Most refs do but not all (some are a disaster). I don't think parents and coaches underestimate the intelligence of players, I think they feel obligated to smother them, not them play and make decisions for themselves, they are afraid of the consequences if a 10 year old actually makes a mistake when they should realize its ok to make a mistake and now is the time to make them. Kids actually learn from mistakes and the game is the best teacher, not the constant barrage of direction from the sideline.

If you feel that the parents do not let them make mistakes or feel that they cannot make decisions for themselves than you are indeed agreeing with me that the adults underestimate the players soccer intelligence. I am constantly amazed by the athletic and cognitive talent displayed by the youngest of players on the pitch. You will also be amazed at how many players make comments and ignore what some insane adult is screaming at them to do. Many are there just to play and if you asked them the score (in a close game) most are not even aware of it.

Young players actually learn quite quickly and as another pointed out, the ref will generally tell them “white ball” or “blue’s throw in. The problem is that the parents and so-called coaches do not know what they should know – the signals – and then start yelling “what’s the call”. Instead of learning what they should know to help the young players, they leave that to the one person who should be the last on the list for training their players – the ref.

Learning to look at which way the ref is pointing to tell you if you are on attack or defense is EASY, even for a 9 year old. Maybe coaches should start teaching them this instead of having the kids dribble around cones for an hour………..

I'm not disagreeing, but I don't think they actually underestimate their intelligence. I don't think that they consider that. They are fearful of the consequences of their child making a mistake. It's not just soccer, a great percentage of parents these days do their kids homework with them because they don't want something turned in with a wrong answer. It's shocking to me how smothered this generation is growing up.

It's commonly referred to as "helicopter parenting" where the parents are always "hovering" over their children, fearful that they will make a mistake and fail. What they don't realize is that mommy and daddy can't be there all the time and children need to learn things on their own.

Is there a certain time period referees need to abide by to put in the sportsmanship points? I know as coaches, we are told the scores must be put in by the end of the day. Yet here we are getting ready for Week 7 of the fall season and all I see are 2 games entered for my team. Just for arguments sake, let's say it was the first 2 weeks which I know it isn't, that means there is a gap of 5+ weeks including an off week for Columbus weekend.

my experience is the higher you rate the refs, the higher your Sportsmanship award. Give all high marks to refs, win sportsmanship. For all I know they take the numerical scores you assign to refs and simply award Sportsmanship that way.

If you don't see scores after 7 weeks, you will not seem them until the end of the season where the system will then average out the scores that are actually entered. The referees are supposed to enter them manually within a few days but many don't bother.

You guys are all wrong. To address the original question:the referee is expected to enter the sportsmanhip points the same day they do their game report. Their game report should be in the mail by Monday. If sportsmanship scores are missing for weeks than either the referees have not entered the scores or the system has not been recording them. There have been problems with the system. I have had no problem entering the scores every week.

Now, as far as the ratings the coaches give the referees, I never see mine and they have absolutely no correlation to the sportmanship scores. You can now see the sportsmanship scores as they accumulate every week. When I enter the scores I see them addded in. In my opinion it gives the team immediate feedback. For example during POW if everybody on your team continued to coach and yell instructions from the parents and the coaches you should expect to score very low. Whether you agree with the system or not it's in place so I take it seriously and score accordingly. Therefore I have to be fair and score consistently from week to week.