Be the Referee: Soccer Offside
By
Paige Winne
MHSAA Marketing & Social Media Coordinator
June 4, 2024
Be The Referee is a series of short messages designed to help educate people on the rules of different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating, and to recruit officials.
Below is this week's segment – Soccer Offside - Listen
We have an offside situation in soccer to talk about today. The offense sends a long pass from their own half of the field to a teammate way down at the defensive team’s 18-yard line … but she’s offside.
The assistant referee raises her flag and the referee blows her whistle for offside, and an indirect free kick is given to the defense. Where do they take the kick from?
- Is it the spot where the offside player was when the assistant referee raised her flag?
- The spot where the ball was when play was stopped?
- The point of the infraction?
- Or the spot from where the ball was originally passed?
If you said “at the point of the infraction” you are correct. In this case, the defense gets an indirect free kick where the offside occurred.
Previous Editions
May 28: Appeal Play - Listen
May 21: Lacrosse Foul in Critical Scoring Area - Listen
May 14: Avoiding the Tag - Listen
May 7: Baseball Pitch Count - Listen
April 30: Boys Lacrosse Helmets - Listen
April 23: Softball Interference - Listen
April 16: Soccer Red Card - Listen
April 9: Batted Baseball Hits Runner - Listen
March 12: Basketball Replay - Listen
March 5: Hockey Officials - Listen
Feb. 27: Less Than 5 - Listen
Feb. 20: Air Ball - Listen
Feb. 13: Hockey Penalties - Listen
Jan. 30: Wrestling Tiebreakers - Listen
Jan. 23: Wrestling Technology - Listen
Jan. 9: 3 Seconds - Listen
Dec. 19: Unsuspecting Hockey Hits - Listen
Dec. 12: No More One-And-Ones - Listen
Nov. 21: Football Finals Replay - Listen
Nov. 14: Volleyball Unplayable Areas - Listen
Nov. 7: Pass/Kick Off Crossbar - Listen
Oct. 31: Cross Country Interference - Listen
Oct. 24: Soccer Overtime - Listen
Oct. 17: Tennis Spin - Listen
Oct. 10: Blocked Kick - Listen
Oct. 3: Volleyball Double & Lift - Listen
Sept. 26: Registration Process - Listen
Sept. 20: Animal Interference - Listen
Sept. 13: Feet Rule on Soccer Throw-In - Listen
Sept. 6: Volleyball Jewelry - Listen
Aug. 30: Football Rules Similarities - Listen
Aug. 23: Football Rules Differences - Listen
(Photo by Gary Shook.)
Country Day Proves Coach's Intuition True in Claiming Record 16th Finals Win
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
November 1, 2025
GRAND LEDGE — Often at the start of a season in August, Detroit Country Day boys soccer coach Steve Bossert said he will tell his wife that “we don’t have it this year.”
But before he could mutter those words this fall, Country Day went up to a tournament up at the Boyne Mountain Sports Complex in the middle of August and went 3-1 in four games.
At that point, Bossert had some different words for his wife.
“After we came back from that Boyne trip, I said, ‘I think we’re pretty good,’” Bossert said. “And then a couple of weeks after that, I said that ‘we might do this.’”
What “this” turned out to be was Country Day adding to its already record total of Finals championships won, as the Yellowjackets captured their 16th with a 4-1 win over South Haven in Saturday’s Division 3 Final.
It took Country Day seven years since winning its 15th title in 2018, but Country Day delivered in dominant fashion.
Country Day scored three goals during the first 18:50 of the game and never looked back in a one-sided effort, outshooting South Haven 31-5.
If not for 14 saves and overall brilliant play by South Haven senior keeper Alex Jaimes, the final score might have been more lopsided.
Senior Micah Zacks had two goals and an assist, and senior Tino Haratsaris had two assists to lead Country Day (22-2-1).
“We knew it was a good goalie, but we just had to keep shooting,” Zacks said. “There wasn’t much to it. Just keep shooting, and they’ll eventually go in. That’s what we did.”
South Haven (18-5-4) was attempting to win its first Finals title since being co-champion with Jackson Lumen Christi in 2003, but simply ran into a buzzsaw in Country Day.
“Overall, the season was something to be proud of,” South Haven head coach Randy Bautista. “Coming into the tournament we were not ranked. We beat tough opponents and ranked opponents throughout the playoffs. … Unfortunately it didn’t go our way today. But we keep our heads up and keep going.”
Country Day opened the scoring with 29:29 left in the first half on a beautifully constructed goal.
Stationed in front of the South Haven goal, Zacks headed a pass within the box to sophomore teammate Rye Clegg, who headed the ball himself into the goal to make it 1-0 Country Day.
The Yellowjackets took a 2-0 lead with 24:50 left in the first half on a goal by senior Yousef Darwich, who tapped the ball into an open goal after South Haven’s keeper couldn’t quite corral a strong cross sent in by Country Day junior Luke Hourani.
The Yellowjackets then went up 3-0 with 21:10 to go in the first on a goal by Zacks, who sent home the ball off of a corner kick.
With 36:35 remaining in the game, Country Day took a 4-0 lead when Haratsaris brilliantly maneuvered around a defender and sent a pass in front of the goal to Zacks, who buried the chance.
South Haven got on the board with 1:17 remaining on a goal by junior Jaden Bolhuis, who fired a shot from roughly 30 yards away that went under the crossbar.
PHOTOS (Top) Country Day’s Tino Haratsaris (2) connects on a shot while South Haven’s Isaac Chalupa (25) rushes to defend. (Middle) South Haven keeper Alex Jaimes goes high to get his hands on the ball. (Below) DCD’s Yousef Darwich makes a run with the Rams’ Luke Swearingen defending. (Photos by Adam Sheehan/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)