Scholars Explore Options with Refereeing Opportunity
Worksop Town Academy's Scholars programme continues to offer up extracurricular experience to students, and four of these students took the opportunity to referee games in an inter-school tournament at the Windsor Foodservice Stadium. I sat down with Cole Purcell, Admir Shuli, Callum Hooley, and Joe Chapman, to discuss the experience, and get some insight into the how the programme works for them.
TM: The four of you spent the afternoon diving into a bit of refereeing, how does the game differ for you on either side of the whistle?
CP: It makes me understand a bit more how referees feel when I get frustrated with them, I can be one of those players to give referees a bit of stick in the heat of the game. When you're on the other end of that, the focus that referees need to put into the game, you understand a bit more why decisions don't always go my way, and that different aspect and perspective referees have when facing players' frustrations.
AS: Yeah, it's good to get involved in a different area of the sport, for me I found the experience really good, just jumping straight into it - learning on the job like that was good, seeing how you get a lot more abuse, and receiving and dealing with that sort of verbal confrontation when compared to playing on the pitch is a whole other story as Cole said.
CH: You understand the perspective of the ref a lot more, especially when it's tight and you're the one who has to make the call - what you see might be different to the players' view. It becomes a lot more apparent that at the end of the day, referees can't see everything, and that in some situations referees don't always have help, so as a player you've got to take into account what the ref can and can't see, and let them do their job making the call.
JC: You definitely feel there's a lot of pressure on you; if there's a decision, and you think it's a foul, but one team or player doesn't, it becomes very real when everyone's looking at you to make that judgement, waiting for you to make a decision. You really get to see a different aspect of the sport, and a different aspect of the game in general.
TM: You're all Scholars, taking part in our Extended Diploma in Sport - how beneficial is it to have these opportunities to represent the Academy all while gaining a qualification? (if you're one of the ones interested in the FA L1 opportunity, mention that here)
CP: Well, first off, obviously, if playing football doesn't work out, we're getting experience of other things, other career paths in the game. It can give you opportunities, we're given opportunities reffing and coaching, some of us are being given the opportunity to complete a Level 1 [FA] Coaching course, and if we're getting experience in all these different pathways we've got options later on.
AS: For many of us the scholarship is the start in our career of sports. We come in, train, develop skills on and off the pitch, and it's vital. We gain experience on the pitch, we're getting an education in the classroom, and then we get the chance to experience refereeing as well. Being offered an opportunity to earn a coaching badge also gives us a new experience and a chance to develop ourselves as players, but also as individuals aiming for a long future in sport.
CH: These extra opportunities give us a wider variation of options to look into for our future, and then that experience means we're more likely to get extra opportunities further down the line. Like Admir said, the coaching badge opportunity helps us make a decision of whether we want to go into coaching, and supports us if we choose to do so.
JC: It gives us a better understanding of the dynamics of the game, coaching, refereeing, working as a linesman, they're all different sides of the game. I've done a couple of hours of coaching myself, which again, at a young age, can put us head and shoulders above people who maybe haven't had the same opportunities and experiences until later on.
TM: Your refereeing was part of an inter-school tournament at the stadium, and the ground has seen a lot of Academy tournament action in all forms recently. What part do the facilities here play in the overall experience, both as players and students?
CP: Having such a good club setup is great, it makes us feel like a better team, coming in to this ground for a home game, sitting in the changing rooms makes us feel like we can beat any team. When we go away, some of the teams we come across, the facilities are night and day, the chairman has put in a load of work and it's a real advantage on game day to play in the best facilities available.
AS: The facilities are superb, the best any young player could ask for at the end of the day. Being able to finish training and then come inside to the classroom to finish our education, without the facilities the club provides it'd be a lot different. We've been to other teams, seen other grounds, and it makes it so obvious that we're able to progress and develop faster because of the facilities at Worksop.
CH: We've got probably the best pitch there is at our level, or in most college leagues. The club has its own café space that we can all sit and have a coffee in, have a bit of banter after training, buy sports drinks or grab some food - some other clubs just don't have that. On top of that, we've got the classroom space that we can use to study that's really useful for bringing us into the teaching element.
JC: For a non-league club, you just can't ask for better facilities than this - the pitch quality, classroom, the café like Cal said… it all speaks for itself really. It feels so good coming in every day to a college environment, and then being able to head out onto the pitch, look around the ground, it's just the best you can ask for.
TM: What is the feeling around the dressing room at this point in the season, and how are you hoping to build on the success on and off the pitch going into next year and beyond? (talk a bit about any plans after the course finishes, any other opportunities you're looking forward to etc.)
CP: It's really good to see we're all getting on now. When we first started the course, nobody really knew each other that well, but now we've relaxed a bit more, we all have jokes with each other, we've come a long way from those first sessions when people were a little bit nervous to speak to each other. Everyone's speaking, laughing, enjoying our football, it's all much better now. My plans are just to keep playing football at the highest level I can, if there's not an opportunity to do that then this course will give me those other options and opportunities to hopefully get a job within football.
AS: Obviously, this is a new programme, we're the first set of lads to come together, so we're all getting on now, setting that foundation for when the second year guys start, we've all got used to the play style, we're more like a family now than a team that meets up and plays once a week. Looking at the table, that's translating, we're doing really well, gunning for promotion and ready for what next year brings, football-wise. We all want to play football after this, obviously, that's the main goal, but there's potential for us to work towards work placements at the club, higher education, university maybe, and these are all the different options we've been shown and we're looking at. For me, I'm hoping to go down the football route, aiming for an American scholarship, but if not I'll be straight into looking at university to get a degree and move forward that way.
CH: The players have all started to get on with each other, and when people get along it makes the team stronger. Building those great relationships, those long-lasting friendships where people can trust each other off the pitch, it makes the team better on the pitch as well. It allows people to play freely, not worry about what the rest of the team thinks about you, and that's so powerful when you look at how the team is performing. I'm hoping to go for an American scholarship at the end of the year, we've had people around the club who have been to the US and they all recommended it and gave great advice, they've said it's one of the greatest experiences and I'd love to do that.
JC: I do feel like we've properly gelled as a team now, we've got to grips with how the team works on and off the pitch. Over Christmas we had a change of manager, and Joe's come in, you really can't ask for a better role model than a pro footballer, there's no better person to learn from at the end of the day. A change of coach is always a test for a team, but we've really rallied round him, showing how close knit we are as a group. My goal right now is to fight for a spot in the Worksop Town first team and work to push the Scholars team even higher, but if that doesn't work out I think going into something like refereeing would be really interesting, which is why I've taken these opportunities when they've been offered up.
For more information on the opportunities available as part of our Level 3 Extended Diploma in Sport, visit the Extended Level 3 Diploma tab on the website, and check out our upcoming Level 3 Extended Diploma open days to see more of the programme first-hand.