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Just curious as to how/where you fellow officials draw the line after post-goal celebrations.

Last night, I had a H.S. game were some of the post-goal celebrations were very "border-line." The game ended up being fairly one-sided. It was pretty clear that the team dominating had worked on some post goal high fives and chest bumps. The "celebrating" wasn't directed toward the opposing team, but it was clear to me that it was choregraphed.

I didn't flag any of it, but I've been thinking about it pretty hard ever since. Your thoughts?

Sonny wrote:Just curious as to how/where you fellow officials draw the line after post-goal celebrations.

Last night, I had a H.S. game were some of the post-goal celebrations were very "border-line." The game ended up being fairly one-sided. It was pretty clear that the team dominating had worked on some post goal high fives and chest bumps. The "celebrating" wasn't directed toward the opposing team, but it was clear to me that it was choregraphed.

I didn't flag any of it, but I've been thinking about it pretty hard ever since. Your thoughts?

This falls under the "calling undue attention to oneself" clause of USC. Warn the coach the first time you see it, then start flagging it, IMO.

You need to get a handle on this, especially in a one-sided game, or it can blow up on you later.

I agree with LaxRef. Address it with the coach early and if need be, flag it, early. I think we are all experienced enough to recognize a spontaneous, joyous celebration of a key goal vs. the T.O. school of self-adoration.
As was pointed out, it doesn't just have to be baiting and taunting the opponent, calling undue attention is always an option.

I had a similar situation last night. The shooter was standing still in front of the goal when he scored. After the goal, he circles the goal crease while whooping and hollering. Just enough to get my attention that it was out of the ordinary, but not really enough to flag it the first time. I did let him know that I saw what he did and I better not see anything similar again, and I didn't.

When I was playing, we had a defenseman score his first career goal (a senior I believe), and he immediately starting doing a river dance. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen (250 lbs chubby redheaded kit), USC flag was thrown. I'm not condoning it, but I do remember laughing at the time.

I say warn the coach as well, then no hesitation. The kids need to learn to be good winners as well. Celebrate your goal great, but don't add insult to injury.

I understand the reasoning during blowout games where choreographed celebrations would be frowned upon, but what about close games? Couldn't a joyous time after an important goal be alright to do a traditional move or high five with a teammate as long as it is brief and does not taunt the other team?

just my $.02

yourmom wrote:I understand the reasoning during blowout games where choreographed celebrations would be frowned upon, but what about close games? Couldn't a joyous time after an important goal be alright to do a traditional move or high five with a teammate as long as it is brief and does not taunt the other team?

Sure, you can high five and celebrate a little. Few officials will flag that. But don't:

*Throw your crosse (always illegal!)
*Do the Ickey Shuffle (you're probably too young to know what that is!)
*Pull out a sharpie and sign the ball.
*Take a cell phone out.
*Chest bump every teammate on the field.
*Ride your stick like a horse.
*Do anything else that calls "undue attention" to oneself.

I don't think there's anything wrong with a brief, spontaneous celebration. As a rough guideline, if you're still obviously celebrating by the time the lead has run in, signalled "goal" for 3 seconds, gotten the ball out of the goal, and exchanged it with the center official (or trail in a 2-man game), that's probably getting to be too long.

Hee-hee!! Good one LaxRef!
I guess you could add - take a cruise on Lake Minnetonka - under Showboating!

LMAO @ riding your stick like a horse!!! You never know if it might be a players first goal ever and there is extra celebration because of that. Here is how I would make the call, if you have choreographed a celebration, you are probably going to get flagged. That means you took the time to think something up, work on it, and are prepared to use it in a manner that will draw undue attention to yourself. That is more of an "In your face" type of celebration/display than an innocent spontaneous celebration. We don't want to deny players the opportunity to celebrate the scoring of a goal but at the same time, we don't want to let them create a situation that might incite the opposing team to retaliate through slashing, high or late hits, etc. I say use your best judgement and if you feel the celebration was inappropriate, flag it. If you feel it was borderline, warn the players and coaches. I have only seen one such display other than a player blatantly baiting and taunting a player by getting in his face, and it was obviously choreographed and rehearsed. The 2 team mates sat for a minute each.

What about a fake mooning like Randy Moss?

A fake mooning would draw a 2 to 3 minute penalty from me as it is totally inappropriate!!!

Had a midfielder (H.S. player, Federation rules) score a goal last night and do a complete forward flip. It seemed spontaneous, but another borderline call. Thoughts?

Sonny wrote:Had a midfielder (H.S. player, Federation rules) score a goal last night and do a complete forward flip. It seemed spontaneous, but another borderline call. Thoughts?

I'm much more interested in interactions with the other team - that's what really can cause problems. I think it would be appropriate to quietly warn that player not to flip out again, and mention it to his coach as well - that it COULD be considered to be drawing attention to one's self. (Hard to believe a forward flip was spontaneously launched! )

Sonny wrote:Had a midfielder (H.S. player, Federation rules) score a goal last night and do a complete forward flip. It seemed spontaneous, but another borderline call. Thoughts?

A front flip would seem to be both premeditated and an attempt to call undue attention to oneself. I'd flag it. Others wouldn't.

Late in the USU/CSU game last Friday a guy from CSU scored and celebrated with a back-flip. It was flagged...but pretty impressive.