There is no "off" season in Soccer

Who could have known that teaching is such a tiring activity.. probably the 20 or so teachers in my extended (and immediate) family. I spent 3 hours on Friday, 9 on Saturday, and 8 on Sunday teaching referee class. 3/4 of the 35 or so students were under 18, yet they were quite a good bunch of students.

I guess in this picture most of the students look bored, sleeping, dazing, day-dreaming, or otherwise uninterested. That is probably because they are just finishing or have just finished a 50 question multiple choice test and a pretty boring test at that. In the end this class saw about 22 new grade 9 (recreational) referees certified with USSF after 12 hours of being stuck with me as an instructor.

This is the smaller group on Sunday that was either recertifying as a grade 8 referee or upgrading from a grade 9 to grade 8. I ended up with 9 folks taking this class and only 3 of them were not 18 or older. This class is a bit more fun for me since a lot of the class already has referee experience and we don't have to cover in painstaking detail all the little details of the lawbook. At any rate, we got 9 more referees either certified or recertified in this class. Then at the end of class we got the update that the USA men's hockey team had tied the game in the last minute, so everyone rushed off to try and watch OT, though I only made it home in time to hear the bad news.

In other news, I tipped the scales Monday March 1st at 199.5 lbs after my 5 mile run. My original goal was to hit 200lbs by the end of January, but since I wasn't able to really start conditioning and workouts seriously until almost the end of January, that goal was pushed until the end of February. Besides this past weekend where I was stuck in a classroom each day, all day, I have been pretty strict with a minimum of 4 core workouts a week (sometimes 6) for 40-60 minutes and a minimum of two 5 mile runs a week, sometimes 3, and two 90 minute games of lunch bunch basketball at the YMCA, and 2.5 hours of indoor soccer on Sunday night when I am in town. So far this week: I ran yesterday and today, 5 miles both times, on the treadmill. I plan basketball Wed/Fri and another 5 mile run on Thursday and hopefully some outdoor running on the track on Saturday. (the weatherman is promising 40F and sun) And then I plan to start next week with Sunday night indoor soccer.

I've been accepted to Jefferson Cup as a referee on both the boys and girls weekend, so I will start getting back into referee mode here in a week and a half. Shortly thereafter the spring club season and assigning duties start as well as college spring friendly games. I also got my official paperwork back from NISOA saying I was accepted into the NRP program and if I send them some more $$ I will be at Elizabethtown National Referee Camp this summer.

In a little family news update, Sarah and the kids and I will be traveling to the DC/VA area over spring break to visit with Sarah's uncle and to do some touristing in DC - and then Sarah and the kids are going to stay with her uncle while I travel down to Richmond for Jeff Cup. Harrison has two more indoor soccer games left and I'm hopeful he will get at least 1 more goal (especially since I wasn't there for his 2nd goal). I have also signed Harrison up for spring outdoor soccer on a U8 rec team and he is very excited for this. The last time he played outdoor soccer he hadn't quite turned 5 and he wasn't very focused!

Safe for work - Lets laugh at soccer players and refs!

-John