ODP Championships 2011

A group of nine New Mexico referees represented our State at the 2011 Region IV Olympic Development Program Championships held January 15-18 in Phoenix, Arizona. These good folks all missed two days of work to participate in this event, which indicates their commitment to our referee community and the service of youth soccer. Many thanks to each for contributing so much to the effort.

All of our referees performed well at these matches. The days were fairly long, with each referee covering three games per day, usually a center, a line and a 4th official, followed by meetings in the evening. CJ Merrit had even longer days because as a member of the Region IV Referee Academy he had homework to complete, in addition to the meetings.

One issue that surfaced concerned the fact that not enough time was allowed to complete matches and allow teams to enter and exit the fields in an orderly fashion. Consequently, there was much rushing about before matches, checking in teams off the field, doing coin tosses, followed by much congestion as teams tripped over each other coming and going, etc. 4th Officials had to work extra hard at these moments.

Again, thanks to the officials who traveled to this event.

~ Bob Croft, SYRA