It’s human nature to want to win. When’s the last time you heard a pep talk to get out there on the field and lose? In any usual circumstances, probably never. Sure, there are valuable lessons learned from losing, and it’s bound to happen every so often. But that’s hardly ever the intention or motivation to compete.

This mindset was no exception for the beginning games of the Residence Hall World Cup tournament. Having played since I was 5 years old, I was excited to have the opportunity to lace up my cleats again after putting them toward the back of my closet since I came to college. I was raised on the soccer field. Nothing is more heartwarming to a nostalgic soccer player than joining the Wolfpack community on Miller Fields to play the sport you love with new teammates who miss the high school games and practices just as much you do. 

With passion often comes pressure — pressure to be the best, and pressure to win. While a healthy pressure is usually installed among teammates, hostile feelings are formed quickly toward the ultimate decider of the way the game goes: the referee. 

Refs don’t get the respect they should. It’s a tough job, and like any other event in life, you can’t please everyone. Especially here at NC State, sometimes the refs are students of the same age without much experience in the sport. That’s not their fault, and the players should be lucky that there is a ref at all for intramural games. 

Throughout my 13 years of soccer, I was always surprised at how quickly the players talked back, how much the coaches criticized and even the extent to which the parents judged from the sidelines. In the moment of an intense, heated tackle, it can be difficult not to place the blame on the easiest target on the field. You made a bad pass? The ref was probably in the way. The other team scored? The ref probably didn’t call the player off-sides. 

But more often than not, the ref really isn’t out to get you or your team. A simple glance down at the stopwatch could easily result in missing an elbow to the stomach or the cleat that kicked the ball out of bounds. Meanwhile, chances are that the ref only looked at his watch in the first place because someone asked him how much time was left. 

Of course, there is most definitely that category of refs who flat out don’t care if they give penalty kicks for players tripping over their own two feet, who forget they even have cards to give or who watched “She’s the Man” once and think they know everything there is to know about the sport of soccer. It’s fair to give refs the benefit of the doubt, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere. 

That “somewhere” is when safety comes into question. A lack of calls gets players’ blood boiling and only causes even more fouls to be committed. Sooner than later, a push becomes a slide tackle, and suddenly a friendly match becomes anything but that. It’s the ref’s job to make sure that the rules are followed to the best of his or her ability so that all the players can walk off the field at the end of the game without dizzying concussions or torn ACLs. 

Refs may miss their fair share of calls, but without them, the games would not be possible. And most athletes can agree that a subpar ref is better than no game at all. Although winning can become more important than it needs to be, at the end of the day, athletes just want to play the sport they love, whatever that may be. So no matter what the scoreboard says, you should always respect the ref.