Las Vegas Players College Showcase

Plus: Very good turn out of coaches. We had 39 different schools show up to our first game.
Minus: Windy and cold AF yesterday!
I'm curious to see if any college coaches will still be around on Sunday, in my experience they get scarce towards the end. Competition has been very tough & seen some very good soccer despite the brutal conditions.
 
Agreed. We had many coaches watching our games. Exact number, I'm not sure, but yesterday there were 30+. Conditions, fields and refs were terrible @ Silver Bowl. I honestly think the "tournament format" for the highest level teams simply doesn't work anymore. Too much to play 5 games (if you make the final) over 3 days. Like you said, the coaches won't be around on Sunday. Pointless.
 
Refs were beyond horrible. Our CRs did not move more than 5 feet from the center line and we had him for most of our games. ARs were no better either. I could have sworn they could be your regular Joes sporting ref attire.
 
Saw a couple of games that brought in ECNL/DPL patch girls added to current rosters and even a team whose uniforms did not exactly match up. Competition was good throughout but the seedings for the G03 groups seemed a little unbalanced. Seemed like teams from the lower brackets could easily have played with some of the higher bracket teams. Ref's were on par with typical SCDSL flight 1 refs. Not great, missed calls, but hey, I didn't want to do it so can't complain too much. Second year my DD has played and overall fun experience to get good exposure to teams outside of So Cal.
 
I'm not usually one to bash refereeing, and I won't second guess a call, but for the G03 events at Silver Bowl, the only crew I'd want back on one of our games had Mexican referee patches on. That Mexican crew was very good, and they spoke great English, too. The rest were not demonstrating basic competency. For instance, not blowing a whistle to start a Kick-Off. Drop ball taken where the injured player was, not the position of the ball when play was stopped and etc.

Every other official on the field weren't even wearing referee patches. I was shocked. I mean, not a single one had a patch on their shirt. They had to have been told to take them off. Who doesn't have a USSF referee patch? One AR must have been handed a shirt on his way to the field. He really didn't have any idea what he was doing. He was worse than just about any club linesmen I've had, at any age.

I empathize that with so many games to do, they had to have been short. I wonder if this is a yearly problem with this tournament. As mentioned above, the CR's on all but one of our games were sticking to 20 yards from the center. I have to assume they were tired from working all day, so I don't blame them too much. It is hard to manage a game from the middle of the field, especially when you don't have competent assistants.

This is the first Player's showcase I've been to. The other 2 Las Vegas tournaments I've been to have very competent officials, from around North America.
 
Agreed Xolo... In our group, we have two teams in the 300+ national GotSoccer rankings, one in the 600's and one in the 1700. The 1700 team didn't win a game in SCDSL filght one (0-8-2) and they loaded up with their ECNL players and beat all three of us. (one game 7-1) I didn't expect that from CDA Slammers HB but they took a page out of RB's playbook this year... I bet they'll do the same at SC... The rules say 5 guest players but I counted way more than 5 patches during warm ups and then all girls put on regular slammers jersey's for the game with taped numbers... It's been a great weekend so far and a great experience all together but as long as there's ways around rules, someone will find a way to do it. Not sure what they have to gain from it and if they wanted their ECNL girls to stay sharp, why not play them in the USYS and get some scout exposure to boot???
If that was the 03 age bracket the slammers o3 ECNL team was playing also. So those were not slammers ECNL players guesting.
 
Refs were beyond horrible. Our CRs did not move more than 5 feet from the center line and we had him for most of our games. ARs were no better either. I could have sworn they could be your regular Joes sporting ref attire.

15 minutes into the South Shore (MA) v. Ajax United '03 (NorCal) match at Silverbowl....the 3 man officiating crew walked off the field. Refused to ref the game. With many colleges in attendance (UCLA, Stanford, Harvard, etc..) coaches and players decided to play without ref's .....2 minutes into the "pickup game" the Tournament Director runs onto the field and takes the ball. Says its a liability to play without refs. He refused to replace or change refs. Both coaches even agreed to have a parent ref (he's licensed) but T.D. said no. Both teams stood around for 30-40 minutes (actually started to hang out, take pictures with each other, etc...). Very disappointing for all parties - players, college coaches, etc...
 
