Okoee family spends time officiating in SABR

By Gary Curreri

Like most parent/coaches, and even some savvy experienced coaches, learning the offside rule in soccer can be problematic.

For Phoenix Okoee, he traded in his coaches whistle last season for referee gear. He and his son Takota opted to referee as his SABR playing career was winding down.

The offside rule was the first rule that came to mind as Okoee was officiating for the first time.

“My big thing was the offside rule and the positioning sometimes,” Phoenix said. “I was thrown off at first until I started to be mindful of positioning and if the person technically is not in the play those things took me a little time to tweak.”

“I started this past year because (Kota) had started refereeing the year before for pocket change money,” Phoenix said. “This past year he aged out of the SABR world with U19s. We decided, ‘Why not?’ It still gives me an opportunity to connect with him and still have something to do around soccer.”

He and his son always found the time to officiate together.

“We always refereed together and honestly at times, even though I was coaching after playing the game a long time, there were some generalized rules that I didn’t know,” he continued. “With him having a little more experience (refereeing), I would lean on him sometimes for the rules. If I didn’t know something I would ask him for guidance. It was kind of cool.”

Takota, an 18-year-old who recently graduated from Spanish River High School, said he found refereeing easier because he has a playing background. He spent more than a dozen years playing in SABR, starting as a U6.

“I got started refereeing when (referee) Ray Saba asked if I would like to do it and I looked into it and found it interesting,” said Takota, a freshman at FAU’s Wilkes Honors College, majoring in biology. “I have a lot of fun refereeing because it is basically a more involved form of watching soccer.”

There were times on weekends when he and his father would referee together for six games in a row, alternating between officiating the center to running the line as an assistant referee.

“It was always pretty tiring but we both enjoyed it, so it wasn’t too difficult. We both enjoyed spending the time together,” said Takota, who also won four Tom Cup games during his career. They were fixtures at the U9s and U10 boys and girls games last season.

We would do Saturdays because it worked with his SABR playing schedule and sometimes Friday night,╙ Phoenix noted.

His efforts didn’t go unnoticed by the SABR board, who selected Takota as the 2023-2024 Vince Righi Young Male Ref of the Year. Sofia DeAraujo was selected as the 2023-2024 Vince Righi Young Female Ref of the Year.

“For the majority of my time in SABR my coach was my father, which I had always enjoyed,”
Takota said. “For referring, I was out with multiple different people that all helped me develop as a referee.”

His father, who served as a coach for both Takota and his 16-year-old daughter, Asja, said it was difficult to keep from telling his son he had received the honor. He had coached Asja for the past six years.

“I found it to be a pretty cool experience, especially because I didn’t know that it was happening,” Takota smiled. “I remember getting told to go to the referees’ tent to sign out after we finished our games for the day and being surprised with the news that I was one of the youth referees of the year.”

Phoenix, who played goalkeeper growing up as a youth player, dissuaded his son from playing tackle football. Once he tried soccer he fell in love with it. Phoenix said he is happy he still found a way to stay in the sport.

“It was really hard not to tell him he won because I had been in the system for so long,” Phoenix said. “I honestly believe he deserved it and I am not saying it because I am his dad, but he really took it seriously. He is really into soccer and watches it all of the time. For him to get it was really special to watch. It was kind of a cool reward.”

“Towards the beginning of his first year he preferred to do the lines and at the end, he was doing middles,” Phoenix said. “He is not generally confrontational, and we would always bring in the teams and tell them how we would call the game. I think that helped.”

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New referees need to attend an in-person session, and recertifying referees either attend the in-person session or if the website indicates (depending on specifics of your past coursework), you may have the choice to attend a webinar certification clinic instead.

SABR recently arranged for Florida Soccer Referees to conduct a clinic for new and recertifying referees.

You will list your weekly availability for recreational games and receive your assignments at Sabr.soccerref.net. If you are a new SABR referee, please register at this site.

For information on the recreational games contact SABR referee assignor Brian Behrmann at 561-504-5862 or by email at briansabr@aol.com or SABR Director of referees Bruce Spidell at 561-350-4148 or email referees@sabrsoccer.net.

For Team Boca games, the assignors are Sheri and Lou Hecht at coach99323@aol.com.

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