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| PAL coaches want new soccer ofο¬cials By Mark Foyer [ markf@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 11:22 AM PST It happens every February. The Peninsula Athletic League soccer coaches, at their year-end meeting, gripe about the officials. Complaints range from missing calls to the fitness level of officials who can't run up and down the field. Once the coaches get it out of their system, they go on with the remainder of the meeting. But this year, coaches are doing more than just fuming. Frustrated with the current officiating, the coaches have asked PAL commissioner Terry Stogner to find new officials. The current group comes from North American Sports Management, headed by Chris Miller. Miller has assigned officials for San Mateo County high schools and middle schools since 1970. The coaches hope to contract Peninsula Sports Inc. Based in Pacific Grove and officiating games in the southern portion of the Central Coast Section, PSI has moved north, contracted to officiate most high school matches in Santa Clara County. The league's athletic directors were scheduled to give their opinion at their meeting Monday night. The league's Board of Managers will have the final say at their meeting, March 12. Money may be the determining factor. Stogner said PSI charges an initial fee of $200 per school, per team, totaling $800 for a school like Half Moon Bay. North American charges an initial fee of $62.50 per school. 'Given our current budget situation, I don't know if we will approve this,' said Susan Million, Half Moon Bay's principal. The complaints start with the numbers. The PAL is one of a few leagues that use a two-man officiating crew for regular season matches. PSI assigns three-man crews. Three-man crews are used in the playoffs, regardless of which group officiates. 'Three officials per game is by far and away the preferred method,' said Serra coach Jeff Panos in an e-mail. 'Anyone who tells you different has not been in the game very long.' Miller, a long time official himself, disagrees. 'I did a middle school, under-15 game and everything went fine,' Miller said. Miller represents 92 officials '” 70 of them work high school games. 'I'd love to have enough officials to go to three-man crews,' Miller said. 'I'm doing my best to recruit new officials.' Compounding the problem, next year the West Bay Athletic League '” which would prefer three-man crews '” will expand. Currently it has only seven girls' teams. Next year it will feature eight boys' teams and 13 girls' teams. Miller said he might not be able to accommodate that request. The PSI splits its group between North Division and South Division. Currently, the group has 260 officials working in three-man crews. More than half of them are based in Santa Clara County. 'I feel like in every game we get a fair shake,' said Danny Kadah, boys' coach at Branham High in San Jose. 'For big games, they try to send out the best refs.' PAL coaches also believe some officials are not in prime shape to keep up with the speed of the game. Some coaches said privately that they remember the same officials from their own playing days, 20 years ago. 'You can't have someone who can't get up and down the field and is out of position to make a call,' said Terry Fisher, Half Moon Bay's boys' coach. 'A referee must be physically fit. You can't just roll out warm bodies.' Miller says he is not aware of complaints like Fisher's. Prior to every season, he asks the coaches at a preseason meeting to file an assessment report following each match and send it back to him. 'With the exception of a few coaches, I don't get those reports,' Miller said. 'Every February, the coaches then complain.' Santa Clara County teams get a taste of two-man officiating crews when they play at San Mateo County schools. 'We were told this is what to expect,' said Rusty Millard, the boys' coach at Los Gatos. 'It wasn't a good game or a bad game.' South Bay coaches contacted by the Review are pleased with the quality of officiating they get from PSI. They empathize with their PAL counterparts. However, Panos warns that the PAL could encounter the same problems if it contracts the PSI. 'Quite honestly, the San Jose group has the same issues ... some good and several quite poor officials,' Panos said in his e-mail. Stogner concurs. 'There's no guarantee that the officials (from PSI) will be an upgrade,' he said. 'There's no guarantee that the coaches will ever be happy.' Coaches say that even the best officials, like the best players, can have an off day. 'We will always find something to gripe about,' Millard said. 'But in the end of the day, it's the players who decide the outcome of the game.' Miller will be OK if the PAL goes in another direction. However, he has a warning. 'I don't want them to come back to me during the season and say they are having problems,' Miller said. |