Junior/Youth A pleasant surprise

[DaveMac]

U12 blue v orange. Orange is good, really good. Has a shot and its blocked, regains the ball and is tripped from behind by blue 21. I take a moment then blow, penalty all day long. Blue 21 then shouts over to me "YOU MUST BE JOKING REF." At the same time he also kicks the ball over to me much harder than he needed to. Now if he'd done one or the other I'd have given him a good talking to, but the shout and kicking I bust you the yellow card.

After the game the blue manager asks me what he said and what the yellow was for. I tell him, expecting the usual moan they are only kids. Surprisingly he says to me "make sure you put the yellow through properly, its the only way he'll learn." I was genuinely stunned. Then I'm at my car getting my boots off and the blue 21 comes running over, shakes my hand and apologised for what he said. Really made my day.

 

[Brian Hamilton]

U12 blue v orange. Orange is good, really good. Has a shot and its blocked, regains the ball and is tripped from behind by blue 21. I take a moment then blow, penalty all day long. Blue 21 then shouts over to me "YOU MUST BE JOKING REF." At the same time he also kicks the ball over to me much harder than he needed to. Now if he'd done one or the other I'd have given him a good talking to, but the shout and kicking I bust you the yellow card.

After the game the blue manager asks me what he said and what the yellow was for. I tell him, expecting the usual moan they are only kids. Surprisingly he says to me "make sure you put the yellow through properly, its the only way he'll learn." I was genuinely stunned. Then I'm at my car getting my boots off and the blue 21 comes running over, shakes my hand and apologised for what he said. Really made my day.

There's plenty of decent ones out there. We just have to find them.

 

[DaveMac]

The orange manager was also great, lots of positive words for the blue players during the game as well as his own. Was really nice to see.

 

[Beezer]

U12 blue v orange. Orange is good, really good. Has a shot and its blocked, regains the ball and is tripped from behind by blue 21. I take a moment then blow, penalty all day long. Blue 21 then shouts over to me "YOU MUST BE JOKING REF." At the same time he also kicks the ball over to me much harder than he needed to. Now if he'd done one or the other I'd have given him a good talking to, but the shout and kicking I bust you the yellow card.

After the game the blue manager asks me what he said and what the yellow was for. I tell him, expecting the usual moan they are only kids. Surprisingly he says to me "make sure you put the yellow through properly, its the only way he'll learn." I was genuinely stunned. Then I'm at my car getting my boots off and the blue 21 comes running over, shakes my hand and apologised for what he said. Really made my day.

Dave next time ......yellow for the trip another for the Dissent and the manager might get you a drink in the bar ?

 

[HullRef]

The orange manager was also great, lots of positive words for the blue players during the game as well as his own. Was really nice to see.

If this was the case Dave it might be worth writing an email to the league secretary/chairman/respect officer (whoever it applies to). Junior leagues love to hear good respect stories like this, instead of the usual mound of bad reports that they have to sift through. I've done it before and the league made a fairly big deal of it and put it on their website and twitter account.

 

[drahc]

Great suggestion HullRef. Put the smile on your face Dave, onto the manager as well.

 

[Matthew]

Always great to read things like this. There are some genuinely fantastic people in football, it's such a shame that they often get lost amongst the nonsense we all have to deal with on a weekly basis.

I had something similar to this yesterday. Close offside call that the attacker was moaning about, the response of his teammate made me smile; "Are you a ref?" "errrmmm, no..." "do you know the offside rule" "errmmm, no..." "then shut up and let the ref do his job" Couldn't have put it better myself!!

 

[Anthony]

I try to make a point of letting the local ref's secretary know about decent sides as all they normally hear is the bad news. Unfortunately this has not resulted in many emails to him over the years.

 

[Yacinho]

I'm always shocked to see you guys getting abused by 11yo

 

[Beezer]

I'm always shocked to see you guys getting abused by 11yo

I have never really indulged in kids football but on the odd occasion i have if they open thier mouth in sarcasm or dissent my tolerance level is zero with kids !

A yellow card is much better than walking over and slapping them round the head for trying to be a smart arse In front of thier pals !!

 

[Yacinho]

The lowest age I ever reffed in is U15, so 13-14yo boys, and at that level had close to zero dissent ever, needless to say that I'm five hundred miles to imagine one of them talking straight to me like that ("you must be joking ref !") and throwing balls, so talking about 11yo doing it is shocking to me .

 

[Beezer]

The lowest age I ever reffed in is U15, so 13-14yo boys, and at that level had close to zero dissent ever, needless to say that I'm five hundred miles to imagine one of them talking straight to me like that ("you must be joking ref !") and throwing balls, so talking about 11yo doing it is shocking to me .

I dont really think the UK problem with dissenting children lies with the the kids the problem is the parents trying to live their dead dreams through them ! The amount of abuse i have witnessed young referees get from parents over the years is shocking !

Bearing in mind some of these referees are only kids themselves !

I think if parents were to watch a recording of themselves during a game they would be shocked and rather embarrased at thier behaviour

 

[Beezer]

And the young kid on the pitch hear their mums and dads shouting at the ref and copy the level of respect being shown