Jim01 said:
No matter the call THANK YOU for giving your time to help kids play the sport they love.
I can't imagine reffing so I'm always curious how people get into it. How did you start?
I actually started refereeing High School 20+ years ago. I did it for several years, then we moved and kids got to the age where they were playing sports and I was coaching so I did not have time to do it any more.
All my kids played soccer at one point and they started to referee when they were all ~12yrs old. It was decent money and the soccer complex was 5m from the house. When they got to HS I started to referee club games (US Soccer Referee) on weekends. I've been playing since I was about 10yrs old and really enjoy the game. I got tired of watching bad referee's and felt I could do at least as good as some of those guys, if not better. So I signed up for a certification course, got my level 8 license and started refereeing with my kids on weekends. I certainly don't do it for the money, I just want to give something back and hopefully doing a decent job.
After my youngest graduated HS, I started doing HS games as those are in the evenings during the week, which my wife likes b/c then she gets me on the weekends. I still do club games some weekends but have mostly switched to HS now.
The club level certainly puts more emphasis on the training and certification process than HS. To be a US Soccer Official, I had to attend a 2-day class which included inside and outside instruction and pass a written exam (which was not hard). Then every year I have to attend a 4-hour recertification course and take an exam. The local club also has a monthly training sessions where they review rules, and video's/situations and ask the attendees' to "make the call". I actually emailed them my situation (see above) and he will probably use it at the next training class (which have been halted due to covid). I'm also part of a group that does mentoring for young/new referee's to help them get better and be more confident. That's honestly the biggest problem I see with young referee's. It's like they're afraid to blow the whistle and draw attention to themselves. That and they don't always apply the rules correctly (IE awarding a penalty for a pass back to the goalie instead of and indirect free kick).
The recertification process has actually become a much bigger PITA with covid as everything went online. Now I have like 3 log ins..one for USSF, one for USSF Training and another for game officials. I also to watch a 2-hour child abuse video every year which to me is ridiculous as I have virtually zero interaction with players outside of the match. The video is geared more towards coaches and administrators who have a lot more potential one on one contact with players. I walk on the field, collect game cards, do the coin toss, call the match, then go home. I completely understand why they're doing the video/class, but they need to pair it down for referee'swe really have no contact with players off the field where the potential for grooming/abuse is much higher.
For HS, I signed up with the state, took a test online and I was a HS ref. I just contacted the local assignor of games, set up my block times in their online system and he assigns me games. There is a local group for HS referee's that I've joined which will perform evaluations if you request them and has online training classes available, etc. but not everyone is a member. It's not an 'official' state HS group, just a group of referee's trying to get better. The local assignor also has a good idea of who to give what games. There are certainly some good and bad referee's out there.
It's been mostly good, but after the last two weeks I'm starting to question if I can keep this up. Last week I did a U18 Div 1 game and the game above was U15 Div 2 level. So pretty high level boys games. I really can't keep up with the 18 yr olds anymore and the 15 yr old's aren't much slower. In the U18 game I gave out 4 yellow cards and could have given 2 more. I missed one call for sure (funny, I let it go and yelled advantage...which didn't develop so I should have blow the whistle and brought it back and probably given a yellow). After the U18 game one of the coaches said thanks and good game (but his team won so not sure if he really meant it..and he was complaining a lot during the game). And of course the Team B coach above gave a post game speech to his players for my benefit that was the worst officiating he's ever scene. I forgot to mention I gave him a yellow too after the missed advantage call b/c he would not shut up about even after I agreed with him that "yes, I blew the whistle to quickly". The field marshal, who I know and is also a HS ref., saw the last 10m of the match told me I did a good job and the coach earned his yellow card and to not sweat it (he also heard the AR change his story after the game).
Not sure why I went on that dissertation it just get frustrating sometimes. I know I'm not perfect but I try hard to do a good job and when you make a small mistake it's tough to take that criticism, esp. the idiot parents who don't know how to apply the laws of the game. I worked with a guy who did BB and he gave me an article a referee wrote that basically showed we make dozen's of split second decisions in every match..we're going to get a few wrong and sometimes they impact the game more than others.
