Blowing the Whistle
By DIRK BAAYProfessor Emeritus of German
On a warm spring day in 1968, a group of soccer lovers, including the late Bill Boddington and CC's men's soccer Coach Horst Richardson, held a sign-up for a kids' soccer program. The CC soccer team played an exhibition match against a local amateur team and 300 kids signed up. From there, the program grew by leaps and bounds, until in the late '70s youth soccer clubs were organized and high schools added socccer to their varsity sports, first for boys and later for girls. We now have some 5,000 kids playing organized soccer in Colorado Springs. That is not an isolated phenomenon. Soccer has exploded all over the nation. In Colorado alone, the number of competitive youth soccer players is more than 60,000. Kids juggling a soccer ball or getting crammed into a van on their way to a game are common in TV ads, and the expression "soccer moms" has become part of our political vocabulary.
Ref (pulling out the yellow): "You're right but my hearing is pretty good."
I feel fortunate to have been part of that story for more than 30 years as a fan and a coach, but mainly as a referee. Now retired as a teacher but not quite yet as a referee, I have written a book, "Blowing The Whistle." The book is not a memoir but a referee's view of soccer, with chapters on the philosophy and psychology of refereeing as well as on the application of the spirit of the rules to game situations. It also deals with the problems and opportunities for soccer in North America created by its dramatic growth. Writing the book has been a labor of love, and the cartoon drawings by Denver artist and referee Flint Whitlock as well as many anecdotes make it accessible to a broader soccer public. The cover was designed by Ted Yun, CC class of '95.
I was first recruited into soccer refereeing in the early '60s when Grinnell College in Iowa, where I then taught, started a soccer program. I had grown up playing soccer in The Netherlands but had not yet memorized soccer's catechism, "The Laws of the Game." Pressed into service, I borrowed a striped shirt and reffed my first college game. When I came to Colorado College in 1966, I found a flourishing soccer program in place. Under several faculty volunteers such as Paul Bernard (history) and Alex Malyshev (Russian), but particularly under Bill Boddington, CC men's soccer (women's soccer was not even a gleam in anyone's eye) had grown to vie annually with Denver University and the Air Force Academy for soccer honors in Colorado. Our teams were made up largely of former prep school players and a few notable imports such as Solomon Nkiwane, class of '64. Solomon, now a professor of political science and deputy dean at the University of Zimbabwe, still returns to CC regularly to teach a few courses in his specialty. After Horst Richardson took over the soccer reins in the fall of 1966, the team played in the NCAA playoffs on Washburn Field against St. Louis University, then the foremost collegiate soccer power, and repeated the following year, though losing both times. Since then, the men's soccer team has competed many times in the Division III playoffs. Although, because of my teaching at CC, I could not referee its games, I reffed many scrimmages and alumni games here, and followed CC soccer as closely as I could. That also included the successes of our women's soccer teams from 1984 to 1991, when they were invited to the Division I playoffs eight times, and four times reached the Final Four, losing twice to powerhouse North Carolina.
Success in sports at CC is not simply measured in terms of trophies, however. More important are the qualities of mind and spirit that are fostered by our students' participation in sports. What happens on a soccer field is, as the introduction to "Blowing The Whistle" points out, analogous to life. The referee's task is to secure for players the same rights we have as citizens: equality (fairness), life and liberty (safety), and the pursuit of happiness (pleasure and enrichment). Those values ought to remain foremost in all sports, especially in schools and colleges.
Now that soccer is taking its place among other mass sports in American life, the sport is not immune to the problems that are inherent in professionalism and international competition. As a "sport for everyone," however, its entry into the lives of millions of Americans, especially youth, has been a happy experiment. I am fortunate to have been part of that development.
"Blowing The Whistle" is available at the Colorado College Bookstore.
