Question on different shirts

[pasoccerdave]

Like several here, I've finally taken the test and am now a licensed 8 (Woo Hoo for me!).

I bought the standard starter kit, which comes with a single yellow shirt.

How often do you wear the other colors?

[Ref Flunkie]

I would say once every 10 games or so (on average). If you are just doing youth matches, I think you would be fine with 1 alternate color, needed especially if you are doing centers and you run into a yellow team. If you move up to adult matches where you work with higher level officials, you should probably have all 4 colors because it will be expected. If I could, I would never wear yellow because I simply hate the color.

[BC_Ref]

What colours depends on who you ref. Some leagues (youth) ban the main ref colour to avoid conflicts. Locally, black is not allowed, although I've seen at least one team with such a dark blue that in overcast conditions (half the year), it would look black.

For adult games, you need both the main and back-up shirts (Black and gold/yellow). For the top division, I've been told you should have other alternates - the red and blue are the most common. At the upper levels, apparently which style of black/yellow/etc... is important.

[NHRef]

Yellow is usually pretty safe, especially in youth leagues, from what I can tell around here, very few wear yellow. Where you might run into issues is two teams with the same color so one wears pennies. Most of these from what I can tell, are yellow.

Refs in my area seem to buy them in this order:

yellow
black
red
blue

I bought red last cause my town's teams, where I do most of my reffing until recently, are red. Labor day tournament I did one game in yellow, then 3 straight in red. We switched cause yellow team played, then due to back to back to back starting, we never switched out of red but could've gone back to yellow.

I got a long sleeve yellow, but all others are short sleeve.

Some just don't like wearing yellow, but when you work with new or youth refs, you usually only have yellow to pick from.

[ref47]

pasoccerdave - welcome to the fold.

as others have stated, color needs will vary. but, if you plan to do this and do it right, get all 4 colors, and depending on your weather, both sleeve lengths. starting out you may wish to go with one of the "off" brands of shirts; ayso, score, law 5, etc. you can find shirts for as little as $15-16. if you get involved in state cup or other higher level assignments, they expect you to show up with official sports wear.

and, manys the time i have loaned a shirt to a youth ar so we could dress alike.

[kevbrunton]

I probably use red most followed by yellow, black and blue. I would use blue more, but often the others don't have it. Around here, almost everyone except the newest / youngest have yellow, black and red. Only those that routinely ref at the higher levels have blue.

[IASocFan]

I reffed in a local tournament last Sunday and one of the teams wore yellow, and the other AR showed up with only yellow. I dug two XL short sleve red shirts out of my bag. The 14 year old AR wore one, it looked like a dress when he didn't have it tucked in, but we all matched.

[Laggard]

I've done this for two years and I think I only had to wear something besides yellow once.

The problem is that I almost always work with ARs who rarely even bring their own flags, much less another shirt.

[billf]

If you enjoy it, do state cup, and eventually college, you'll be a sucker and have a closet full of 15 shirts like me! Enjoy!!! :D

[pasoccerdave]

FWIW, I did order red and blue to expand my collection, but I've held off on black - maybe because it's too much like High School in this area? :)

[MidwestRef]

If the senior referee in your association is a Chelsea fan like ours is, then you'll probably have blue in your wardrobe. For our association, blue is almost the first alternate behind gold if three higher-level referees are working the game.

In USSF, I'll probably wear an alternate color once every five games or so - it depends on what the other referees have. In high school, we usually wear blue as our main color unless we're working with someone without that color.

I'm waiting for the day I work with two other college refs in a high school game and we break out the orange NISOA shirts. Everyone will look at us with an even more confused look than we normally get! :)

[nsa]

FWIW, I did order red and blue to expand my collection, but I've held off on black ...
Actually, the black is quite slimming. ;)

[JayJay4Pres]

Yea, Black + Pin Stripes = Ultra Sliming.

Seriously, i think the black looks best, but that's just me. I recommen having a combination of all 4 colors, maybe 2 SS and 2 LS.

[timothy.stadler]

My local league seems to have 50% gold or yellow teams with black socks. I am waiting for my black to come in those poor kids always pass the ball to me. I'm going to suggest our league not allow yellow or gold next year. One of the other leagues in our area bought reversable shirts all red and white. One week you may be red the next you may be white one shirt two purposes what an ingenious idea. Hey OSI could do that turn your ref shirt inside out and you've got an alternate color. that'd be swell and they'd problably only sell it for 80 dollars after all it is two shirts

[billf]

If the senior referee in your association is a Chelsea fan like ours is, then you'll probably have blue in your wardrobe. For our association, blue is almost the first alternate behind gold if three higher-level referees are working the game.

In USSF, I'll probably wear an alternate color once every five games or so - it depends on what the other referees have. In high school, we usually wear blue as our main color unless we're working with someone without that color.

I'm waiting for the day I work with two other college refs in a high school game and we break out the orange NISOA shirts. Everyone will look at us with an even more confused look than we normally get! :)

I had my first college game September 3. I was in the middle and went with orange specifically because I don't think any sane person would select that color without the situation demanding it. I'll tell you, its tough to miss your ARs in that shirt. :)

[pasoccerdave]

I had my first college game September 3. I was in the middle and went with orange specifically because I don't think any sane person would select that color without the situation demanding it. I'll tell you, its tough to miss your ARs in that shirt. :)

That's a fact! My son's club team went with orange uniforms. They're easy to spot at tournaments, even when the field they are playing on is half a mile away. Only once (so far) have we seen another team with similar uniforms.

[Spaceball]

If the senior referee in your association is a Chelsea fan like ours is, then you'll probably have blue in your wardrobe. For our association, blue is almost the first alternate behind gold if three higher-level referees are working the game.

In USSF, I'll probably wear an alternate color once every five games or so - it depends on what the other referees have. In high school, we usually wear blue as our main color unless we're working with someone without that color.

I'm waiting for the day I work with two other college refs in a high school game and we break out the orange NISOA shirts. Everyone will look at us with an even more confused look than we normally get! :)

I've worn orange several times...including earlier this year in a D1 game since the keeper had yellow (I know that it is not a requirement to be different than keepers in college anymore, but I like to wear orange when possible for a change). I also wear orange every halloween!

As for waiting for the day, I am waiting for day to wear the NISOA blue. The 2 times I have been on games with a crew that had it, we of course had a blue team :mad:

[refontherun]

The dilemma I used to run into working with ARs under 18 is they only have yellow (their parents buy their kits and don't understand the need for more than one jersey). It used be difficult finding them on the line when the team was in yellow and play was in their quadrant. The rec league wasn't too picky about the center wearing a different color as long as the ARs matched.

This season the teams started wearing reversible jerseys (blue and white) so it's not a problem any more. I do still use my blue in adult league. In U-littles I like to pull out my red. Especially if it's really hot and I'm doing multiple games.

[MidwestRef]

I had my first college game September 3. I was in the middle and went with orange specifically because I don't think any sane person would select that color without the situation demanding it. I'll tell you, its tough to miss your ARs in that shirt. :)

Of course, I try to wear orange as much as I can to be a good University of Illinois fan, but that's just me . . . :)

There's little doubt that the NISOA orange is pretty distinctive.