maryvillescots

are you agreeing or disagreeing? i can't tell from your comments. are you saying you were there, you weren't for fairview or csas but thought the ref was in the wrong?

That coach for Fairview absolutely and completely yelled and screamed at his team like I have never heard anyone yelled at, ever. I would not be surprised if half of those kids weren't in tears after the reeming he gave them. I hardly think that this was because the referee had been so much in the wrong and his kids were the victims, he was totally ashamed of the spectacle at the end of the game. I just wish one person from Chattanooga would get on here, a person that was there, and describe EXACTLY what happened. The perspective is entirely different.

I'm sincerely not trying to make anyone look bad. I am simply stating the facts as I saw them. Nothing I have said was meant to stir up trouble, it is what any person who saw what happened the other night would say. I am also not saying anything about the personal character of the kids for Fairview, great guys or jerks, they were entirely in the wrong and I will acknowledge their admission to that. Anything and everything that the referee said to the players was purely in response to their questions - and I am being nice by saying anything they said was in the form of a 'question.' He did tell many of them to go home, but not in the context of what has been posted on this board. That was his first attempt to get the kids for Fairview to leave him alone...and they kept coming...and coming. You weren't there and didn't see it. Don't be surprised to actually see the opposite of your wishes, to see a handful of the Fairview players suspended or ouright banned from participation in a TSSAA event in the future. I'll close again by asking you to ask the players that you believe in so much, who their coach was ashamed of at the end of the game, it was not the ref at all, it was his own team. And he saw the entire event as I did. Not one posting from anyone for Fairview in this listing has ever once listed that a number of reprimands should have been handed to them. If you are looking at the wrongs performed on both sides, Fairviews list far, far outnumbers the referees with this situation but for some reason, because he has an officials uniform on, he should be the one punished for his wrongs that pale in comparison to what a handful of Fairview players did. Why is that? If a Fairview player shot and killed someone and the referee threw a rock at someone, everyone on this board thinks that the ref should be crucified because he is an official and should know better and the kid should be excused because he just acted in the heat of the moment? Where is the sense in that? Sorry Gerry Bertier, but that is NOT the real world. Those kids should be in just as much trouble if not ten times more so than that referee. That is how it is.

If you had seen the game and what actually happened (you may have) and pretended it was your dad out there as that center ref, you could completely understand where I'm coming from with the referees reaction. Where in the rule books does it say that players can all but physically assault someone, chasing them off the field cursing and hurling threats repeatedly...and the referee is supposed to just walk away. The referee did walk away, at least twice. I distinctly saw at least six Fairview players chase him all the way across the field as he tried to leave, running around people trying to hold them back to get in his face. So tell me, if that was your father or brother out there, you would just tell him not to react at all. At some point, when you are relying on the host school's parents and/or principal to keep kids from killing you or at least looking like they wanted to, your 'referee rules' fly out the window and you protect yourself. Try that out on the street somewhere, a soccer field doesn't change the rules of life. What the Fairview player's did should absolutely NOT be tolerated. I even heard their head coach yelling at a large group of the players saying he should never let them put a Fairview uniform on again. In all my years of playing and watching middle school, high school, collegiate and professional soccer, I have never seen such a distubing display as I saw out of the Fairview players at the end of that game. The sad thing is, Fairview is a pretty good team that had an opportunity to advance, some of their players had nothing to do with any of that behavior and those that did do wrong, robbed those players of a decent end to their season.

Fairview, fellas, you lost. The referees didn't cost you the game, your lack of composure did. If I've seen it once, I've seen it a thousand times. Yes, questionable calls were made both ways. The difference between the two teams was that your coach started all of the hysteria by yelling about the trivial calls early on. He complained about throw-ins, free-kicks, cards or lack-there-of and the team just followed suit. I was at the game, in very close quarters to everything that was going on. Fairview did have a 'speaking captain' but every encounter he initiated with the center referee was to charge in his face and yell 'What's the call?' No referee, whether perfect or poor in his performance, will ever respond to a team in a positive way to this behavior. I have been around the game for 22 years. I know firsthand that you cannot concentrate your efforts as a team on bad calls which is clearly what happened with Fairview. They have a good team but they are poorly coached in critical situations. If I were the Fairview coach, I would have sat the guys down, yelled at them like he did after the game and told them to shut up and play. Some of the calls were suspect but nothing to the degree that has been posted on this board. The center ref did become very aggressive towards the Fairview players at the end and he had good reason to. I very distinctly heard at least one racial slur yelled in his direction along with personal threats. I was standing less than 30 yards away - I heard it with my own ears. There was even consideration by local officials to report the Fairview players for what was said The referee DID NOT initiate this contact. There were at least 200 people on hand that will validate that the Fairview players were chasing this official off the field at the end of the game in a very threatening manner screaming at the top of their lungs, flipping him off and trying to run around and get in front of his face. Tell me any man that won't become rattled in this situation.

Anybody seen Drew Courtney from CCS? He's got D-1 speed and skill.