On the heels of one of my friends I made at ODP Camp over the summer starting his new blog (as a class assignment - which you can find by clicking HERE) about his adventures at the Disney Soccer Showcase in Orlando at Disney's Wide World of Sports, I've decided to go on ahead for you soccer nuts to write one about my past weekend in Memphis' SoccerElite Tournament.
I had to make the drive late at night Friday because I'm (still) always involved in High School Football. Luckily this might have been the earliest ending to a High School Football game that involved Oxford in years, ending at 9:35 PM. With as much passing as Oxford does on a regular basis than most high school teams do, games typically last longer than 3 hours. I managed to hit the road a little past 10.
I took the long way (I-55 route) to Germantown - east of Memphis - where the Tournament is held at beautiful Mike Rose Soccer Complex. One of if not the best complexes in the mid-south where you can fit 17 regulation-sized soccer fields and home to where the University of Memphis plays their soccer games at the Stadium Field.
I make it to my hotel, usually nice and to myself when I do tournaments in Memphis, without much difficulty on the roadways which is saying something when you are driving through Memphis traffic at any point. Rolled in and unpacked at 11:30 PM - oh, and I'm supposed to start Saturday with an 8:00 AM game with a 15-minute commute to the fields.
The hotel itself was unique. The beds actually faced the window with the TV within two feet of the bed. The room had a couch next to the window and your usual desk and chair at the far end of the room. Bathroom and sink was rather spacey for a hotel room. The only complaint I had with it is it did NOT come with free breakfest - and I was already on a budget (and a major reason why I decided to do this tournament). When I got to the fields Saturday, I did manage two bananas for breakfest. I did not manage to get to sleep until 1:30 and had to wake up in the 6:30 range to make it to the fields a 1/2 hour before my first game.
So after upon realization that Breakfest was not free and that Starbucks actually ran a store in the hotel, I make it to the fields a little after 7:30 (after getting behind a traffic jam). I was lucky I only had to walk 30 feet to my first game within the 17-field park and that my first three games were on that field - by myself. I had to do 3 U10 games on my own without the aid of AR's calling offside for me. Means more work for me. Another thing I did not factor much was the weather...
The entire summer, temperatures were stuck in the upper 80s and rarely reached above 90 in what has been an unusually cool summer in the mid-south. Saturday? Sunny and 94*F. In the mid-south, that's more like 100-105*F. I had to do 7 games in this heat that did not feature any clouds to break the heat.
After my first three games in which the third game featured a Yellow-what-should-have-been-a-Red Card for DOGSO 25 yards away from the goal (A girl held an opponent's arm sleeve to prevent a clear scoring chance) with her team up 6-2 late in the game. It should be a Red Card by the letter of the LOTG (Laws Of The Game), but I was not fixing to throw a red to an 8-year-old and then turn around to write out a red card report for doing so this early in the tournament. Common sense there was to show the card and explain why. She took it rather well and completely realized why the card was given - not for the foul, but for the purpose of the foul. I ended up giving the player the physical card as a keepsake having bought a new set last month.
My fourth game was a U13 Boys match at the Stadium Field as an AR. Was pumped about finally being able to do a match at the stadium field after having done several tournaments last year in Memphis but never was assigned a game in the stadium. We had to wait on the other AR for 10 minutes and started the match without him. The AR did show up 5 minutes later having to hustle from another field to make it there. The match was a rather low-scoring but one-sided 4-0 win for the local Lobos team over a Tupelo team.
I was starting to get beat in the heat after the fourth game, constantly finding water to drink. I had an hour break to get as much cold water in my system as I can before I did a U14 Girls Center. Having remembered what I learned about "foul selection" at ODP Camp, I spent much of the first half trying to set a tone in how I wanted this match called. There was one problem - I did not make one foul call the entire first half because it was as clean as my whistle. There was one offside call but that was it when it came to foul calls. White team led 1-0 on a breakaway goal late in the first half.
