In the Red

Today there is a Murray high school sophomore/freshman girls soccer game, but Josh will not be attending. That is unusual as he is the coach of that team. However, he is not allowed to be at the game. Why, you may ask, and the answer is simple. Because my normally level headed and very even tempered husband, the same man who softly scolds me for my extremes in emotion and for sometimes letting those emotions get the best of me, managed to get a red card at the last soccer game. (For you non-soccer types, a red card is given to players or coaches for extremely inappropriate behavior...yellow cards are given for less severe but still inappropriate behaviors and fouls are given for the stuff that just happens in a game that isn't nice).

Josh's team was playing a team for the second time this season. The last time they played this team Murray won, but the other team beat them up pretty good and muttered threats under their breath and even took a some illegal shots at Josh's girls when the officials weren't looking. Josh was concerned for his girl's safety before the game and even asked the refs to keep an eye out because of the previous problem.

There are two refs at a soccer game, one on each side of the field and the one on Josh's team's side seemed to know very little about the game and let almost everything go. A couple of times these girls shoved his girls to the ground (no kidding, I watched) and when Josh would say "Aren't you going to call that," the ref would respond "Let it go, coach." That happened a lot during the game and near the end, when there were about two minutes left in the game, one of the girls from the other team took a swing at one of Josh's girls because she had stolen the ball (legally) from her. The ref saw it, Josh asked if he was going to call that finally, the ref said "The game is almost over, just let it go." Josh lost it and yelled, "Try that again #7 and we will have an issue!" across the field. Well, obviously, the other ref (who didn't see anything) was appalled that Josh kind of threatened one of the players and appropriately gave him a red card which precludes him from being at the game today.

When Josh got home that night the first thing he said was, "You don't need to chew me out, I already feel really badly." I'm not sure I have ever seen him so meek. He really regretted handling things that way, especially in front of his girls. However, I cannot tell you how many parents came to thank him for being willing to stand up for the girls on his team and do what he could to protect them. Josh apologized profusely to his girls and tried to help them understand what he should have done instead. The girls, of course, think it is the coolest thing in the world that their coach got a red card, especially because they know he almost never loses his cool. Josh has decided to chalk it up to a learning experience and handle things differently next time.

Mostly, I just think it is funny (it wouldn't be if this was his normal behavior, but it isn't) and am having fun teasing him about it. Josh is embarrassed, but taking it like a man...even though his girls have told all their friends so there are lots of students that have asked him all about it. Such is the life of a soccer coach.