January 2022
Club News & Updates
Mercer Island FC is our community's volunteer-led,
non-profit soccer club for kids of all ages. Let’s play ball!
  • Happy New Year to all in the Mercer Island soccer community
  • Message From Paul Bayly - MIFC Director of Soccer
  • Cheer MIFC teams playing on the island in the Founders Cup - Sat Jan 29th
  • Referees focus: interview to Owen Kennedy
  • Registrations: Spring Select 15-20 Boys tryouts now open
A Happy New Year of soccer

A very Happy New Year to all soccer players and families of Mercer Island.

Greg Snyder, MIFC President and the MIFC Board Of Directors
The message from Paul Bayly, MIFC Director of Soccer
I hope this newsletter finds all of you well.

With State cup and tryouts in the horizon it's important to cheer from the sidelines and remind players to go out and complete within the rules of the game and behave in the right manor.
Players need to remember they represent the club, their teammates, their family, and most importantly they represent themselves.

I have read recently this article from the Washington Post highlighting student behavior: it is a reminder to us all that we need to improve on this, because before long we may not have officials accepting this behavior.

See below a copy of the article and take the opportunity to reflect on how this strange times may affect us, and take the opportunity to work all together.
Paul
Cheer MIFC teams playing the Founders Cup
This Saturday Jan 29th we are going to have the last pool matches of the 2022 Washington Youth Soccer Founders Cup.
There will be 4 matches played on Mercer Island and it will be a great opportunity to cheer our local teams that are part of this year Cup; all teams will surely play their best when in front of the home crowd, but some will also need a win in order to advance to the Cup semi-finals, and will need even more support!

MIFC will attend with its flags and bring some swag for all people to support the white and maroon colors.

Please see below the times - starting at 10:30 AM until 1 PM at Island Park, at 11AM at the Middle School Field.
We're looking forward to seeing you on Saturday. Go MI
Referee Focus: interview to Owen Kennedy
Referees are an important part of the soccer community, and a great way to engage in an active way with the sport. MIFC needs always referees from all groups: players, parents, soccer fans, and encourages everyone to consider the opportunity of supporting the club and the players becoming a referee.
Owen Kennedy is a 16 years old boy who lives on Mercer Island and is very involved with the soccer community, and has chosen to become a referee.
We decided to ask him about his experience as a referee and share it with all of you.

Owen, why did you decide to become a referee?
I decided to get into refereeing for the love of the game. I’m really into soccer and refereeing was a way to monetize my enthusiasm. I knew I would always have a free day on the weekends so I thought why not? That and I love being in charge. 
 
Was it difficult to get certified as a ref?
The certification process was actually very easy. My certification process was an online class that you could do on your own time. So there’s no schedule changes needed, whenever you want to sit down and learn the rules you can. Then there’s another 2 hour in person session where you can work on techniques and hear firsthand experience from people who have been refereeing for a while. Although I think they might not be doing the in-person sessions right now due to COVID. 
 
What does your day look like when you are refereeing games?
My mental process for refereeing games is to make sure I get to the field 20-30 minutes before the game. I make sure that I’m warm and ready because the worst thing would be to get injured. I check in with both coaches and make sure that all the players are on the roster and checked in. It’s a surprisingly easy process: the main challenge I face is trying to pronounce some of the players name’s.

You are also part of the Washington State Soccer Youth Council on Refereeing. What exactly is that?
The purpose of this council is to hear the players' voices and try to change Washington Soccer for the better. We have a lot of interesting projects going on right now and over the next six months or so we hope to have promoted some real change. 
 
What would you say to others who are interested in refereeing?
I would really recommend becoming a referee whether you're a player or a parent. As a player we will always have a day free on the weekend where you can referee. You get to pick your own games so you can organize your games around one field so you don’t have to move much. It pays well so for middle schoolers who aren’t old enough to work yet but want money can get involved and make good money while being around the game. For the parents out there who want to get involved, being a certified referee can have big benefits for your kids as well. If the referee doesn’t show up or the full referee crew isn’t there then if you have your shirt then you can make sure the kids games go ahead. It also helps so when you want to yell at the referee you will know what you are talking about. 
If you are interested in getting involved with refereeing then head to wareferees.org.

