US Youth Soccer Regional Tournament Reporting!

Hi all!  My name is Marc and you can find me taking over the Kicking Back blog over the next couple of days whilst I blog about the shenanigans experiences of the Massachusetts Referee Delegation at the US Youth Soccer Region 1 President's Cup.  Perhaps you'll learn something or be mildly amused by reading this (hopefully both!).

For those of you who don’t know, the President's Cup was created by US Youth Soccer as a “mid-level competition for those looking to play against teams of similar abilities for a National Championship Title" Don’t be fooled by ‘mid-level’ though, it’s a big deal!  At least so I’m told...  We'll find out!

Full disclosure, this will be my first regional event, so I’m definitely new at this, I intend to share my experiences and observations, however entertaining/dull/boring/fascinating they may be. :-)

The crew this morning met at Boston Logan bright and early.  I’m not certain whose idea it was to take the 6:30 AM flight, but nevertheless we all made it on time and had no hiccups through security or at check in.  Upon arrival in Pittsburgh, we stopped by Pittsburgh's famous "Luca's Diner" for a hearty breakfast.  After all, you cannot referee on an empty stomach!

After a short drive north, we ended up at Slippery Rock, PA and checked into our dorm rooms at the aptly named Slippy Rock University.  While we are relaxing now prior to dinner and our evening meetings, you can definitely feel a positive buzz of excitement amongst the delegation.  All 10 referees (and our Head of Delegation and Assessor) are ready to hit the ground running tomorrow.  Hopefully we'll have many great stories to report!

I intend to keep you updated on what is going throughout the weekend, but in addition to that some of the referees and myself will be tweeting and instagramming about the event using the hashtags #MassTourneyRefs and #MassRegionalRefs.  Also make sure to follow @MA_Referees over on Twitter throughout the tournament season! 

For Immediate Release: Northeast Regional FUTSAL Tournament

Once again Massachusetts is host to the largest futsal tournament in the US with over 150 teams!!!

On January 18, 19, and 20 2014 the Northeast Regional Futsal tournament will be held at University Sports Complex in Hanover (645 Washington St, Hanover, MA 02339).

Matches will start at 8:00 am and finish by 9:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday. 
Monday will be the finals.

Check here for updates!!

In the mean time to see some amazing futsal action, take a look below.

Massachusetts selections to the 2013 Region I Championship Tournament

** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FROM THE MSRC ***

With special thanks to the Massachusetts State Referee Committee, and SYRA Brian Treanor, I am pleased to relay the last of three announcements appointing referees to the 2013 series of Regional tournaments for Massachusetts!

The final tournament to be announced is the preeminent event for teams and referees in Region I. The Region I Championships bring together the winners of the State Cup tournaments held throughout the 15 state region consisting of state associations from Maine to Virginia. The teams at this tournament are vying for the title of Region I Champion which earns them the right to compete at the US Youth Soccer National Championships in Overland Park, Kansas. Referees attending the regional tournaments must be at the top of the youth soccer ranks. This 5 day tournament is a demanding journey that tests a referee's fitness, endurance, refereeing ability, and the ability to acquit themselves well off the field. Referees who do well at "Regionals" may be selected to work as a Referee or Assistant Referee at the 2013 US Youth Soccer National Championships.

Without further delay, here are the members of this year's delegation:

Referees:
Thomas Belanger 

Anthony Brossi
Erin Cappellucci
Jordan Cavaco
Nikolas Coelho
Nathanael Dewhurst
Nicholas Grimard
Scott McGrail
Ian McKay
Max Perkins
Eric Schreiber
Igor Senic
Kristin Sundberg 

Assessors:
William Carey 

Elie Nassif
Ed Rae 

Alternates:
Alex White 
Karl Sundberg
Alex Fusco

Brian Treanor will be leading the delegation once again this year as the head of delegation without a role as referee or assessor.

Massachusetts selections to the 2013 President's Cup

** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FROM THE MSRC ***

With special thanks to the Massachusetts State Referee Committee, and SYRA Brian Treanor, I am pleased to relay the first of three announcements appointing referees to the 2013 series of Regional tournaments for Massachusetts!  

