I last refereed a game on Sunday night, March 8. It was a Boys High School Division futsal match at St. Mark’s Coptic Church in Woodbury, Long Island. After the players shook hands with oneanother, my ref partner Bob Koch and I fist-bumped them, then we did not shake the hands of the coaches who held out their hands, for fear of contracting the coronavirus, so wesmiled and fist-bumped them as well.
And then everything changed in the next 10 days. I neverwould have imagined that more than 25,000 New Yorkers would have died from the coronavirus or that all schools and sports would be shut down. Tennis and golf are now allowed as long as theparticipants maintain social distancing.
I have noticed that everybody has lost something and everybody still has parts of their lives intact. I’m very happy to be employed at anessential business so I’ve been able to go to work every weekday. I cannot go to my health club but I can run outside and have started doing push-ups and sit-ups again for the first time since Iwas a young adult. I cannot socialize with my friends but can keep in contact with them through phone calls, e-mails and texts. But there’s one thing that I cannot come close to doing andit’s what I miss the most, refereeing. I have not only temporarily lost the ability to officiate but the ref tan lines that come with it, for the first time in decades.
The 
What I can do, what we all can do as referees, is use this timewithout any games to get or stay fit, to review the rulebook, attend referee webinars and “ref” the games on TV that we are watching. The best refs are the ones who do something forrefereeing every day, as opposed to those refs who only think about it when they put on their uniform, and this difference is going to be exacerbated during the long layoff. Just as we refs willimmediately notice those players who individually worked hard on their ball skills during the lockdown and those who did not.
Another thing that we all could do is maintain a positive attitudethat the sun will come out tomorrow as things will continue to get better and we’ll be back to soccer games in the future. Social distancing and masks will be in our rear-view mirror and whenthat day comes, soccer will once again be a wonderfully healthy, cardiovascular sport. I expect that games will be easier to ref than usual (even with being rusty) since there will be less dissent aspeople will be so happy simply to return to soccer and play will start out a little slower.
I guess handshakes and spitting on the field will be a thing of thepast as will team huddles, sharing oranges and water bottles plus washing pinnies very infrequently. Less changes for referees than players as our team has many fewer colleagues and some of our gamesare refereed solo, with the help of club assistant referees.
My next assigned game is a college match on August 15 in New Jersey and hopefully the NCAA season will kick off on time so that itwill be played. I don’t foresee soccer games starting earlier in the New York City metro area before then so I might travel and ref summer tournaments should they seek officials.
LINKS:
• The IFAB on Twitter features rule quizzes: @TheIFAB
• The
• National IntercollegiateSoccer Officials Association Educational Stimulus Quizes: NISOA YouTubeChannel Twitter: @nisoadotcom
• Professional Referee Organization:
• U.S. Soccer Referee Twitter:
• Soccer America Referee Twitter:
(Randy Vogt, the author of “Preventive Officiating,” has officiated more than 10,000games.)
Randy, I do not see any games being played here in So Cal for a long time. the CCAA D 2 has taken all sports games away for the up comming season. My mates doing d 1 games here, have not received games yet, as far as I know.