2022-2023 Select Tryouts - Boys under 15-20 years old

Mercer Island FC's Select program provides an opportunity to develop and play at a higher level of soccer on Mercer Island while maintaining a balance between school, family life, and other interests. MIFC Select program is also designed to help prepare athletes to play high school varsity soccer.

Registration for the Spring tryouts is now OPEN.
  • Registration closes on 05/01/2022
  • Season Dates: 07/01/2022 to 08/31/2023
As fans return to high school sports, officials say student behavior has never been worse
Roman Stubbs | (c) The Washington Post - Dec 20, 2021
 
As they competed in a high school basketball game in May, Talani Oliver and her teammate and younger sister, Mia Hicks-Oliver, heard someone in the crowd yell a racist epithet in their direction. Neither said anything to the crowd. At another point in the game, the Oliver sisters, who are Black and play for their local high school team in Zillah, Washington, heard fans from the opposing student section making monkey noises and gestures.
 
It didn't stop as the girls tried to make their way to the team's bus after the game, they later told their mother, who was not in attendance. When Lauria Oliver arrived to pick her daughters up, she noticed many of their teammates crying. She could see the devastation on her daughters' faces.
 
"It really did change a lot of things. It changed them, as people," said Lauria Oliver, who is White. "It was almost like we were in a Twilight Zone. You read about this happening in other places, but until it happens to you . . . you really don't know how you're going to feel."
 
Since the return of spectators to high school sporting events following the pandemic shutdown, many young athletes across the country have experienced similar hate speech and other abuse. School officials have reported problematic fan behavior ranging from students using foul language, making obscene gestures, throwing objects, and physically fighting. The uptick also has included spectators hurling sexually demeaning and racist language at young athletes.
 
Over the past year alone, alleged incidents of abuse by fans have been reported in California, Tennessee, Michigan, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Maryland and New York, among other states, and some longtime stakeholders in high school sports agree: the behavior among students in the stands has never been worse.
 
That has come as schools across the country have reported a surge in student misbehavior, which many educators believe is a reflection of the stress the pandemic has placed on teens.
 
"Sports is under the microscope . . . but where it's really happening is in our schools and in society. It's happening everywhere," said Bob Baldwin, a veteran superintendent and coach who is executive director of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. "Number one, we haven't had structure. We haven't had routine. In some cases, a kid who was a junior in high school never really went through their full freshman year, so they don't even know the ropes on how to behave.
"It's a microcosm of society in general," Baldwin continued. "People's behavior is dysregulated. It's, unfortunately, as bad as I've seen it."
 
The incident in Washington had echoes of others across the country. A high school cheer team in California endured racist taunts from students in August. In Montgomery County, Md., where in October officials had to move up football games to the afternoon over safety concerns after students fought at a game, members of a girl's soccer team at Einstein High School - a more diverse and less affluent school - accused Sherwood High School spectators of making racist remarks during multiple games.
 
A video of the chants directed toward the Oliver sisters made by some in the Connell High School student section went viral, and in the aftermath, the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association banned the school's girls basketball team from playing in the state playoffs. That move was eventually reversed after Connell appealed the decision, citing state law, but the school was levied with additional punishment, including a $1,000 fine.
 
Student fans were barred from attending games for the rest of the year and the school will not be able to host games until next year. Still, as parents sent more videos to her in the aftermath of the incident, Lauria Oliver was alarmed by the fact that no one in the gym from Connell stopped the students' behavior that day. The school's athletic director issued an apology on Facebook four days later.
 
"I don't think one thing was learned from their student body at all, I really don't," Oliver said. "I did have one parent from Connell email me and told me I failed as a parent because my children are different and I should have prepared them better for what was happening. I couldn't believe she did that, but she did."
 
Connell's principal, Bill Walker, did not respond to a request for comment.
 
