In this non-MLS Next competition, they do have it outlined what their protocol is. The magic number on temperature is 93. It is not a realistic number to use for a kickoff scheduled at noon, on a baking turf field where it's only going to get hotter and more dangerous, with no cloud cover and no wind. I am currently officiating a 3 week high school summer tournament that starts at 4:30 p.m. Kickoff temperature last night was 93 as well, but the players managed because it it was getting cooler as the night went on and teams had as many subs as they had starters. This is also left out of the referees hand. In our neck of the woods, it was the only the second time it reached 90 degrees. While 93 might be realistic in Phoenix, California, Texas and Florida, it's not a fair guidline to use nationwide. Studies show that it takes over a week for the human body to adjust to rapid temperature changes. Last year, we had a tournament where two referees had to be treated for heat exhaustion since it was only late May and the temperature change went up by 25 degrees in one day, so no one had time to adjust. They had stand-by referees expecting this could be at a problem. On the same day at another event, another referee couldn't continue after one match and called his assignor. The assignor ripped into him asking why he accepted an asssignment knowing it would be hot, showing no compassion. They didn't have back-up referees at this event. In the game I'm referring to with heat issues, the coaches did not have issues with water breaks. My understanding was that the field WAS available later that night but did not move it for reasons I'm not clear. In this same game, it was so hot, the bladder of the ball burst when two players simultaneously played it. Players went down because of complaints that the turf was too hot and couldn't walk on it and had to be subbed out. At the end of the day, we have to be the voice of sanity and say "sorry folks, the game is not being played" and if that means not being assigned again, so be it. I'd rather have that than being on our local television station that some idiot referee played a game in hot weather and a teen died of heat stroke as a result.
Lightning: Fortunately most games usually have some sort of trainer or administrator checking an app or a lightning detector. If not, I'm obviously going to keep my eyes and ears open and check the lightning app on my phone at any break. If anybody has a problem with it, tough. The one big youth club in my area has a nice feature on their website that automatically restarts the 30-minute timer anytime there's a lightning strike within ten miles of that field. Also, I've seen heat lightning from 80 miles away. So just because you can see it doesn't automatically mean it's close by. Heat: I think it's very hard to make any sort of blanket rule about heat. I know in some of the recert stuff I've done USSF has talked about differences between different regions of the country (obviously someone from a hot state is usually going to handle the heat much better). And it's even sillier when state governments and high school associations try to make rules that apply across all sports. There's a huge difference between a 300-pound offensive lineman in full pads and a 95-pound girl on the cross country team wearing Lululemon.
Once. I called for one, and a good player questioned it. I replied, I didn't think you needed it, but a lot of these other guys do. He grinned back at me, that I had recognized his athletic ability.
That’s the policy for high school soccer in my area of the US. Usually, we will get to a point where the coaches will agree to suspend the game and resume at a later date.
Weather story from a NFHS game probably a decade ago: In NFHS rules, the host institution determines if a game is played or not. After the game starts, it’s the referees that determine if a game continues. I arrive at this high school field after it had been raining all day. The field has become a pond from one penalty area to the next. Every team we placed a ball in the field, it would start to float away. I tried to convince the AD that the field was unplayable and that they should call the game before it began. She insisted that the game be played because it was the last day of the season and “we need to get the game in.” Since I wasn’t able to persuade her, we did all our pregame routines. When everyone was on the field, I got the ball as stationary as I could and signaled for the kickoff. Then I immediately signaled to end the game and said the field was unplayable. Now because we had started the game, the school owed as a full game fee. If they had called it before kickoff, they would have only owed as a half fee!
Kit, I'm not a fan of the approach you took, but I do understand. I would probably have let them flounder around for a minute or so and then determined that the field had deteriorated to the point that it was unplayable. A while back, there was a high school playoff game scheduled on a grass field that was waterlogged up to the point that the turf was pure mud. The home school AD said, "Well, if it was good enough for football last night it's good enough for soc-er." (Read that last word as pronounced with extreme disdain for the sport.) The visiting team AD, the visiting teach coach both appealed for the game to not be played. He finally relented when the home school coach said the field was not playable. That did create a problem though, because it was supposed to be a Saturday game, with the winner playing in the semi-finals on Tuesday. The game had to be played on Monday and the winner played the next day in the state semi-finals. They lsot.
And that's probably most of the reason it was no longer good enough for soccer. Several years ago we had a field that was severely waterlogged and turned to mud. It got so bad the remaining grass started to rot and it smelled like a sewer. It was discussed whether or not to stop playing soccer games to let the field try to heal. Instead the decision was that, because the field had lights (outfield of baseball) and when the season was over football would practice there, just keep on grinding the grass and roots into the mud. Because even if soccer saved the field, football would then ruin it.
I wonder if they'd try to play through here... A massive, 100-foot-wide sinkhole left a soccer field in southern Illinois partially collapsed, according to officials. https://t.co/qHzVS2DdJU— ABC News (@ABC) June 30, 2024
A while back, my old high school had a worn out track and a sketchy football field, The varsity soccer team played outside the stadium because the field was, in the opinion of the head coach, too narrow for varsity boys soccer. The JV played in the stadium and the varsity outside, which confused a number of officials. Anyway, I was on a committee to figure out what to do. We called in a University professor whose professional specialty was growing grass. (No, not the kind you smoke.) He said, "Oh I know how to have a great field." "How?" "Have a lousy football team." I.e. the playoffs start about the first of November, the start of the rainy season around here. "Not an option at this school!" So we went with artificial turf.