Anonymous wrote:I honestly don’t get it. Are the parents/players/coaches hoping to notify the ref of a rule they may be unaware of? Hoping the ref becomes more lenient to your team on future calls? Trying to distract them from reffing the game? Just generally need a target to take out frustration?

I watch people shouting at refs and I seriously don’t understand what good they can think might possibly come of it. I feel like I’m missing something here.

I cannot agree more. There should be a simple ban, period. Players, coaches, parents. The same should be true in professional sports.

The answer is in the thread. Lots of posters saying “I would never yell at a ref…except for XYZ.”

If people think yelling is justifiable and/or effective in specific circumstances, then what you’re seeing is just different levels for XYZ. Or XYZ is moving with their stress level.

For me, it was tough as a youth sports player to learn how to draw a line when you’re in a situation where you’re already yelling a lot and acting out passionately about everything else in the game. Parents can struggle with the same thing. Crossing the line doesn’t require going from 0 to 100 like a lot of other situations, it’s just going from 95 to 100 and aiming slightly left.

There should be a zero tolerance policy for arguing with refs in youth sports, imo. Give the coaches some strict rules for contesting calls but zero for players and parents. Make it easier by drawing a clear line and enforcing it.

Anonymous wrote:You can rationalize it all you want but there is never a reason to yell at ref at youth soccer game.

If you are parent/coaching yelling at teenager that is reffing, your behavior is appalling.

Arlington's Rec program has a zero tolerance policy about yelling at refs and coaches have been banned for doing it.

I wish other places would do this to. The stuff I’ve seen in rec soccer is appalling and at best they just get warnings.