WPIAL Notebook: Officiating gaffes are nothing new, but will things ever improve?

One week into the WPIAL boys and girls soccer playoffs the competition has been good, there have been many exciting games through the first round and quarterfinals.  Maybe most importantly, by proceeding cautiously, with coaches, players, school officials, referees and parents/family members doing their part to ensure a safe environment almost every kid that was on a high soccer roster this fall got to lace up their boots and play. In some respects, considering that we’re in the midst of a pandemic, having gotten this far with a playoff tournament in each classification in the WPIAL has helped provide some sense of normalcy during this unprecedented year.

The playoffs always bring intense games as the knockout stages as top players rise to the occasion, some players who’ve grown and improved through the season are now peaking and putting forth their best performances against the toughest competition.

These kids are laying it all on the line.

This, of course, puts additional pressure on referees.

Again, last night, in boys and girls quarterfinal round matches a few incidents reared their ugly heads and shone the spotlight on officiating miscues.

First, in the South Park-Deer Lakes match, an apparent handball in the box was missed by the officiating crew in overtime of a scoreless draw as South Park were pressing forward for the game-winner after a dangerous free kick into the box.

Deer Lakes would win the match on a Devin Murray strike in the second period of extra time.

If you haven’t seen it, here’s the video included with Jordan Smith’s tweet from our Twitter account.

@wpial7 …. sorry but these officials cannot do another game this year. pic.twitter.com/S0OzkUe6uv

— TJ OBrien (@Coach_TJOBrien) October 30, 2020

Here’s a close-up of the handball in the box.

 

South Park’s veteran coach Jon Cantwell, who’s squad stood up defensively, weathering the storm throughout the match against a strong, attack-minded Deer Lakes team, was certainly frustrated with the end result.

After his team executed their game plan that put them in position to pull out the win, he had to console his players after being eliminated from the playoffs in cruel fashion.

“It was a tough one to swallow,” Cantwell said. “Very sad that their incompetence or maybe their weakness to make a tough call ended the season and the careers of the South Park players.

In addition, another blunder occurred at ‘The Castle’ in Norwin on Thursday.

In his game report of the North Allegheny-Norwin girls semifinal (won by NA, 3-0) Ed Rosensteel shared another gaffe which came during a penalty kick scenario and later followed up on social media with his additional findings.

So the kick was retaken, right? pic.twitter.com/42tIYnGYlv

— Jim Faeder (@DoctorF) October 30, 2020

Nope

— Ed Rosensteel (@edrosensteel) October 30, 2020

Bottom line here — the officials involved in this 4A match didn’t know the rule that the kick should have been retaken in that scenario.

There really are no excuses for that mishap.

Look, there’s no doubt that even at the highest levels of the game, officials are going to make mistakes, but it’s always important to raise the standards. There was a fair amount of upset coaches, players and, of course, parents taking their frustrations out on social media expressing their frustation.

It seems as if officiating standards haven’t been raised since we initially addressed concerns about them on this forum four years ago. Instead, there’s a continued stream of disgust from everyone involved.

However, it is important to note and recognize that the PIAA is struggling to recruit and employ referees. While continuing to demand that enforcement of the game’s rules and play on the field can be better, we should applaud all those officials who have been out there — during a pandemic no less — trying to cover a more stretched out WPIAL schedule and playoff slate that now includes games every night but Sunday and Friday.  There are some officials out there who’ve covered five to six games per week and are doing a great job.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported in August that 50 WPIAL soccer officials did not return this year,

Vince Sortino, WPIAL assistant to the executive director, spoke about the situation along with Nick Morea, the male officials representative on the WPIAL board of directors in the article. Sortino told the P-G, that the WPIAL has not received word yet from any schools that don’t have officials to cover games.

“It’s always a concern when you’re losing officials, but I don’t think it’s to the point where it’s a big concern,” Sortino said. “The point is that everyone is working much closer communication-wise. Communication is the most important part of this process.”

Sortino said two factors have had an effect on this shortage.

“The number of officials has been down across the state the past couple years,” Sortino said. “Then this is the year for renewal of clearances for a lot of officials and some of them have chosen not to go through that again. They’re not going through the hassle. On top of that, the COVID hit. We were already lacking officials and now two more things became a reality.”

All of these are factors certainly contribute to these officiating issues.

We have not sugarcoated things or tip-toed around the topic of high school officiating here on Pittsburgh Soccer Now (or our predecessor site, Pittsburgh Soccer Report) in recent years.

In a survey sent to boys coaches, most of the responses in terms of what needs to be improved the most with the high school game revolved around the way the game is officiated.  Feedback came back in unison about officiating concerns relating to two questions:

1.) If you were PIAA Soccer commissioner (if there was one) or have a seat on the rules committee, what rule(s) would you change?

2.) What are the biggest challenges relating to PIAA/WPIAL soccer officials? 

Since you may have missed it published in our WPIAL Notebook a few weeks ago, here are the survey responses below:

If you were PIAA Soccer commissioner (if there was one) or have a seat on the rules committee, what rule(s) would you change? 

Here are some of the columns and storylines we’ve shared during the past four years relating to high school officiating.  Within the WPIAL, we certainly applaud their efforts that led to a proposal to a pilot program that would institute a one-whistle system in 2019.  That was voted down by PIAA Soccer Committee.

Analysis: Flawed officiating system continues to plague HS soccer

Are changes coming to high school officiating? PIAA votes Wednesday on WPIAL’s pilot program

Column: PIAA’s rejection of pilot proposal deters momentum for one-whistle system

Most share frustrations with HS officiating system to ‘get conversation started in meaningful way’

And so, here we are again.

One step up, two steps back.

We hope that heading into the new year, the PIAA Soccer committee strongly reconsider the WPIAL’s proposal to pilot the one-whistle system and focus on retraining and recruiting more qualified referees.