The Trash Ref

Michael Ferry, 1999 Youth Referee of the Year for the State of Arkansas 10/18/2000

I was doing A U-17 game. Decent game, good skill, competitive match. The ball was constantly changing directions and switching sides. I'm running down my line keeping up with the last defender (I am the AR for the game) and there is an offside. I snap my flag up to signal the offside, the next thing I know, I have no flag in my hand. The flag is in the air. I snapped my arm up too fast, and launched the flag on a very fast accent towards the clouds. The center referee, looks over at me with a stunned look. He understood the meaning of this newly created signal and called the offside. Losing control of the flag wasn't that bad, after leaping from my hand the flag sailed with a perfect arc and landed in a nearby trash can. The rest of the game I was known as "The Trash Ref".

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