I started to become mentally fatigued in that the heat made me dehydrated. 6 minutes into the 2nd half, my AR (who is a Grade 7) and I stopped the match and I drained a cold bottle of water. I managed to make it through the match with minimal foul-calling and ended with a 2-0 White team victory after adding 40 seconds of stoppage time for my water break.
My sixth game of seven that I was assigned to do, I was an AR and the Grade 7 that found a cold water bottle for me to drink was the Center for a U14 Boys Match. In the middle of the first half, I drained a small Gatorade bottle that a Blue-team member generously gave up while being on the coaches side of the field. By the time halftime rolled around, I found myself drinking more water from the White Team who generously gave me some water. When the 2nd Half started and I made my first run down the field, my hamstring tightened up, hampering any agility and speed I had remaining to a turtle's pace. I had asked someone to call over a field marshal to radio the referee tent (where at this point was clear across the park) to get a referee to finish this match I was on and cover my 7th match I was assigned to do simply because I was clearly no longer capable to do the job that a referee is expected to do. It took around 7 minutes for the referee to get here. I finished the match on the Blue-team's bench who had a tent covering it drinking more water.
After a replacement was found to cover my last match, I went to a gas station (very slowly) and used about a quarter of what budget I had on Powerades (buying 6). Clerk there thought I was crazy but sold them to me the same after looking at my condition I was in. Managed to make it back to my hotel with a noticeable limp and into my hotel room. Took a cold shower and then laid on the bed to watch Michigan/Notre Dame. After draining half of the Powerade bottles, I slept through about 2/3rd's of the game, woke up, saw the end of the game, had a small dinner (leftover pizza) and drank more Powerade. Watched Sportscenter and slept getting around 9 hours of sleep.
Woke up Sunday, not 100% but much better than the state I was in yesterday. Figured it would be the same weather as yesterday, hot and humid. I was right - Sunny and 99*F, the hottest it has been all summer. Mandatory water breaks (to my relief) were issued to be taken in the middle of each half. Started the day with back-to-back U12 Girls Centers. One a group-play match, the other a consolation match. I had the same crew for both matches. Had a 5'9" blonde girl AR for both matches that would appear she would be 17 and starting her senior year in high school. Negative - she was 14 and just became a Freshmen. She has a dad that is 6'10" and would likely grow beyond 6' before she stops growing. You wouldn't know it by the way she looks and how she takes herself.
Anyway, the first match was rather one-sided. The white team could not ever find a way to control the ball after a pass; the blue team especially in the 2nd half kept complaining about several of my calls - one that ended in a Penalty Kick awarded to white after a blatant push with an elbow from Blue in a battle for possession. Most of the calls were the normal "pushing" calls and that their coach and parents do not understand what makes up a "pushing" foul. I was almost to the point where I had to tell the team that they were up 3/4-0 at the time late in the second half and to simply be quiet and let me do my job. Luckily White missed on the PK shot and Blue won 4-0 preserving the shutout (which they do not get an additional point for in the standings).
The second match was much more physical in a match that featured two "sister" teams (two teams from the same club). White jumped out to a 3-0 halftime lead and clearly dominating the match capitalizing on several miscues from the Blue team. The Blue team seemed to gather themselves in what proved to be an interesting match. Blue managed to score 2 goals to give them a chance late to tie the match, but fell short in their efforts 3-2. Did not have to give a card despite all the physical play (a good amount of pushing, body positioning, shielding was the main areas of where the physical play came from).
