Referee relishes tourney 'spirit'

By DAVID LESNICK

Daily Inter Lake

Dixon Rice’s first exposure to soccer was that of a bystander.

“I was carrying a kid on my shoulders while one of my other kids was playing on the field,” he said.

From there, it led to more than just that.

“They needed coaches and I let myself get arm-twisted into that,” he continued.

They also needed referees ....

And the arm-twisting continued.

“All youth sports are in need of coaches and referees,” he said.

Rice, now at the age of 70, is in his 20th year of refereeing soccer. This weekend he pulled doubled duty by scheduling referees for the Three Blinds Refs Tournament at Kidports Complex in addition to working it — he did four games on Saturday and will work four more today.

“My legs can take it,” he said.

“Decision making though suffers a little bit (after doing four games a day).”

Thus, four is his max.

He said some referees can work as many as six matches while he limits the kids, who play in the tournament, to just two matches when they ref.

This year, more than 80 referees were in attendance from Montana, Idaho, Washington and Canada.

Since this is the 24th edition of the tournament, Rice has been there for all but four of them. And he takes no offense to the event’s name.

“It’s all in the good spirit of things,” he said of the Blind Refs reference.

“The whole idea was to have a fun tournament at the end of the year.

“It’s not like the state cup. And those who want to have a competitive tournament here can still do so and get a trophy.”

This year 120 teams from the Pacific Northwest and Canada are competing in 10 age divisions — U10 through U19 — on 18 soccer fields (14 at Kidsports and 4 at Glacier High School). That translates to roughly 1,500 boys and girls participating.

All totaled, 220 matches will be played.

Action begins today at 8 a.m. Championship matches run from noon to 3 p.m.

“We see teams we normally don’t see,” Dixon said of what he enjoys the most.

“Spokane, Boise, Calgary ... It’s fun to see different teams and how they play and what their approach to the sport is.”

Rice’s sons and daughters played in this tournament and two of them — Jared and Megan — went on to be four-year starters at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.

“The reason they became good players is they also reffed,” Dixon said.

“They kind of saw the big picture.”

One of the rewarding parts for Dixon is watching youngsters try their hand at what he does.

“I enjoy working with teenagers to give them confidence to go out to center (of the field and referee),” he said.

“It’s a big moment when they do their first center.”

On the down side, he said a lot of those youngsters get turned off by vocal fans.

“Chewed out by parents, we lose a lot of teenage refs,” he said.

“A lot of them (parents) don’t know the rules. They are trying to live their lives through their kids.”

As far as Saturday’s action, the day ran pretty smoothly despite some last-minute changes for scheduling and juggling the referee pool a little bit. The weather was ideal with plenty of sunshine, a comforting breeze and temperatures in the 70s. All in all, a beautiful day to be on the pitch.