Life's Not Fair!

The tournament this past wekend was great. The weather was exceptional for most of the tournament. The volunteers were great, the fields were in outstanding condition, and the officials ran everything well.

Like any sporting event though, I've heard near endless complaints from other coaches about the game officiating. I don't mean constructive criticism, that's another thing entirely. What I'm talking about is just plain griping and complaining, "They should have called a hand ball! That was a foul! I can't believe they didn't see that!" And to be honest, I'm sick of it. You have to know going in, that mistakes will take place in a game. Side out balls will be called for the wrong team, penalties won't be called, some non-penalties will be called, etc. etc. You just have to hope that a close game won't be decided on a close call or a mistake. Sometimes they are and sometimes bad calls decide games. To all that I have 3 words,"Get over it!" These are simply things that you have no control over. You have to pickup your psyche and go on, otherwise it will prove debilitating.

To me, a coach that constantly berates officials is not only setting a bad example, he is doing his team a disservice and setting them up for failure. For every aspect of the game that you don't have control over, there are 10 to20 more that you can control. When a coach focuses all his attentionon on the referees, he is basically communicating to his team that they have little or no control over the game. Players quit focusing on what they need to do to improve and begin blaming the refs for throwing the game. After all, if you can't control something then why even try?

The fact is, referees love the game as much as the coaches and players. After all, what would motivate someone to want to become a refereein the first place? They certainly don't do it for the money or the accolades. there is little of either. They simply love the game enough to serve and do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Most of the time, they do a excellent job. I'm not saying that they are perfect and neither would they (well, most of them anyway). What I am saying is that we need to realize that we couldn't have games without them. And agree with them or not, at the end of the game, we need to thank them for their service. Not only does it set the right example for our kids, it helps us to focus on what we can control and work on improving ourselves. We can all start by being grateful for the unheralded service and sacrifice of others so we can play and enjoy a game.