A Story of Sportsmanship in the Minnesota State High School Soccer Scene
A great story of sportsmanship was brought to my attention today. I was pointed in the direction of the Minnesota State High School League’s Facebook page. There I found a story that was written anonymously but have since found out it was penned by MSHSL Director of Information, Howard Voigt.
Voigt writes:
It is possible to lose a game that apparently had been won. That’s exactly what occurred Tuesday night in a varsity girls soccer game between Holy Angels and Minnehaha Academy.
Holy Angels hosted the game on its Richfield campus. The game was scoreless toward the end of regulation time and the Stars were still looking for their first 2012 season win. Then with the final seconds ticking down, a Stars player launched a shot that appeared to be the game-winner because time did expire. (Video of the goal)
However, Dave Marshak, head coach of the Stars, and the assistant referee (on the team side) both thought differently.
According to coach Marshak, and the assistant referee, the ball had clearly not entered the goal when the scoreboard hit 0:00 and the horn sounded.
As is customary, the referee and the lead assistant referee conferred and the goal was awarded to Holy Angels. Game over? Not quite.
According to Voigt, Doug Marshak, Dave’s brother and State Director of Instruction for the Minnesota State Referee Committee wrote to the MSHSL about the incident.
“Dave and the AR immediately agreed that the decision was wrong and the game should not end on what was clearly an incorrect decision,” said Doug Marshak.
Doug explained in the letter that Dave Marshak and the AR explained their stance to the referee, who ceded to their honesty and disallowed the goal which put the game into overtime. Minnehaha Academy scored in the overtime to win the game.
“Dave’s (player’s) parents and some of his players were very upset at his gesture,” brother Doug wrote, “but frankly, that’s as noble an act as you will see from a coach who told me before the game that he really felt pressured to get a victory.”
“He’s never started 0-3 before in his (six) years of coaching. He could have walked off the field and kept quiet, but he did what he felt was right. … I just don’t think amazing acts of sportsmanship that place what’s right ahead of getting a win should go unrecognized.”
Dave Marshak responded on Facebook saying he never expected the story to go public and he was surprised that it had. Dave did want to clarify that the parents of his players were caught up in the moment, and “their “blue and gold tinted glasses were in play.” He explained that it was upsetting to parents and players after experiencing a moment of jubilation with what appeared to be a last second win and then having the victory pulled from them.
“Several parents immediately after the game said even though it was tough they knew it was right, and even the ones riled up have since come off the ledge,” said Dave Marshak. “We try to do things right at AHA, and we have excellent supportive parents as well.”
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Bravo – doing the right thing will positively resonate and impact his players for the rest of their lives. Well done coach!
HUGE kudos to Coach Marshak !!
He did the absolute right thing and taught a tremendous lesson to his players and their parents.
Best part of the story is in the video…Mom says “boot it” prior to the shot.
Lord, yes! Laughed when I heard that and cringed too. If I had a dollar for every time I heard that during my nearly 20 years of coaching, I think I’d be retired now.
I hadn’t watched the video until now. Very Funny
@ BQ – admit it, if you had a dollar for every time you heard that as a coach, you would not only be retired, but would be on the Forbes top 10 richest Americans list.
Ok on my phone’s stop watch I come up with the goal being late anywhere from 1/10 to a 1/4 second late. I could not clearly see the clock. Also kudos to the referee for listening to a coach and an asst. referee for once and deciding to do the right thing and correct his initial decision.
Lets give some credit to Bridget Schoffman and her Team, AS the Parents of Bridget Schoffman (the Kicker) it shows just just how hard the team played the last seconds and did not give up!!!! win or loose!!!
I was the Center Referee in this game and will add my 2 cents to this as I didnt not know about this until this past weekend when my son and exwife had mentioned something to me, that they heard about this act of sportsmanship in a Holy Angels girls soccer game when they were at Church at St. Johns Church in Savage and today I worked with the AR that was next to coach Marshak and he said to look on this site.
As a referee you are required to make calls obviously that sometimes affect the outcome of a game. It is not something I thought could ever happen to this extent where I would see a ball that close to going in and my first thought when I did see it was that the ball had not gone in on time. I did go to my AR2 on that side of the field and asked him if he thought the ball had gone in before time expired, since that is his responsibility to help me with that. He said that he had thought it had gone in. I did award the goal at that time.
That is when Coach Marshak and the AR1 came to me and Coach Marshak was really quite adament about it not being a goal and the Ar1 concurred the same. I was right behind the ball as I saw it going in, but could not judge the ball crossing to the time as it is really close. Coach Marshak said that sportsmanship and integrity of the game were important and didnt want to win the game that way.
As a referee you always want to make the correct call, I did what I thought was best and disallowed the goal and went with what the Coach wanted and told him and the Minnehaha coach that we will play overtime. The final outcome was im sure not what anyone from the Holy Angels Soccer Community wanted, but it was the right thing to do in the end.
The lesson I learned from this is that, as a referee you always attempt to make the right calls and sometimes you can be wrong, but if you ever get the chance to make the call right, do so!
KUDOS TO COACH MARSHAK !
Thanks for adding to the story Bill and also for being so forthcoming.