I was reminded of this recently at my nine-year-old son’s soccer game. It was the second game of the tournament and our boys weren’t playing very well.
The team we played against was coached by five adults who were all simultaneously yelling directions to their players on the field. It felt noisy and chaotic compared to the average soccer game we attend.
Our referee that day was a girl who looked to be about 16 years old. Having a young and relatively inexperienced ref is not uncommon at this level of soccer.
