NISAR Newsletter: 8/8/2006

From the Top

The Fall Season is almost upon us. It will be busy with the NWISL, High School, CYO, Premier Leagues, Men’s and Women’s Leagues. As I talked about in the last newsletter, we are going to be working on improving our mentoring of new referees. NWISL will schedule a weekend of U10 games at the Elks. Mo Tolimir will coordinate getting mentors to cover the games. Most of the people doing these games, will have taken the class last spring. The people from the August class will be covered during the season.

My Goals

1) Mentor new referees

2) Build on our relationship with NWISL

Sammy

Game Assignments

The fall season of NWISL begins the weekend of 8/20/06. NISL, CYO, men’s/women’s, etc. will be starting around the same time. Diane, Tom, and Joel will be scheduling very soon. If you have not been called, contact your assignor if you are looking for games. There are plenty of games for everyone who wants to work.

West side: Diane and Tom Dellahan: 219-987-5792

East side: Joel Charpentier: 219-926-1177

Men’s/women’s: Luigi Boria: 219-845-2679

High School: Erwin Bircher: 219-947-1998

Accepting Game Assignments

There are a number of reasons why you should only accept games from licensed assignors.

1) Accepting a game from a non-licensed person voids your insurance coverage under USSF. The USSF states that you can only accept a game from a licensed assignor.

2) One of the jobs of the assignor is to insure that you are not assigned to a game that is above your capability.

3) Another job of the assignor is not to schedule referees to leagues who don’t pay the referees. We have a premier league presently who owes money to referees who have done games for them but have not gotten paid. People who are not assignors, don’t know this.

The other licensed assignors in our area are:

Sammy Samuelson Tom Friedman

New Recertification Procedure

The state has a new referee recertification system. Referees renewing for 2007 should receive a letter in the mail from USSF outlining the system. Each referee must go to the state referee committee website http://indref.com and register for the course they want to attend. If you have any questions or problems, contact Joel Charpentier, the DRA for district one at 219-926-1177.

Important Dates to Remember

NISAR board meetings, 6:30 pm at the Elks in Hobart:

Tuesday 10/24/06, Tuesday 11/28/06

USSF recertification classes:

11/12/06, Hobart

11/18/06, Valparaiso

High School meetings:

8/10/06, rules meeting, Merrillville

New Referee Class

A new referee training class was held recently at the Elks in Hobart. The following people are the newest licensed referees in our area. If you see

them at a game please welcome them and do you best to help them out.

We all remember how difficult it was when we first started.

Leonardo Albana	Highland	Joshua Duncan	Michigan City	Anna Schell	Griffith
Joseph Alessi	Valparaiso	Matthew Edwards	Lowell	Ann Simpson	Merrillville
Sara Alessi	Valparaiso	Robert Gallowich	Valparaiso	Greg Smith	Chesterton
Eric Banschbach	Valparaiso	Aaron Gaspar	Hammond	Spencer Stahl	Michigan City
Deryel Bullard	DeMotte	Alex Menn	Crown Point	Randy Thomason	Wheatfield
Diana Cox	Portage	Ray Parpart	Portage	Alexes Valestin	Valparaiso
Jonathan Cox	Portage	Sean Parpart	Portage	John Yzenas III	Hobart

National Referee from Northwest Indiana !

Most of you know Luigi Boria. Many of you probably also know his son Eric. What

you didn’t know is that Eric has achieved his grade 4 national referee badge from USSF.

Eric is one of only three national referees from the state of Indiana. While he has had to

spend a large part of his time traveling the country attending top level camps and tournaments while working towards his national badge, he still does tournaments and games is this area and plays on a local men’s team. Despite his personal success, he always has time to work with other referees to help them get better. At my request, he has written an article on his experiences, which is included in this newsletter. If you see him on the field, please congratulate him on his success.

To NISAR members,

I want to share my recent experiences because this year has been remarkable for me. I was given many opportunities and made the most of them. In January, I will attend the national camp and receive my badge. This summer, I completed more assessments than were required for my national badge, some of which I completed at Amateur Regionals in Dayton, Ohio where I earned three centers (the highest number possible). I also was awarded “USA Referee of the Year” at the USA Cup in Blaine, Minnesota, and am on my way to a referee academy in Boston where I am one of seven referees selected from across the US. The referee academy is part of the professional development program for the under 14 US national team.

I would like to share with you three aspects of my game that I have worked on this year: professionalism, positioning, and demeanor. Firstly, professionalism means taking your games seriously, doing your homework when possible and preparing yourself mentally and physically for the game. Remember, the players train, eat and sleep right for their games. So should you. Secondly, I cannot underestimate the importance of positioning. Lazy positioning leads to bad angles. If you are not in position to see a foul, you do not give yourself a chance on calling it correctly. Soccer is dynamic play. We are often too busy watching the game on television to observe the movements of professional referees. Not intending to be funny, but we can learn a lot from boxing. Watch the constant movement of a boxing referee. The angles in soccer are just as dynamic. So in order for you to even give yourself the chance to make the correct call, your legs need to be doing their work to move you towards those perpendicular angles. Lastly, your demeanor on the field is what moves you from simply disciplining foul challenges to narrating the game. I once asked a young referee to retrace the events leading up to a sendoff. He had three fouls in the span of fifteen seconds. The first and last were committed by the sweeper. The first foul committed by the sweeper was near the bench on the opposite side of the field. I told him that if there is a hard tackle and you see a defender grossly out of position - that usually warrants a caution. He asked in return “well how did you know it was the sweeper?” The referee should be the narrator of the game. One advantage we have over players is that we never have to get caught up in the emotion of the game. Keeping a calm demeanor has allowed me to elevate my thought beyond “was that a foul” to the higher questions of game tactics “did I see this face before?”, “What are the reactions of the players?”, “What impact did this event have on the game and how do I restore order and game flow?” If you allow yourself to get as emotional as the players, you will have a difficult time managing their emotions and behaviors.

I have worked on these aspects in all of my games regardless of my position as referee or assistant. I can honestly say that my biggest mistakes this year have occurred in kids games because I let my guard down and lost focus. You can always survive a game (well almost always) but the important thing is to get it right. So remember, kids practice and work hard for their games and all they ask is that you do likewise. I hope that in sharing my experiences, your practices also become more productive.

For the good of the game,

Eric Boria

The End

We are all looking forward to a great fall season. If you would like to do some work to help your fellow referees, NISAR is always looking for people and ideas. Contact Sammy or myself if you would like to get more involved.

Fußball, das schöne Spiel.

Tom Friedman

NISAR Secretary