Quick Story

I did not work as a soccer referee at all in the fall since Luigi was born in September, and I was a little busy. Even with three kids, I planned on doing some occasional work as a referee this spring, but then I dislocated my wrist in January. My primary referee assigner contacted me a few weeks ago to see if I could work an adult game during a weekday night, and I feel like I performed pretty well, particularly since it was really the first time I truly ran in about 8 months.

For my birthday, I wanted to ref for only the second time since August. Since my birthday fell on Mother's Day (and again there's that whole three kid thing), I knew that I had only a limited window available. I found an early morning under-9 (probably 2nd and 3rd graders) girls game where I would only be gone about two hours.

It was an easy game to ref with nice players, coaches, and parents. Even the Canadian geese were pleasant enough to leave the field when I shoo-ed them off before the start of the second half.

As I left the field though, a woman called out to me. She didn't say "Ref," she said Pedro Tulo's dad. (Not his actual name.) I think I stopped and turned like Burt Lancaster did in Field Of Dreams (go to 1:35 of this video).



It turns out that the sister of one of Pedro Tulo's preschool classmates played on one of the two teams. I talked with the mom and his classmate for a few minutes including answering the little girl's question of where was Pedro Tulo. I wonder if she'll mention to Pedro Tulo today that she saw me and if Pedro Tulo will have any type of reaction.