History repeats itself

At the beginning of this soccer season, Chris committed to “retiring” when the season was over. He’s really enjoyed these nine years of officiating and has made some great friends, too. His crew of nine officials has really grown together, and I can tell that they love doing games together.

Several of the other members of the crew are retiring this year as well. But Chris is the youngest one by far.

So Chris went through the season and enjoyed every game, knowing he was approaching the end of his career. He had hoped to get a sectional assignment (the first round of the post-season tournament) and was excited when he found out that he was appointed head referee at his sectional. He was pleased to move on to regionals, the next round, but was a little frustrated with his fellow officials there. But in the end he was happy with his own performance. Then he was pleasantly surprised to receive a semi-state assignment for last weekend. After those exciting games there, Chris said he would be happy to end his career that way.

But then he received a state assignment!

This marks his third state appearance in four years. What a way to end his soccer career! And an extra bonus — out of the 24 officials assigned to state, six of them are from Chris’ crew! Everyone is thrilled about the crew’s success. What a great group of guys!

So now we wait to hear if Chris will have a morning game or an evening game. Then when he arrives on Saturday, he’ll find out which game he will officiate.

The only thing different about this year’s state games compared to the previous two is that Avery will be sitting next to me in the stands! She’s even been practicing her cheer — “Go go, Daddy!”