Hi, my name is Dick Hildreth, the proprietor of this site. I hope you find it of value.

I decided to create this site for a couple of reasons. One of them is just because I really enjoy the game of soccer (or, in virtually any other country in the world — football) and felt that getting to all of the appropriate information was pretty difficult for a person who was just beginning to become familiar with the game.

Another reason for this site is that I have been involved with participatory sports virtually all of my life. During that time, I have at times been focused so much on winning that I couldn't enjoy the game. Other times, I have taken it upon myself to criticize and castigate the officials (umpires or referees) for their perceived lack of judgement, knowledge, eyesight or intelligence.

I have been a devoted youth baseball player and, in soccer, I have been a youth player, an adult player, a coach of youth teams, and a referee of both youth and adult (recreational) soccer games. Because I have been on both sides of the whistle and I have played both to win and to get exercise and enjoyment, I have come to a different perspective on what constitutes sportsmanship, fair play, teamwork and personal development.

I hope that you will find this site useful, whether you use it for my first reason or my second.