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| Soccer officials could be given the boot By Mark Foyer [ markf@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Friday, March 5, 2010 4:31 PM PST Every year, the Peninsula Athletic League soccer coaches hold a postseason evaluation at which they complain about the officials. Most of the complaints deal with the officials’ inability to move quickly up and down the field. This year, PAL commissioner Terry Stogner asked the coaches to send him their complaints. Only a minority of coaches responded, but the results startled many. The complaints were more than just the ability of the officials to keep up with the game. The complaints ranged from the mild, like showing up at the wrong field, to not knowing that the halves are 40 minutes, to the extreme. Some questioned the professionalism of some officials. At the end of the night, both groups voted by a wide majority to authorize Stogner to leave the current association, North American Sports Management, and find another group of officials. The association showing the most interest in taking over is Peninsula Sports, Inc. Chris Miller, the assigner for North American Sports Management, admits that officials will make mistakes. He says they are only human. “It’s not because we are old or can’t keep up,” Miller said. He blames most of the problems on the league’s coaches, and their inability to control the players. He pointed to Westmoor, Mills, Hillsdale and Half Moon Bay as four programs where the coaches are making an effort to control the players. The first three schools received a combined four yellow cards for sportsmanship issues this year. Though Half Moon Bay’s boys’ team received three yellow cards and had two players ejected, Miller said he heard how hard coach Victor Mederos worked to control the players. Stogner will report the vote to both the league’s athletic directors and board of managers at their regularly scheduled spring meetings next month. The board of managers, consisting of the school’s administrators, will make the final call. Some of the league’s coaches said that a majority of the officials do a good job running the game. “There are a few I had problems with,” said Andy Hodzic, the boys’ coach at Hillsdale. “But all of them try hard.” However, some administrators have issues with the officials. The PAL almost went to the Peninsula Sports, Inc. group several years ago. But the assigning fee of $200 per team ($800 for schools that offer both varsity and frosh-soph teams for both genders) scared many away. Now, though the assigning fee is still there, some say they will work around it. “It’s getting to a point where it’s becoming dangerous,” said Aragon Athletic Director Steve Sell. “If a new association can make the sport safer, it could be worth it.” Sell made his comments while watching the Dons host Willow Glen in an opening-round Central Coast Section playoff game last week. However, he saw that the officials may be just part of the problem. While Sell shared concerns about the officials, he was just as shocked with the behavior by players of both squads. The worst he saw was the disrespect the players showed toward the officials. Sell, the Dons’ current head football coach, played football, baseball and basketball at Aragon when he was a student there 25 years ago. “I know a lot of football coaches that would not let the players talk to the officials like they do in soccer,” Sell said. This year, officials in the league issued 25 red card ejections for sportsmanship. It’s the most in Stogner’s five years as commissioner, and the most since 30 were issued in the 2003-04 season. The problem of poor sportsmanship is section-wide. Officials have issued more than 200 red cards in the CCS this year. “Most of the problems can be pointed to the coaches and their philosophies,” said Terry Pipp, Half Moon Bay’s boys’ frosh-soph coach. “But on the other hand, poor officiating will take kids out of the game.” “The section commissioner wishes they could only use us for the playoffs,” Miller said. “They have never had any problems with us.” With school budgets being squeezed more each year, the PAL might still stick with Miller’s group. “But if the PAL wants to go elsewhere, I will be fine with it,” Miller said. |