The Cornhusker State Games were in town this weekend. Did you notice? I'm not sure I would have noticed had I not refereed four CSG soccer matches. There seemed to be very little marketing this year. Or do I just watch all of the wrong TV stations, listen to all the wrong radio stations, and see all the wrong billboards?
The soccer events had some successes and some failures. I'll start with the latter by noting that organization of the soccer events was very poor this year. At the game site I was at, Cornhusker State Games involvement seemed to be limited to setting up the brackets, handing out medals, and providing a medic. There was virtually no other CSG presence. Even the rules they provided were screwed up -- 25 minute halves for the adult competitive division?! -- and had to be changed, and there was no way to verify that players were legal.
On the plus side, I want to give a hearty "Bravo!" to the teams in the two adult divisions I worked with. In years past, adult soccer at the CSG was characterized by violence and chaos. It was awful. I stayed away from reffing the CSG for several years as a result. This year was completely different. The players were almost universally in a good mood, and they just wanted to play. Even better, the level of competition was decent. None of the teams will be competing at the World Cup any time soon, but most of the teams included current and former high school and college players who can play the game pretty well. It was very refreshing, and I hope it continues next year.
Now for the qualifier: I was only around the soccer events, so don't take my comments about the CSG too far. I have always heard, for example, that the adventure race and triathlon are well-organized. I would love to get around to more of the events, but when your dad is the soccer referee assignor, well, your weekend is pretty much planned out for you.
Did any of you participate in the Games this year? Were you a spectator? How did it go? Any gold medal winners in our midst?
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I didn’t know they were this weekend. That’s probably because I assumed they were next weekend, since I was going to participate in the triathlon, which is next Sunday. I listen to KLIN for an hour in the morning and randomly throughout the day via their webcast, hit journalstar.com several times a day, and consume other local media. I heard about the torch lighting, but that’s about it. I can recall KLIN having someone on to talk about it a couple weeks ago, but other than that I didn’t hear anything.
I haven’t played CSG soccer since 2002. Before that, it was 98 or 99, whenever LPD had to babysit because knives and guns were pulled on the field and in the stands. I didn’t have a whole lot of fun playing in 2002 because we played against Doane’s and Wesleyan’s varsity squads, and Creighton’s reserve team. Our team was pretty good, but we still got smoked by the coached and practiced teams.
For a couple years I had thought the CSG soccer events would go the way of the Dodo bird, especially after hearing the soccer director threaten to kill the event a couple years ago. From what it sounds like, that wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I certainly don’t/wouldn’t miss it.
I played in the Over 30 men’s soccer division, and I echo what you said about rules and no way to verify if players are legal. We played an Omaha team with a mix of former Creighton and Hastings College players, as well as a few guys from Lincoln. We beat them Saturday morning when they only had 9 guys. They also lost their second game Saturday—a game in which four red cards were given out. Then when we played them Sunday in the championship, they suddenly had a lot more players, some of whom didn’t look over 30. I checked their roster on the CSG Web site and they had 11 players registered. I know during our game Sunday they had more than 11 who played. We eventually lost on penalty kicks.
I was disappointed in the fields at Wright Park as well. They needed a good mowing. Things were much better last year at Abbott; I hope it goes back there.
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