[dlavery]

I would like to add in a special "thank you" and recognition to the entire referee team, and in particular to Mark Sharfshteyn, the Head Referee. I thought that they did an exceptionally good job at the NYC regional. During the matches I observed, the penalty calls that were made were appropriate and reasonable, and I don't recall any obvious missed calls. As has been previously mentioned, the best officiated games are the ones where you don't really even notice that the referees are there, where the officiating is appropriate for the play and does not artificially affect the game. The referee team in New York certainly fit this definition. In particular, I was impressed by Mark's open communication with the teams. In virtually every instance that I saw, whenever a team had a question about a call or ruling Mark took as much time as was necessary to explain the ruling and make sure that the team understood exactly why something was called the way it was. They may not have liked the ruling, but Mark was always careful to explain in as much detail as they wanted why a ruling had been made and where it was backed up by the official rules. When they had something to say, he listened. His ability to do this in a respectful and informative manner set a great example.

-dave



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