15 minutes into the South Shore (MA) v. Ajax United '03 (NorCal) match at Silverbowl....the 3 man officiating crew walked off the field. Refused to ref the game. With many colleges in attendance (UCLA, Stanford, Harvard, etc..) coaches and players decided to play without ref's .....2 minutes into the "pickup game" the Tournament Director runs onto the field and takes the ball. Says its a liability to play without refs. He refused to replace or change refs. Both coaches even agreed to have a parent ref (he's licensed) but T.D. said no. Both teams stood around for 30-40 minutes (actually started to hang out, take pictures with each other, etc...). Very disappointing for all parties - players, college coaches, etc...
I would have been pissed. Why did they walk off? Refs were ok for ours until the final. Dd’s Team won but it was bad.
 
15 minutes into the South Shore (MA) v. Ajax United '03 (NorCal) match at Silverbowl....the 3 man officiating crew walked off the field. Refused to ref the game. With many colleges in attendance (UCLA, Stanford, Harvard, etc..) coaches and players decided to play without ref's .....2 minutes into the "pickup game" the Tournament Director runs onto the field and takes the ball. Says its a liability to play without refs. He refused to replace or change refs. Both coaches even agreed to have a parent ref (he's licensed) but T.D. said no. Both teams stood around for 30-40 minutes (actually started to hang out, take pictures with each other, etc...). Very disappointing for all parties - players, college coaches, etc...
It would be great to get more info on this story. Don't most tournaments guarantee a certain number of games? It is possible the ref crew had a good reason.
 
Curious to see how many of the teams had pamphlets printed out and handed them out to the college coaches.

When my DD played one of the parents stood on one side of the field and I stood on the other. When we saw a coach we would ask them if they were there to watch a particular player. If they were we informed the club coach that a college was there to watch a certain girl play. That way if the girl was not in the coach could sub her in immediately.

If the college coach was just there to scout the team for players we would ask the coach what type of college they were (D1-NAIA) and what type of player typically is accepted into their school(GPA) and what is the schools area of specialty if they have one (Culinary, Christian,Liberal Arts, Tech). We would even ask about the size of the school. Then if there was a kid or kids who fit that profile we would point them out and hand them a pamphlet.

Also, by standing on either side of the field we could spot the coaches easier and call each other when we see them. It worked. My DD had her initial contact with her college this way.
 
Were the coaches receptive to this? It sounds like a good idea, but many of them seem to already know who they’re coming to watch.
 
It would be great to get more info on this story. Don't most tournaments guarantee a certain number of games? It is possible the ref crew had a good reason.

We were preparing to play on an adjacent field and a couple of our parents had been watching the game in question. They told us about it later and they felt that the crowd watching that game was very belligerent to the ref crew and it felt that the situation was getting out of control. Without knowing why the crowd had become so belligerent, they felt that ref crew had done the right thing to leave.
 
Were the coaches receptive to this? It sounds like a good idea, but many of them seem to already know who they’re coming to watch.
All the coaches that spoke to were very easy to approach and were eager to talk. If they were there for a specific player I would ask them if they still wanted a pamphlet. All of them took one.

The pamphlets had the players picture, name, height and weight, positions, HS, GPA, email (some also wanted parents email)and projected major.
 
We were preparing to play on an adjacent field and a couple of our parents had been watching the game in question. They told us about it later and they felt that the crowd watching that game was very belligerent to the ref crew and it felt that the situation was getting out of control. Without knowing why the crowd had become so belligerent, they felt that ref crew had done the right thing to leave.
Sounds like the grownups ruined things once again.
 
15 minutes into the South Shore (MA) v. Ajax United '03 (NorCal) match at Silverbowl....the 3 man officiating crew walked off the field. Refused to ref the game. With many colleges in attendance (UCLA, Stanford, Harvard, etc..) coaches and players decided to play without ref's .....2 minutes into the "pickup game" the Tournament Director runs onto the field and takes the ball. Says its a liability to play without refs. He refused to replace or change refs. Both coaches even agreed to have a parent ref (he's licensed) but T.D. said no. Both teams stood around for 30-40 minutes (actually started to hang out, take pictures with each other, etc...). Very disappointing for all parties - players, college coaches, etc...
 
Maybe some of the refs here can chime in. Short of some kind of threat of violence or bodily harm, a ref can throw parents, coaches, or players out until things calm down.
 
We had a bunch of idiot refs who either didn't speak English or wouldn't engage. Terrible calls and the other team was questioning calls that would go in our favor
 
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