A friend of mine shared the below from his daughter’s U15 game last weekend. It is likely that the come-from-behind victory wouldn’t have been possible if the coach and the parents had started complaining too much about the referee. The girls most likely wouldn’t have focused on playing the game and instead would have become increasingly emotionally wrapped up in the “injustice of it all”. Pervasive negative energy from coaches and parents definitely affects player performance on the field.
The coach was smart and positive – great job! Very different from the experience I wrote about here: A Coach’s Tirade.
“On Saturday I watched Carissa’s U15 team get questionable calls for offsides and fouls against them, dictated by the CR (the ARs sometimes looked surprised at the offsides calls that they themselves didn’t make). I think the ref was doing the best he could, but the calls were pretty poor (some of the other team’s parents also agreed with me).
I thought the best part was that her coach did not get upset and simply accepted the calls as part of the game and told the girls to try and ignore the poor calls and play through them. In the end, Carissa’s team came from behind to win 2-1. No yelling from the parents, coaches or players – just accept poor/questionable calls as part of the game and move on.”
[Thank you, David, for sharing!]
NorCal Soccer Dad 