 |
|
Channel 11, KHOU-TV, did an interesting piece on soccer in the Houston area September 11. Shern-Min Chow reported how there has been a dramatic increase in the number of youth players following the success of the US Women's National Team. She went on to state that there are three needs in the local soccer programs: more places to play, more coaches, and more "umpires".
It would be easy to go for the cheap point and explain that we are "referees" not "umpires", but that might dilute the message. Soccer needs more of us, whatever they choose to call us.
Each year in the Bay Area, we recruit about 120 new referees. The problem is, we lose about 120 each year also.
Aggravating the problem is the sad fact that many of those we lose are fairly new to the program. This means that we may have many very experienced referees now, but we have a smaller pool of mid-level referees waiting to take their places. (Check the stats.)
We "graybeards" may not want to admit it, but we can't referee forever. We need new referees joining the program and staying to take our places and help soccer refereeing keep pace with the increasing number of players and teams.
BAYSA has registered some 10,000 youth players this year. BASRA is holding steady at about 300 referees.
So, here's the pitch. Jay Nichols has asked all the new referees who regularly attend the 7:00pm gathering before each meeting to bring a friend next time, another new referee or someone interested in becoming a referee. Let's extend that. If you know someone who is or might be interested in refereeing, ask them to join you at a future meeting. Maybe we'll get a much needed recruit.
After all, we can use all the "umpires" we can get.
(If you wish to comment on this article, send a message to basra@basra-refs.org.)
Want to read some War Stories? Try this page.
[Return to BASRA Homepage]
[News] [Minutes] [Clinics] [Tournaments] [Links] [Maps to Fields]
[Handbook] [Constitution] [Contacts]