In my third match - a U18 Girls Match, which I had to travel across the complex to get to within a 30-minute time span, I was AR1 (AR1 = lead AR, did the line on the coaches' side of the field) with Jeff Gilmore - who also went to ODP Camp with me from Mississippi - as the Center. It took about 15 minutes into this 60 minute match (shortened due to the heat) that the White team was going to make this as difficult as possible for us to get through. White trailed 2-0 at halftime and their frustration of their weekend (which they have lost every single match to this point I found out prior to the match) was getting to them, and the heat may have helped. White team seemed to be fouling nearly every other minute for something real stupid. White trailed 4-0 with 18 minutes left, and a blatant push knocking over a Blue-team member right outside my end of the Penalty Area generated a Yellow for Gilmore who has seen enough. The ensuing free kick was crossed over three times in the Penalty Area eventually hitting a White hand to which both me and Gilmore had a clear view of. I had just about got my flag up when Gilmore called for the PK without needing my help (To which Blue successfully scored on). During the water break, the White coach complained that he went on my signal of the handball that led to the goal which made it 5-1 at that point. Gilmore said it was his call which is what I thought the call was one he made on his own accord all along. White coach managed to get back to his bench without having to leave. Later on, it was 5-2 but with just 2 minutes left in the match, Gilmore called a PK for pushing as the White coach has had enough and nearly argued himself out of the match. I did not actually see the foul (it occurred on the other side of my Penalty Area I was on) and the way it was argued that White was not "Shielding" the ball - which is allowed when the ball is within playing distance. I thought impeding was called which if it was it would have resulted in an indirect free kick instead of a PK (PK is what is otherwise a direct free kick foul inside the Penalty Area). They scored that one in which made the final 6-2 in a clearly dominated game by the Blue team with their two forwards causing a lot of havoc that was a lot more trouble than the game was worth.
My final match was a U13 Boys Final in which I was also an AR1 for. A U12 Lobos team playing up had a familiar face on the team: Chris "Deuce" Vaughn who moved from Oxford to Memphis after his dad was fired when former Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt was fired and their family decided to move to Memphis where his dad currently works this past summer. Unfortunately his team lost 6-0 in an uneventful Final which saw his defense getting beat often and one of their players constantly keeping a forward in onside position making the keeper work way too hard to keep their team in the game. Most of the goals came late in the 2nd half after the Lobos were clearly becoming exhausted from the match.
So once that match ended and wrote all the information needed for me to get paid - which will be a check in the mail, I left and went straight back to that same gas station and got 4 more Powerades, drinking two before I even got out of Memphis, but made it back to Oxford with no problems.
Lesson learned this weekend: Check the Weather Forecast before setting out to do a Tournament. It will go a long way to surviving the weekend. Always be prepared for any soccer match - the mental fatigue goes both ways. I was just lucky I did not have that type of game when I was as fatigued as the players when I was Centering.
I had to make the drive late at night Friday because I'm (still) always involved in High School Football. Luckily this might have been the earliest ending to a High School Football game that involved Oxford in years, ending at 9:35 PM. With as much passing as Oxford does on a regular basis than most high school teams do, games typically last longer than 3 hours. I managed to hit the road a little past 10.
I took the long way (I-55 route) to Germantown - east of Memphis - where the Tournament is held at beautiful Mike Rose Soccer Complex. One of if not the best complexes in the mid-south where you can fit 17 regulation-sized soccer fields and home to where the University of Memphis plays their soccer games at the Stadium Field.
I make it to my hotel, usually nice and to myself when I do tournaments in Memphis, without much difficulty on the roadways which is saying something when you are driving through Memphis traffic at any point. Rolled in and unpacked at 11:30 PM - oh, and I'm supposed to start Saturday with an 8:00 AM game with a 15-minute commute to the fields.
The hotel itself was unique. The beds actually faced the window with the TV within two feet of the bed. The room had a couch next to the window and your usual desk and chair at the far end of the room. Bathroom and sink was rather spacey for a hotel room. The only complaint I had with it is it did NOT come with free breakfest - and I was already on a budget (and a major reason why I decided to do this tournament). When I got to the fields Saturday, I did manage two bananas for breakfest. I did not manage to get to sleep until 1:30 and had to wake up in the 6:30 range to make it to the fields a 1/2 hour before my first game.
So after upon realization that Breakfest was not free and that Starbucks actually ran a store in the hotel, I make it to the fields a little after 7:30 (after getting behind a traffic jam). I was lucky I only had to walk 30 feet to my first game within the 17-field park and that my first three games were on that field - by myself. I had to do 3 U10 games on my own without the aid of AR's calling offside for me. Means more work for me. Another thing I did not factor much was the weather...
