"Players Only Weekend..."
By Long Island Junior Soccer League
Just as "There's no crying in baseball," there isn't constant interference
from the sidelines during soccer games. Or at least that's the way the game
is supposed to be played. It's a sport where youth players truly make the
decisions on the field without constant input from coaches and spectators.
Unfortunately, some LIJSL coaches, more familiar with the expanded role of
coaching in basketball and football, spend the entire game shouting all kinds
of instruction to their players. The spectators do the same. Not
surprisingly, LIJSL players have gone up to referees asking them to try and
silence the adults. Spectator abuse of referees is the number one reason that
most officials quit in their first year of refereeing.
So, it's time for LIJSL to take a stand.
Players Only Weekend will be the theme for all league games on the weekend of
April 13-14 (Rain date - April 20-21).
Our goals are quite simple:
- Develop our players thinking and creative ability to make decisions on the
field without constant sideline intervention.
- Improve the players' ability to communicate with each other on the field
by reducing the outside noise level.
- Support ALL of our referees by eliminating ALL sideline dissension and
intervention.
The guidelines are also quite simple:
- Spectators are to be quiet, talking only in a normal tone to the person
next to them. Comments that can be heard by players, referees or opponents
should be avoided.
- Coaches are to be quiet, giving only normal coaching instruction before
the game, at half time and after the game.
- The referee and coaches will acknowledge substitutions by having players
standing at the halfway line ready to go in.
Spectators are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and simply watch the Beautiful
Game, hopefully played in beautiful weather. Coaches and/or spectators that
don't adhere to this policy will receive 0 points in the appropriate
sportsmanship rating.
As to evaluating this weekend:
- Monitors will be doing random samplings of both adults and players,
- The league web site - lijsoccer.com - will have a survey, including
comments, regarding this weekend.
- The Sportsmanship committee will analyze the first 4 weekends of league
games with regard to red/yellow cards.
- Most importantly, ask your kid(s) if they enjoyed playing Players Only
Weekend.
NOTE: FUNdamental Soccer editorial staff wants you the reader to make a note
of point four. That is, "Ask your kid(s) if they enjoy playing soccer"
Listen to their response and act on their wishes. Some children, quite
frankly, are not interested in playing either this or any other sport and
that is OK!
FUNdamental Readers: Do you have a similar program that you would like our
readers to know about?
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