My letter below - to the Berkshire County Youth Soccer League commissioner and head of referees - ended up being longer than I had wanted.
If you get 10-15 minutes to spare, I encourage you to read it.
It is really my goal for our players, coaches and parents to be a role models of sportsmanship, teamwork, and positive support. (Our players will carry this forward in so many parts of their lives.)
In the face of inspiring efforts by both our teams over the weekend, two things really disappointed me.
First is that one of our players got injured. Our best wishes are with Crista on a fast recovery (broken wrist) so she can hopefully rejoin us later in the fall season.
Second is that I violated the zero tolerance policy - and directly vented my anger and frustration toward the referees - for all my players to see.
That will not happen again. I am a referee myself and know how difficult the job is. It is critically important that all our players and parents fully respect the imperfect decisions of the officials.
I describe below how I will act in the future if the competition has become unsafe in my judgment.
As hard as it can be when we get engulfed in the emotion of a game, I ask that parents please support me on this - and make a very concerted effort to refrain from any comments toward/about the officiating or our opponents.
Coach Pete
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: PK Lopez <thelpz@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 11:52 AM
Subject: U14 girls season
To: .....
Good morning.
From: PK Lopez <thelpz@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 11:52 AM
Subject: U14 girls season
To: .....
Good morning.
Just wanted to drop a short note as we all think thru the upcoming BCYSL season and the importance of refereeing. I realize you don't have authority for the BKC tourney.
I woke up this morning with this urge to dedicate much more time in my U14 girls practices to strength work ... upper body, abs, legs.
But this will come at the expense of having the ball at their feet - getting them to love the game itself. (I fully appreciate the importance of fitness and strength as a part of fitness.)
Why?
Yesterday - on the scoreboard - we won the Berkshire Kickoff Classic. But - in reality - I feel we may have actually lost the most.
First, I have one player whose season likely ended after only 3 games with a broken wrist. So I failed as a coach to keep my players safe.
Second, I have 8-9 players that learned in self-defense that body slamming during and after a play was allowed yesterday. I will correct this (which goes to my urge to do more strength work and teach how to be stronger but fair.)
And despite my experience as a player, coach, and official, I felt somewhat powerless to make the right adjustments to keep everyone safe yesterday.
We had ended up playing 120 minutes of 0-0 soccer across two games versus a very athletic Dalton team ... and we ended up winning the tournament on penalty kicks.
Our player's season ended in the 2nd half of Sunday's first game.
It was a full speed, hard challenge where the opposing player went for both ball and body to negate a breakaway. A foul was called as the player missed the ball but got the body. As I came on the field to attend to my player, I shook my head and held two fingers up to ref and said "there were at least two previous challenges that went un-cautioned" and created the environment for this injury. Probably our most athletic and technical player, this player was in obvious pain and went directly to the medic tent and then to the hospital - as we finished the game.
All our 12 and 13-year-old girls were shaken at the end. We told them their teammate would be well cared for. But you can only imagine how a girl that age processes these things.
As a team, we are small but fairly technically/tactically sound for this age group. That first game itself was a tale of two halves. The first half we were allowed to play and created many chances. The game became much more physical and athletic in the 2nd half with our opponent effectively suffocating us. I'm not against hard play particularly if you have a more athletic team - but I felt like repeated fouls should be cautioned otherwise an unfair dynamic develops. Our girls began subtly backing off.
My focus with my team post-game was on using the experience to become a better team. There can be a strong physical element to the game depending on our opponent and the officiating. We can adjust and still play the game in a fair, sportsmanlike way. When we learned we would meet again in the afternoon, we knew we would physically tested again.
Knowing most of referees, I spoke briefly with the crew pre-game and described the fact that we lost a player to a broken wrist in the first game. My main point was that I just didn't want another.
Unfortunately, the game picked up right where the first one left off - maybe even more amplified since it was the tournament final.
At halftime, I spoke to the lead referee and asked him to call more fouls on both teams. I reinforced my pre-game point. But actually the second game was more physical than the first.
At one point, where one of my players clearly fouled an opposing player 10 yards in front of me with no call made, I violated the zero tolerance policy and louded stated "THAT IS A FOUL ON MY PLAYER ... PLEASE CALL IT!".
Five minutes later, when one of my players got tripped/shoved five yards in front of our bench, I frustratingly said "DO THE REFEREES IN THIS TOURNAMENT CARRY ANY CARDS?!". At this same time, my assistant coaches began speaking directly to the opposing player who we perceived to have had many repeated hard fouls. All three of these incidents were poor reactions from me and my coaches and against policy. To a large extent, they were out of frustration of feeling powerless to protect our players - but they still were not justified.
I will apologize to the tournament for my behavior and our coaching team, and we will strive to be role models in all situations going forward. I have decided myself that if repeated hard fouls are not being addressed by the officiating crew in future competitions - and I feel the competition has become unsafe - I will ask for a timeout to discuss with the head ref and opposing coach. If the unsafe environment continues in my judgement, I will then pull my team from the field and forfeit the game.
For those that know me well, they know that winning is completely secondary to using the game to grow/develop our girls on and off the field - as players and as people. And while we want to continually challenge our players to the next level, safety is our primary concern. This is where I completely failed this weekend.
I appreciate you taking the time to read this note. Accidents do happen. But I sincerely hope for a safe, challenging, and fun environment created by coaches, officials, parents, and players throughout the fall season.
Pete Lopez
Berkshire Hills U-14 Girls Coach
