Jenny Wood
Hey Everyone,
There have been a series of referee assault & abuse incidents that have taken place in Iowa this fall, but none more so disheartening than a youth player spitting at a referee. Yes, I said Iowa. Not California or Massachusetts, or Chicago or St. Louis. Iowa.
Those are all the details that need be shared about the incident. It simply does not matter what happened — if the referee made a good or bad call, if it was a build-up of disagreeing with the calls throughout the game, etc…people should not spit at other people, and certainly a player should not express disagreement by spitting at a referee.
We all have a lot of work to do in teaching our youth players to understand and practice respect. Someone explain what and who should be involved in teaching and expecting better sportsmanship from our youth!
Jenny Wood
Iowa Soccer Association
Manners start at home, PARENTS are the first step in teaching this. In sports, a coach can do wonders in this aspect of teaching, simply put, as one respected coach described yellow cards, etc..in a manner of “stupid cards” an he would pull his player out right away for getting one, these were defined as disrespecting or dissent toward a referee or using a swear word. I believe if a coach also teaches his players little dirty tricks to pull on his opponets in a game, I would be believe them capable of teaching good conduct toward a referee…
I left out the word “NOT” when referring to the coach teaching good conduct toward a referee…NO WAY could this coach be a good example of teaching respect to anyone if teaching dirty play…