Northern California youth coach Brian Hall refs World Cup games in his spare time.
In late August, the DeAnza Ruckus U-17 boys lost a close match in the Super Y-League national tournament in Raleigh, N.C., and headed to a local eatery for lunch. In a scene familiar from youth tournaments across the nation, the assistant coach drove the team van and helped clean up after his players. No one gave him a second look.
Except for one onlooker, who noticed something familiar about the man. He asked the assistant's name, and his suspicions were confirmed. Brian Hall was indeed the assistant coach/van driver/table cleaner. In his spare time, he referees World Cup matches.
Hall, 41, received worldwide attention two months earlier as the United States' 2002 World Cup officiating representative. He was the first American referee to advance to the elimination round (he served as the fourth official for the Brazil-Turkey semifinal), and the first U.S.-born official ever selected to referee the World Cup.
As a FIFA ref, Hall has traveled to 27 countries. He has been an MLS official since its inception in 1996.
Hall's credentials as a youth soccer coach are nearly as impressive. Since 1988, his teams have won three California Youth Soccer Association-North state cup championships. He often works with more than one team a year. Holding only a ''D'' coaching license, he has become one of Northern California's most successful coaches.
Yet despite scores of articles written about Hall's refereeing career, he told Soccer America that this is the first time he has been interviewed primarily about coaching.
DEBUT AT 13. Many international officials think that because Hall is American he did not grow up with soccer, but his background is broad and deep. The Cupertino, Calif., native began playing at 12, as a goalkeeper. A self-described ''short, fat kid,'' he once knocked himself out on the goalpost. The opposing coach – a German who lived down the street – saw what happened, took Hall under his wing and taught him how to be a real keeper.
One day when Hall was 13, the referee did not appear. A parent, spotting Hall's black goalkeeper shirt, asked him to officiate. He agreed only when he learned he would earn $6. Instantly, he was hooked.
''Every time I blew the whistle, I blew the call,'' he laughs. ''But six bucks times four games a weekend was great.''
He had excellent mentors and by age 17 was refereeing U-19 matches. When he turned 19, he was a North American Soccer League linesman.
Training before his freshman year at Santa Clara University, Hall injured his knee.
''I had to make a decision,'' he says. ''Should I be a less-than-average college goalkeeper or go places as a referee?''
He quit playing, but in addition to officiating also began coaching his younger brother's U-16 team.
''I didn't know anything about coaching, but I was the only semi-mature adult figure who knew soccer,'' Hall says.
At 24, he became the youngest referee to whistle an NCAA Division I final: the legendary American University-UCLA eight-overtime match in 1985. At 26, he became a national referee; at 31, a FIFA international official.
But Hall's coaching career kept pace. In 1983, he graduated from Santa Clara, and the Almaden league president offered him a job as a buyer with his high-speed printing company.
''I had no idea what that meant, but the pay was good,'' Hall says. Soon the president's son's U-16 team needed a coach, and Hall was offered the slot.
''How do you say no to your boss?'' he asked. A year later, he coached the Almaden Lasers to the U-16 boys state championship.
He won it again the next year, with the South San Jose Thunder. It continued on to the USYSA Region IV finals.
In 1990, Hall moved to Gilroy. He taught a referee class, many of whose students played on the same team. They asked him to coach them. A year later, that squad reached the state cup finals, before losing, 3-2. In 1999, Hall's U-19 Orchard Valley Flame side earned him his third state title.
Hall's philosophy is simple.
''As a coach, I try to build a family atmosphere,'' he says. ''This is much more than teaching soccer. It's teaching life.''
TIGHT-KNIT TEAM. He has never been paid for his coaching. In fact, it often costs him money, because he buys shoes for boys who cannot afford them.
The family atmosphere extends far off the field. He helps players with their homework, even gives them keys to his house for a quiet place to study.
''Some of them have eight or nine kids in their family,'' he explained.
His players are aware of their coach's high status as an official. His travel schedule causes him to miss matches, but they are always eager to hear his stories. When he referees nearby, he takes his youth players along.
''They get up close and personal and see things they otherwise couldn't,'' he says.
Several of his players are Mexican-American, and Hall has a ''big brother'' relationship with two of them. He calls several times a week, making sure they are studying and things are OK at home. He continued that habit in June while in Asia officiating the World Cup.
As the United States and Mexico clashed in the round of 16, Hall phoned one of those players. But the boy was not there. He was at Hall's house. Hall called his own number, where the player – and several other teammates – were watching the match on Hall's big-screen TV.
''They sure didn't expect me to call, but that's all part of the family atmosphere,'' he says.
'REF-SAVVY PLAYERS.' The players also watched the matches he officiated. ''They think it's an honor I'm their coach,'' Hall says.
His officiating has rubbed off on his players.
''I don't spend time teaching them how to dive or cheat -they can get that on TV,'' he joked. More seriously, he says, ''We have a very good record regarding cards. Last year we had one red all season. My teams know if they get a red, in addition to the league or tournament suspension, they have to pay the team back by sitting another game, or working in some way.''
Hall calls his players ''ref-savvy. They ask me about calls they see on TV or at MLS games. If they think the ref isn't doing a good job, they tell me. But it's not just, 'He blew that call.' They say, 'He wasn't in position to make the call, so that's why he missed it.'''
Hall sees a synergistic relationship between his officiating and coaching. As a referee, he gets an intimate look at great players and applies those observations to his own teams. In the Italy-Ecuador World Cup match, for example, he was impressed by Christian Vieri's deftness bringing the keeper's punt down ''within an inch of his foot.'' Back in California, Hall helped his players use that skill to control the ball and create time and space.
On the other hand, his coaching provides a valuable players' perspective:
''I realize now what ticks players off about refs – what they like and don't like. As a coach, I'll see how a tackle impacts my players and take that back onto the field with me.''
But Hall's officiating fame is not always beneficial. At the Y-League finals, he heard a familiar complaint from an opposing coach: ''Hey ref, don't make that call because of who's on the sideline!''
''I was just the assistant coach,'' he says. ''And I hadn't said anything to anyone. Other coaches think I'll get all the calls just because I'm in the 'ref family.' But any ref who wants to impress me will do it by trying to make the right calls.''
Hall added, ''I wouldn't want to ref my games. I know there's a lot of pressure on those guys. But all I want is for a referee to give 100 percent for the players who spent so much time training to be where they are. Referees make mistakes. We all do. All I ask is that they try their hardest.''
by Youth Soccer Letter Editor Dan Woog