One week ago today (28 February), the Spring Season for the St. Louis Youth Soccer Association (SLYSA) (Home - St Louis Youth Soccer (slysa.org)) began for me as a referee. I worked three under 14 boys matches at World Wide Technology Soccer Park (SLSG Facilities - Soccer Park | St. Louis Scott Gallagher Soccer Club (slsgsoccer.com)) in Fenton. The games went well--I had the middle in between two matches as an assistant referee--but lightning in the vicinity caused a 30-minute delay in the first half of the first match. This pushed the rest of the day's games behind schedule, but nothing we can do about that.
Today, I was at the Lou Fusz Soccer Complex (Lou Fusz Soccer Complex - St Louis Youth Soccer (slysa.org)) in Maryland Heights for four under 12 boys matches. One of my partners and I took turns refereeing, so I was in the middle for the second and fourth games of the set. My two middles involved a team from Illinois, which won their matches handily. They outscored their opponents today by 21 goals to nil. This was in one of the lower divisions of the age bracket, so the overall quality of play was not that great. However, this one team did very well in their matches today.