The first tournament to be announced will be the Region I President's Cup Championships.  The President's Cup is a national tournament which allows teams from all across the country to compete for a national title.  All 50 states have President's Cup play in games.   Those play in games then lead to Regional President's Cup competitions and the regional winners all meet at the US Youth Soccer President's Cup National Championships.  It is a high honor for a referee to be selected to represent his or her state at these prestigious Regional events.

I am pleased to announce that this year's Massachusetts referee/assessor delegation to the 2013 Region I President's Cup Championships will be:

Erin Cappellucci

Nikolas Coelho

Nicholas Grimard

Nicholas Karnovsky

Max Perkins

Corey Samuelson

Karl Sundberg

Joseph Welsby

Alternates:

Bradley Weitzel

Fouad Madkour

Mello Barros

The Massachusetts assessor for this year's event will be Boris Senic Sr.

Congratulations to all on this significant milestone in your refereeing and assessing career!

2013 Northeast Regional Futsal Championships

It's that time again, Futsal Championship time!

Last year I attended and wrote about the 2012 Northeast Regional Futsal Championships, which I likened to finding buried treasure in my backyard.

Well folks, we have that opportunity again.

The 2013 Futsal Regional Tournament will be from January 19th to the 21st at 675 Canton Street, Norwood MA 02062.

It promises to have something for everyone. Great Futsal, great officiating, and just a ton of fun. There will be  (50) or so Futsal referees from Massachusetts, (2) FIFA FUTSAL referees and the (as in the only one) FIFA FUTSAL Referee Instructor. A rare take for all.

All 204 games will be played in a single facility from 7:00am to 10:00pm on 19th and 20th . Semi finals and the Finals are Monday the 22nd from 7:00am to 4:00pm.

Come take a look, it promises to be an excellent tournament. Look here, for more information.

More on Key Findings from USASA tournament

In a recent post, I gave several bullet points that were the key findings and observations from a recent high level amateur tournament.  (See Kicking Back, June 25, 2012)  Here is a broader explanation of some of these points and more importantly, what the assembled assessors were looking for:

• Overall read of the game was lacking - Referees were struggling with anticipating the play and what was going to happen next.  This effected everything from their positioning to what fouls were called to the ability to deal with more serious incidents as they occurred.  If referees could not anticipate the play, they were often left playing catch-up in their managing the game.  They were reacting to things instead of preventing them.

• No urgency in movement and action when the game required, and an inability to read the warning signs and lend a presence to the situation - Somewhat related to the above, but specific to the more serious incidents that needed attention, referees were not showing the ability to 'smell out' and get to the spot of trouble.  Ideally the referee anticipates when the problems may occur and gets there ahead of time, but in these games some referees were not even recognizing the problems after they happened!

• Effort level and an inability to sprint as needed for 90 minutes - To be clear, referees do not need to sprint for 90 minutes.  But they do need to be able to sprint in the 90th minute!  Climate did not play a part, as the temperature was low 70s.  It is also worth noting that no referee worked more than two games on each day, and had plenty of rest time in between assignments. 

• Dealing with serious challenges the first time they occur - Referees were often seeing serious challenges and allowing them to go unchecked.  Players became emboldened and the level of violence often escalated and/or retaliation was seen.  This left referees having to pull a game back under their control, and few were capable of doing so once the horse had left the barn.

• The referee's personality (response) often did not match the situation, and/or referee's body language sent the wrong message - Referees need to think more about the messages they send with facial expressions, arm position, posture, even tone of voice.  Referees were often seen to be issuing serious warnings with smiles on their faces, or scowling at players when only a gentle prodding was needed.  (The suggestion was made to have a friend video-tape a referee in action.)

• Foul recognition and foul selection was below par - This was most surprising given the experience of the referees at this event, but there was a lot of unevenness to what was called and what was let go, even within the same game.  Where this most became an issue was in games involving teams of totally different styles and sizes, such as a predominantly African team playing a team comprised of Northern Europeans.  Referees struggled to recognize the tactics and reach an acceptable level of foul recognition.  

Granted the standards were high for this event, but these are the expectations for referees wishing to work in the professional leagues.  In a future post I will discuss some of the suggestions for fixing these problems.