quarterly texas holdem tournament. Was hoping for 16 players but with 2 last minute bail outs and one last minute add on, we had 15 players which made it so we could have 4 places. We also had a loser table which made it so one more person could walk away with profits. Well I opened the first hand on my table with an all-in after I raised. I was looking to just take the pot that was already out there. Marty raised me. Basically a big mistake, because I decided to go all-in. Pablo called me and everyone else folded so one person was going to be eliminated. Cards are turned and I have pocket Aces. Pablo has pocket Jacks. What this means is the best chance for Pablo was to get another Jack without me getting an Ace. Neither one of us hit our cards so I won by default and Pablo lasted 25 seconds according to him. It left me in a good spot because all I did was snipe the rest of the game. When the table was consolidated, Denny had major chips as well as my cousin Danny. I was beginning to think I was short stacked. I managed to slow play my way up to a point where I was a threat again. Long story short, I took out Denny and a few hands later I took out Dan.

Today I had an U17 Boys match. Last game of the season. it was Dublin and Livermore. I knew they were going to play hard being the last game of the season and I had a feeling that they didn't think the red cards would follow them into Association Cup or the following season. For the first 10 minutes they were feeling each other out. Probably feeling me out, but I did call some fouls and already started to talk to Dublin regarding shirt pulls. In the 15th minute, two challenge for the ball. Ball is passed ahead to a Dublin player and then a Dublin player off the ball pushes a Livermore player down to make sure he doesn't get up. Which was a real stupid play because Dublin had a nice break away. I called it back and issued the first caution of the match. I was hoping that would give them the clue, I was not going to put up with any nonsense. I was wrong. 4 minutes later I had a Livermore player go in for a tackle from behind with the studs up, hitting the back of the leg. My red card was out before the Dublin player could say "ouch!" I was hoping that would send a message. I hear this old farts saying, "You need to get something back for the card." I was hoping to get a better behaved game. Well for the most part I got that from Livermore. I only booked a couple more players on their side for delayed restart and taunting. Dublin I had to issue cards in spades. A little delayed restart here, a UB there, and a Dissent here. The coach of Dublin was good to pull them out when I book them. I did even the teams in the second half when I sent a Dublin player off for a DOGSO and called a PK. When I approached him after calling the PK, he looked up and said, "Sorry." before I could get my red card out. He didn't dispute it. Neither did the others. Keeper asked me if it was for the tackling from behind. I said, "No. It was for DOGSO because the fact he was in the goal area when it happened and there was nobody between the attacker and the goal except you." Keeper accepted it graciously. After that I had a taunting, a few delayed restarts where the ball was kicked away after the call, and a player who picked up the ball after the foul to keep the other team from restarting. After the 8th caution the last 15 minutes were good and I had both behaving themselves. I usually don't listen to people after the game, but I use it sometimes to grade my performance. Both teams I got excellent game from both sides. Coaches didn't say anything negative. I had numerous spectators say it was a tough, but fair game.

Life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness

You have this right under the US constitution and in my Political Science class back in college, my teacher who's name escapes me now, said it best. You have these rights as long as they do not infrindge on other people's rights. So when that jackass Bush decided to sign the bill stating online gambling is illegal because we need it to protect us from ourselves, it pure bullshit. Hey I pay my taxes like the next guy. As my cousin and I were talking he said, "Pave the roads, have the police out to protect us, and keep my house from burning, but don't tell me what to do with my money."

If you read the hyperlink above it tells about a lady who gambled 70,000 online. Now that is someone who has a problem. However, guys like me who are to put 50 bucks in and hope for the best, well, leave us alone. Before this law passed, the banks would not approve our credit card purchases to gamble. At first I was pissed, but in that sense, they need to do that so they don't wind up eating 70,000 when the tab comes but the consumer can't even make a monthly payment. But to wire transfer from my bank with my own money is my damn business. I don't need some jackass in the white house to screw with how I do my funds.

I do know when it comes to voting, I will not vote for politicians. I will vote for measures because those affect us. I won't vote for people like Arnold who signed on as a democrat, but is a republican by heart. In fact those parties mean less each year and if it is miserable, why even call it a party?