My poor bairn......
 

At 12, hockey players can become refs. First step is an all day clinic with on and off-ice training. Hector said he wanted to do this (they earn good $$$ and get a better understanding of the game), so today he went to certification clinic.

He had planned to go to the local one next weekend, maybe with some of his buddies, but his coach scheduled a game that day and he cannot miss -being the goalie. So his coach volunteered to drive him to one in Detroit that he was also going to attend instead of the local one. We left at 6:30 this morning to meet up with coach and coach just dropped him back home (5pm). I managed to elicit that he'd passed, but he just went straight to the sofa and fell asleep (after being told bed was out of action -laundry day)

poor thing. What a way to spend Sunday. And yet he's getting himself a way to earn the money to buy the expensive toys/hockey gear he wants.

Excellent.

It is, but I feel so bad that he lost half of his weekend and is knackered.

I can understand feeling bad about it. But it sounds to me like he seized half of his weekend and owned it. I think I'd be glowing with pride at that kind of show of character, if he were my kid.*

Does he have Columbus Day off from school?

* I don't have kids, so I have no clue what I'm talking about.

No, no day off. I think he was awake this morning.......! Yes, I am proud of him, it's just that neither of us realised how intense this clinic was going to be.....

/\ WHS /\
Although I get that an exhausted son will tug the heartstrings.
Doing something he loves eats getting a paper round though!

The only time I remember Mum being proud and maternal at the same time was when I was doing school plays. Saturday tech rehearsal for the principals, Sunday full day dress rehearsal then straight into a week of performing every night from Monday to Friday which meant a school day but not getting home til gone 10.

And when I was 12 it was Midsummer Night's Dream in full make-up, body paint and back-combed, colour sprayed hair! I was young enough and tired enough to let Mum wash my hair for me :)

Hope he's up and raring to go again today.
Or at least awake enough for you to tell him how proud you are.
Hang on, he's 12? Or is this preliminary training?
I still think of him as a little chap dressed in a Burger King crown. Tell them to stop growing up so fast, it's making me feel old.

I'm with PW on this. I've been hinting to Lil' Pete that she ought to get certified as a director, but she doesn't like verbal conflict.

Aw you guys rock. I dunno about him this morning, but I'm pooped! :lol: It was Thor in the Burger King crown. but he turns 10 on Saturday. My baby! Double Digits! :eek:

Lost weekend aside, being a ref is an awesome leadership activity, and a nice experience to draw on for college application essays too. Mr. Clod still talks about reffing the little kids' soccer teams when he played in high school, he absolutely loved it.

yeah I tried to get Hebe to ref soccer but she wasn't having it. She did swim coach, but her boss just upped and moved to Florida.....

I'm really impressed that he's going to be a ref. Those guys are amazing. It's going to really build his self confidence. I'm always in awe when some teenager is bossing around the coaches and parents.

Devils Advocate, I ref'd soccer at 16 and got screamed at by coaches who thought they could take advantage of me. It was a bit much. I don't think it was of benefit to me, personally.

It was kind of harrowing, one day, to take 90 minutes of abuse from an idiot adult assistant coach who knew nothing. As a youth, you are not exactly up to the task of returning fire at adults. You are actually trained not to.

Both my older boys are thinking about becoming Rugby League coaches (partly so they'll be ready when Max starts playing I think), and I reckon that'll be great. They get paid per match, and it's a way for them to be involved in a match with little chance of getting a punch in the nose (unlike when they play their own games). As to the adults, don't you have duty officials at matches? At the junior games, every club has to have at least two on duty, and if parents or anyone not on the field starts yelling out abuse at the ref, they are ejected from the grounds. It's really great actually. Makes it a much more positive environment for the kids and they can just get on with the game.

Yeah, I've seen bad coaches and parents yell at teen soccer refs ....but it isn't tolerated and I haven't seen one who wasn't removed from the situation by other parents and coaches. And the ref's parents often aren't far away. The soccer is definitely worse than the hockey. At the hockey, the parents sign behaviour bonds which are enforced, also, young refs are always paired with senior refs. And the senior refs are there to train and protect them. It's a good scheme and means that they learn to make their mistakes and gain their confidence before they get big enough for people to feel they can abuse them. No-one ever abuses one of the hatchling refs. It's like killing a kitten.

OK he survived his first two games. Back to back. His coach set them up as good starters for him with an experienced ref who will guide him. The other ref was enormous! Hector had off-ice training before and so his whole team came to watch (and barrack him). The parents said the two refs looked like David and Goliath!

The first game was 10U girls' travel -actually quite fast-paced with a couple of penalties. The home team coach is a friend from our summer pool, and a goalie coach who helped get Hector into the net when he decided he wanted to be goalie, and said he'd be happy to schedule him for one of his games. On the away team was one of the girls from Thor's old team. MOst of the girls were bigger than him :lol:

The second game was 12U house girls (home) vs a 10U travel team. A good number of them could barely skate. Certainly not well enough to get penalties, so offside and icing were the only concerns.

It was great to see Hector's confidence growing as time went on. His whistles got louder and his hesitation reduced. He also near froze to death. He's used to sweating buckets under alll that goalie gear to paid us no heed when we told him to put underarmor on! he also has never skated so much in a long time and reported his feet hurting (different skates too).