THANKS AND COMPLIMENTS
 

I would once again like to thank all of the members of the Executive Board for their time and effort in making this a successful season. We owe a vote of thanks to David Brochstein for initiating MWSRA's internet web site and Tadd Dawson and Jim Gordon for building it up even more. If you have access to the Internet, check out our web page at http://www.mwsra.org/ . I think you will be very pleasantly surprised at the amount of information available there. We strive constantly to give you better information, in as timely a manner as possible. Please feel free to direct any comments or suggestions concerning the Association to me via e-mail (my address is on the web page.) I look forward to seeing all of you at the December membership meeting.

MWSRA will hold its annual holiday business meeting from 7:00 to 10:00 on Tuesday evening, December 16, at Blair HS in Silver Spring. We'll have paychecks, at least for MSI games, and we're reviving MWSRA's old practice of giving out referee prizes and turkeys for the holidays. You've got to be there to get a gift!
 

Write Saturday, December 6 on your calendar for a 5-hour USSF in-service and recertification clinic, test and registration session at Eastern Intermediate School in Silver Spring. Although this clinic is aimed at Grade 7 and 8 Referees, it will satisfy anybody's annual training requirement. Call MWSRA training chairman Tadd Dawson at (301) 681-5518 and reserve your copy of the USSF test. If you bring your USSF registration form and fee, we'll send it in for you.
 

MWSRA will hold a one-hour clinic on the USSF Assessment Process, on November 20 at Eastern Middle School. If you haven't passed an upgrade assessment this year, you have an interest in this topic. And please don't think, "Ah, but I can get any games I'd like already, without upgrading," because that's changing. Don't fool yourself and hurt MWSRA and all of its referees. MWSRA needs every referee member to develop and upgrade to their full potential, so that MWSRA can get better games for you.
 

USSF had a minor problem: Maryland referee registration forms were sent out showing "MD" as the address for submissions. Make your check payable to Maryland Soccer Referees, and send it to:
 

BILL CASSIDY, SRA
MARYLAND SOCCER REFEREES
7545 SERENITY DR
HUGHESVILLE MD 20637-2219

If you arrive late for an assignment, you don't deserve the full game fee for the match, and there'll be a fine to reduce your take-home pay. Arrive at your matches early, which is when you're supposed be there, so you'll have time to check the rules of competition, have a good pre-game, do the administrative chores and coin toss, and start the match at the planned time.

Uniforms! A referee's uniform is black. Now that summer is gone, the only reason for wearing a fuchsia jersey is because one of your teams is wearing black or dark blue. It's wrong to show up for a crew assignment (three or two referees) in a jersey that doesn't match what your colleague(s) will be wearing. Don't wear fuchsia unless you have to, or unless you're working solo in an unaffiliated rec match where it won't matter.

Know and enforce all the laws and rules, all the time. Recently, a local player had to miss a high school playoff match, because some of our referees didn't enforce the HS Federation rule requiring a player to have a written permission from his/her doctor to play in a cast. The crew at the playoff match had to take the heat for barring the player, after the refs at the player's regular-season games failed to tell him the permission was required. And think about the liability you'd risk if you let a player participate without such a note and the player was injured!

Help your colleagues, and help MWSRA help those who need it. Let your assignor know when a colleague has a problem on the field, performs badly, acts improperly or shows up out of uniform. Your one report won't kill anybody's referee career, and a quiet word to the assignor will let the assignor check into the situation and get your colleague some support.
 

This year's annual pre-turkey match will again be held at 9:30 on Thanksgiving morning. Walter Durkan will have recruited the usual squad of old-timers, coaches and ringers to thrash the All-blacks. We need every member who while refereeing this year has thought, "Now, that was a neat move!" to come out and put it to work for the honor of MWSRA. Nobody ever gets hurt, and the exercise always helps sharpen the appetite for turkey.
 