The entire summer, temperatures were stuck in the upper 80s and rarely reached above 90 in what has been an unusually cool summer in the mid-south. Saturday? Sunny and 94*F. In the mid-south, that's more like 100-105*F. I had to do 7 games in this heat that did not feature any clouds to break the heat.
After my first three games in which the third game featured a Yellow-what-should-have-been-a-Red Card for DOGSO 25 yards away from the goal (A girl held an opponent's arm sleeve to prevent a clear scoring chance) with her team up 6-2 late in the game. It should be a Red Card by the letter of the LOTG (Laws Of The Game), but I was not fixing to throw a red to an 8-year-old and then turn around to write out a red card report for doing so this early in the tournament. Common sense there was to show the card and explain why. She took it rather well and completely realized why the card was given - not for the foul, but for the purpose of the foul. I ended up giving the player the physical card as a keepsake having bought a new set last month.
My fourth game was a U13 Boys match at the Stadium Field as an AR. Was pumped about finally being able to do a match at the stadium field after having done several tournaments last year in Memphis but never was assigned a game in the stadium. We had to wait on the other AR for 10 minutes and started the match without him. The AR did show up 5 minutes later having to hustle from another field to make it there. The match was a rather low-scoring but one-sided 4-0 win for the local Lobos team over a Tupelo team.
I was starting to get beat in the heat after the fourth game, constantly finding water to drink. I had an hour break to get as much cold water in my system as I can before I did a U14 Girls Center. Having remembered what I learned about "foul selection" at ODP Camp, I spent much of the first half trying to set a tone in how I wanted this match called. There was one problem - I did not make one foul call the entire first half because it was as clean as my whistle. There was one offside call but that was it when it came to foul calls. White team led 1-0 on a breakaway goal late in the first half.
I started to become mentally fatigued in that the heat made me dehydrated. 6 minutes into the 2nd half, my AR (who is a Grade 7) and I stopped the match and I drained a cold bottle of water. I managed to make it through the match with minimal foul-calling and ended with a 2-0 White team victory after adding 40 seconds of stoppage time for my water break.
My sixth game of seven that I was assigned to do, I was an AR and the Grade 7 that found a cold water bottle for me to drink was the Center for a U14 Boys Match. In the middle of the first half, I drained a small Gatorade bottle that a Blue-team member generously gave up while being on the coaches side of the field. By the time halftime rolled around, I found myself drinking more water from the White Team who generously gave me some water. When the 2nd Half started and I made my first run down the field, my hamstring tightened up, hampering any agility and speed I had remaining to a turtle's pace. I had asked someone to call over a field marshal to radio the referee tent (where at this point was clear across the park) to get a referee to finish this match I was on and cover my 7th match I was assigned to do simply because I was clearly no longer capable to do the job that a referee is expected to do. It took around 7 minutes for the referee to get here. I finished the match on the Blue-team's bench who had a tent covering it drinking more water.
After a replacement was found to cover my last match, I went to a gas station (very slowly) and used about a quarter of what budget I had on Powerades (buying 6). Clerk there thought I was crazy but sold them to me the same after looking at my condition I was in. Managed to make it back to my hotel with a noticeable limp and into my hotel room. Took a cold shower and then laid on the bed to watch Michigan/Notre Dame. After draining half of the Powerade bottles, I slept through about 2/3rd's of the game, woke up, saw the end of the game, had a small dinner (leftover pizza) and drank more Powerade. Watched Sportscenter and slept getting around 9 hours of sleep.
Woke up Sunday, not 100% but much better than the state I was in yesterday. Figured it would be the same weather as yesterday, hot and humid. I was right - Sunny and 99*F, the hottest it has been all summer. Mandatory water breaks (to my relief) were issued to be taken in the middle of each half. Started the day with back-to-back U12 Girls Centers. One a group-play match, the other a consolation match. I had the same crew for both matches. Had a 5'9" blonde girl AR for both matches that would appear she would be 17 and starting her senior year in high school. Negative - she was 14 and just became a Freshmen. She has a dad that is 6'10" and would likely grow beyond 6' before she stops growing. You wouldn't know it by the way she looks and how she takes herself.