In Massachusetts, Baldwin has dealt with several major cases in his first fall on the job: a fight broke out earlier in a September game after players from Roxbury Prep said they were called racist slurs by Georgetown High School players and fans. In November, Brockton High School students were allegedly subject to racist and homophobic remarks while performing at a football game.
 
"When we look at the racial instances, and the really horrific things that are said and done . . . we have taken what we might consider bad sportsmanship to a new level," said Karissa Niehoff, the executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations, which oversees most high school sports across the country. "It's bad sportsmanship, of course. But that's criminal. I think there's an uptick in the opportunity to do it. And they're doing it," Niehoff continued. "But there's also an uptick in awareness, there's an uptick in voice."
 
The girls' soccer team at Hartford High School in Vermont found its voice in October. The team's longtime coach, Jeff Acker, could tell "something was wrong" during a game at Fair Haven Union High School, but because the opposing student section was on the other side of the field, he didn't know exactly what. The crowd was cheering during odd times, and his players' body language was off.
 
With about six minutes to play, during a stoppage, one of his players simply walked off the pitch, and Acker quickly was told why: She was being sexually harassed by students in the opposing crowd. Acker walked onto the field and pulled his entire team, telling them: "We're out of here." An investigation by Fair Haven Union's school district later found that several of the school's students had made inappropriate comments, including "calling out opposing players by name and number, moaning and barking," and would be disciplined, according to a statement.
 
"Good for her, for standing up for herself and then be able to tell me what had happened," Acker said. "What you realize is, this kind of stuff isn't actually new, that it happens a lot. The typical response from high school girls is that they're embarrassed, they're ashamed, they don't want to make a big deal. . . . This girl said no, I'm not doing that. And her teammates, who had heard it all, stood up for her, and said, 'this is what happened, this is not okay.'"
 
It was not the only high-profile story of a female athlete enduring sexual harassment during a game that month. In Pennsylvania, members of a student section chanted sexually explicit vulgarities at an opposing goalie who was the only female player on the team. The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League later banned students at Armstrong High School from attending any varsity hockey games for the rest of the season, and now requires the school to assign an administrator or faculty member to attend each home and away game to monitor fans for inappropriate behavior.
 
"We haven't had structure or routine for two years for kids, so you've got that," Baldwin said. "You've also got kids watching adults over the last two years behave in ways that are not upstanding, either. So we're just calling for people to be kind and more civil."
 
In Vermont, the incident at Hartford and other recent cases of inappropriate student fan behavior has accelerated the urgency to find solutions to the problem. The Vermont Principal's Association developed a statement to be read before every game that outlines policies on discrimination and verbal abuse from spectators. The organization's diversity, equity and inclusion committee, which launched last year, has built a formal complaint process and is aiming to log abuses to track areas, schools or individuals who are repeat offenders.
 
"It's like when you're welcoming somebody into your home," said Mike Jabour, the athletic director at South Burlington and the co-chair of the diversity committee. "That person is coming into your home and thinking they're going to be treated with respect. And when that doesn't happen, that falls on you. When they come to our school and community, if they're disrespected in any way, and there is harm that has been done, that's our fault. And we need to correct that behavior and deal with it immediately."
 
In Washington, Lauria Oliver still struggles with the fact that she wasn't at the game with her daughters that night in May. She had to work and wasn't able to make the hour-and-a-half trip.
 
"Why was I not there? I was not there to protect my children," she says she will often think to herself, and now she does not allow them to go anywhere alone. Her husband died when her daughters were young, she said, and now with eight children in the house, she always has someone go with her girls to their sporting events. They are back on the court this winter for Zillah, and their mother plans to be at this season's game against Connell.
 
Mia always looks in the crowd to see if there are any Black people, her mother said, and listens to all the noises people are making. She never did that before last May. Lauria asked her why.
"She said, 'I don't know. I just want to see what I'm up against.'"
 
Talani has lost passion for the game, "just lost that little light she had," according to her mother. Maybe it's that she's getting older, Lauria wonders. She knows it's likely more than that.
 
"That was their place where they shine," she said. "That's not their safe place anymore. Being on that court, it doesn't give them a good feeling anymore."