It's an easy way to keep track of events and find out about refereeing. You can visit http://www.mwsra.org/ from home or any public library. We've got our field directory and a couple of others, MWSRA's Constitution and Bylaws, the list of MWSRA officers and their E-mail addresses, and a gallery of photos of MWSRA referees. We also have the most complete list of links to referee-related items on the internet, whether you want the Laws in Norwegian, the 1970 USSF Memorandum to Referees, FIFA's home page, ref contacts in most states and many countries, the referee badge collection, sources for uniforms and equipment (You can even listen to whistles!), ways to take care of yourself and your aching body, and lots more. We update it frequently, and the links collection grows constantly.
 

Let MWSRA know if you've got an e-mail address or a web page. We'll send you messages with urgent news, and we'll help you connect to your colleagues.
 

Get the updated field directory and MWSRA roster, in the 5½ by 8½ format to fit your old black binder. If you don't have a binder, we'll throw in a new one. Bring your $5 to any MWSRA clinic or business meeting.
 

MLS awarded its new Umbro Golden Whistle Award to Esse Baharmast. MLS coaching staffs voted the 43-year-old FIFA referee from Colorado best overall referee in the league.

Maryland's State Referee Committee will hold its annual clinic at the Maryland Soccer Workshop, Sunday, February 15 at the Baltimore Arena. Sessions start at 8:30 a.m. and go until 4 p.m. Check the MWSRA web page for details.
 

The Virginia State Referee Committee will hold a high-level clinic in conjunction with the NCAA Men's Soccer Final Four. The clinic will be held in the Richmond Hyatt at the intersection of I-64 and West Broad Street. The clinicians will be Julie Ilacqua (Chair, National Referee Committee), Vincent Mauro (USSF Director of Officials), Alfred Kleinaitis, (USSF Manager of Referee Development and Education), Herb Silva (MLS Director of Officials), and Gil McCallister (VA State Director of Instruction).

The clinic will begin Friday evening after the first round of games and end on Sunday in time for the NCAA final.

Referees from any state may attend. Cost is $25.00 for the clinic, plus $35.00 for one of the limited number of tickets available for the tournament. For clinic or hotel information, contact the VA/DC State Referee Program Office at (703) 551-4438 and ask for Shirley, see the web page at http://www.vysa.com/ref/nat-inst.htm or contact VA/DC SRA Scott Meyer, e-mail skmeyer@strllc.com .
 

USSF has begun mailing 1997/1998 law books with the rewritten Laws of the Game. FIFA had the Laws rewritten because some parts were hard to translate and the International Board Decisions were beginning to take up more space than the Laws themselves. The new version of the Laws is sure to confuse many referees, not to mention coaches and players, but don't be fooled: the only real changes to the game were spelled out in USSF's Memorandum to Referees of this summer, summarized in the August Ref's Report. Just because something isn't written in the law book doesn't mean it's not part of the game. Hold on to your orange 1997 lawbook.
 

Thursday                MWSRA/MD SRC clinic on the USSF Assessment Process. Time TBA, Eastern IS, Silver
Nov. 20                 Spring. Contact Tadd Dawson, (301) 681-5518.

Thursday                 MWSRA annual referee soccer match. 9:30 am, White Oak MS, Silver Spring. Contact
Nov. 27                 Walter Durkan, (301) 622-5229

Saturday                 MWSRA/USSF In-service and recertification clinic, test and registration session. Time TBA,
Dec. 6                     Eastern IS, Silver Spring. Contact Tadd Dawson, (301) 681-5518, to reserve your test.

Fri. - Sun.                 VYSA/USSF high-level referee clinic. Richmond Hyatt Hotel, Richmond, VA. Cost $25.
Dec. 12 - 14             Contact the VA/DC State Referee Program Office at (703) 551-4438 and ask for Shirley.

Tuesday                     MWSRA annual holiday business meeting. 7-10 pm, Blair HS, Silver Spring.
Dec. 16

Sunday                     MD SRC/USSF clinics. 8:30 to 4:00, Baltimore Arena. Contact Wayne Wray,
Feb. 15                     (301) 596-2232 (h)
 
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