Hello again. I know it has been a long time since my last post and for that I apologize. Part of it is that I just haven't had much to write about; there is no club soccer in the spring in South Carolina, save U-13 and U-14.
Recently, however, I have made some decisions on some reffing related trips. The first is Memorial Day Weekend. Last year my wife and I decided to travel North for the holiday to her parent's place. The main reason I suggested the trip was for me to referee a large tournament - The Dayton Warrior Classic. She would get to see her parents (and I didn't have too - just kidding honey!) and I would get to ref and get paid for the trip.
It was such a good experience we decided to do it again. It's about an 8 hour trip by car but I think it will be well worth it. The tournament is well run from a referee perspective. The games were on time, they worked in games off (I was on a 4-man rotating crew both days), there were plenty of cold beverages to re-hydrate, lots of food, marshals who actually help, and the money was brought to you in cash via envelope before every game in denominations easily divisible between the crew.
Last year I got to work with three state referees from Ohio North. I did 6 U-16 boys games on Saturday and 3 U-17 boys games on Sunday with them. Sunday night I had the middle on the U-18 final, originally scheduled as the semi-final but somehow turned into a final.
I'm very excited to be working this tournament again and will hopefully have a similar experience to last year. The second decision was much harder to make. Having recently had a child I was thinking that I probably would not go to regionals this year, in an effort to help out my wife. However, she gave me the 'ok' to sign up and now it looks like I'm off to Tennessee for my second regionals experience.
This is a huge honor for me, one for which I am very grateful. Last year was a great event in Baton Rouge, LA. It was a great learning experience and a chance to rub shoulders with some great referees. I am also excited for this year's trip. The games are going to be good, for sure, the instruction will be top class and the times spent with other referees will be memorable.
While preparing for both of these events I am focusing on my fitness and my knowledge of the Advice to Referees handbook. I have long loathed running; if there is not a ball involved I do not care to run. I'm glad my wife likes to run with me so that we can train together. We've been running lately and my goal is to be able to run 8 miles straight by mid-June, around regionals. We're running just about every day with longer runs on the weekend. Also, I just came across a workout in Muscle and Fitness magazine called the "Metabolic workout", also referred to as EPOC. The theory is to do different tasks in quick succession creating a lack of oxygen so that your body goes into your fat stores for the oxygen it needs. Hopefully I can shed few lbs by the time regionals rolls around: I am shooting for about 10 total.
I'm also reading through Advice to Referees currently, highliter in hand. My goal is to make it through that twice in the next month.
Here's to two good tournaments and that I can physically and mentally survive both!