Anyway, the first match was rather one-sided. The white team could not ever find a way to control the ball after a pass; the blue team especially in the 2nd half kept complaining about several of my calls - one that ended in a Penalty Kick awarded to white after a blatant push with an elbow from Blue in a battle for possession. Most of the calls were the normal "pushing" calls and that their coach and parents do not understand what makes up a "pushing" foul. I was almost to the point where I had to tell the team that they were up 3/4-0 at the time late in the second half and to simply be quiet and let me do my job. Luckily White missed on the PK shot and Blue won 4-0 preserving the shutout (which they do not get an additional point for in the standings).
The second match was much more physical in a match that featured two "sister" teams (two teams from the same club). White jumped out to a 3-0 halftime lead and clearly dominating the match capitalizing on several miscues from the Blue team. The Blue team seemed to gather themselves in what proved to be an interesting match. Blue managed to score 2 goals to give them a chance late to tie the match, but fell short in their efforts 3-2. Did not have to give a card despite all the physical play (a good amount of pushing, body positioning, shielding was the main areas of where the physical play came from).
In my third match - a U18 Girls Match, which I had to travel across the complex to get to within a 30-minute time span, I was AR1 (AR1 = lead AR, did the line on the coaches' side of the field) with Jeff Gilmore - who also went to ODP Camp with me from Mississippi - as the Center. It took about 15 minutes into this 60 minute match (shortened due to the heat) that the White team was going to make this as difficult as possible for us to get through. White trailed 2-0 at halftime and their frustration of their weekend (which they have lost every single match to this point I found out prior to the match) was getting to them, and the heat may have helped. White team seemed to be fouling nearly every other minute for something real stupid. White trailed 4-0 with 18 minutes left, and a blatant push knocking over a Blue-team member right outside my end of the Penalty Area generated a Yellow for Gilmore who has seen enough. The ensuing free kick was crossed over three times in the Penalty Area eventually hitting a White hand to which both me and Gilmore had a clear view of. I had just about got my flag up when Gilmore called for the PK without needing my help (To which Blue successfully scored on). During the water break, the White coach complained that he went on my signal of the handball that led to the goal which made it 5-1 at that point. Gilmore said it was his call which is what I thought the call was one he made on his own accord all along. White coach managed to get back to his bench without having to leave. Later on, it was 5-2 but with just 2 minutes left in the match, Gilmore called a PK for pushing as the White coach has had enough and nearly argued himself out of the match. I did not actually see the foul (it occurred on the other side of my Penalty Area I was on) and the way it was argued that White was not "Shielding" the ball - which is allowed when the ball is within playing distance. I thought impeding was called which if it was it would have resulted in an indirect free kick instead of a PK (PK is what is otherwise a direct free kick foul inside the Penalty Area). They scored that one in which made the final 6-2 in a clearly dominated game by the Blue team with their two forwards causing a lot of havoc that was a lot more trouble than the game was worth.
My final match was a U13 Boys Final in which I was also an AR1 for. A U12 Lobos team playing up had a familiar face on the team: Chris "Deuce" Vaughn who moved from Oxford to Memphis after his dad was fired when former Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt was fired and their family decided to move to Memphis where his dad currently works this past summer. Unfortunately his team lost 6-0 in an uneventful Final which saw his defense getting beat often and one of their players constantly keeping a forward in onside position making the keeper work way too hard to keep their team in the game. Most of the goals came late in the 2nd half after the Lobos were clearly becoming exhausted from the match.
So once that match ended and wrote all the information needed for me to get paid - which will be a check in the mail, I left and went straight back to that same gas station and got 4 more Powerades, drinking two before I even got out of Memphis, but made it back to Oxford with no problems.
Lesson learned this weekend: Check the Weather Forecast before setting out to do a Tournament. It will go a long way to surviving the weekend. Always be prepared for any soccer match - the mental fatigue goes both ways. I was just lucky I did not have that type of game when I was as fatigued as the players when I was Centering.