
Every year, the bavarian ministry of education and the bavarian state sports association (BLSV) call on schools and sports clubs to form "sports work groups" the aim of these partnerships is to get students interested in a particular sport – and to show them the way to clubs, which they are unlikely to find or take on their own.
While cooperation is still being considered or merely discussed at some other school locations, the johann philipp von schonborn high school – located in the heart of the rhon soccer district – has already been offering its students the opportunity to train as official referees for the german soccer association (dfb) for two years as part of its extremely broad range of elective courses. Now they are also officially entering into a cooperative partnership.
A good decision
"The elective class was a good decision. It was super interesting and still gives me great pleasure", says anton muthig, who together with his classmates leon maximilian heida and hannes wirsing had already taken part in the elective lessons last year. All three also passed the official referee novice exam of the bayerischer fubballbund (BFV) with flying colors in spring 2017 and have since been on the road as referees and assistants at the pitches in the rhon district.
"Also financially not uninteresting", justus borst, who took part in the elective course during the current school year and found out that it is quite possible to earn extra money as a referee. Besides him also vincent schoppner, philipp schafer and simon weigand got since september weekly all theoretical and practical basics of the "referee craft" from their teacher daniel karch, at the same time referee and member of the teaching team of the rhon district conveys. The training program includes units on rhetoric, improving body language and dealing with stressful situations, as well as video analysis of conflict situations. In role-playing games, solutions to these conflict management exercises are then developed. The schoolchildren thus receive an education that will open up extensive areas of knowledge for them in their later professional lives and in their leisure time, beyond their actual work as impartial officers.