You've seen classes listed? I just checked the VYSA site -- they say they won't list anything until July 1.
Six - 40 meter sprints. All under eight seconds. 150m run in under 40 seconds, followed by 50m walk/recovery for 40 seconds x 20 times.
Nope. I did a line for a Grade 7 assessment match, and the assessor said "No one is sure what's going on, but I get the feeling they'll do something since they sent me out here." He seemed high up in the ref world, and maybe he knows something. I would hope, for the sake of the assignors, they make a faux grade.
Due to referee shortage for HS games, the requirements here in Eastern CT have become - a) be there at 3:00 pm on Tuesday b) can you walk, c) and blow a whistle at the same time......... I know multiple refs (usually former players and coaches) who literally the first game they ever reffed was HS JV games. And at least out here the money is very good - $61.11 for JV dual, $93.97 dual for V and $80 for MS solo (goes up every year same as teacher pay).
As an assignor/referee who does an equal amount of both, I can tell you that assigning "well" takes a tremendous amount of work. And I can tell you there really is no substitute for learning what refs can do by getting familiar with them. I have been assigning for about 10 years and for the first 5, I did about 150 town games a year and knew 95% of my 40+ refs in detail. Then 3 years ago, I took on a 400 game tournament and got 200+ refs I knew nothing about except their age and date of certification. And this spring I added another much larger town to get up to about 250 refs for almost 1000 games a year (and there are much busier assignors in our tiny state). I survey my refs about their experience. I check their grade and cert date. I ask anyone with any connection to a ref about them. I work way too hard (according to my wife.....) And I still get the calls - the level 7 ref with 20+ years of experience that you assigned to our U18 game totally could not handle the game and if you ever assign him to our game again, we will forfeit........ugh....now I know, sorry.
@DefRef Thank you for your dedication. You don't get enough credit. As for assigning, I've always wanted to ask -- how's the software for assigning games these days?
And I still get the calls - the level 7 ref with 20+ years of experience that you assigned to our U18 game totally could not handle the game and if you ever assign him to our game again, we will forfeit........ugh....now I know, sorry.[/QUOTE] Now you know what?
Now you know what?[/QUOTE] Now I know that ref can't do that level of game. Despite how good he looked on paper. And I did not take just one coaches complaint as a basis. Talked to AR's in the game, other coach, coaches from other games he did, etc...
For years, I just used spreadsheets, email and google groups to do my assigning. As I got more games, I was required to use the state wide in house software (Central Assign) for certain leagues and Cup matches. It works ok, but has some annoying glitches. And it is a lot of work setting up games manually. I recently saw a demo of an assignment app from Demosphere that looked really slick and I offered to be a beta tester.
@DefRef Reason I ask is because I was thinking of creating an assigning web app strictly for soccer. I have heard complaints from both GO and ArbiterSports that I think it may be time for another one to popup with traditional styling.
I assign basically pencil/paper. That gets the names on the games. I publish the assignments either as a spreadsheet/document via email for small stuff of place the assignments into GO if the games are there for big stuff. Ideally I would use GO all the time but it’s not free and not every league uses it. But for large scale assigning it’s IMHO very user friendly for both assigning and more importantly reassigning and communication. I despise Arbiter. I cannot begin to tell you how much hate I have for that product. YMMV.
Funny you should post this. I am in the process of writing a letter to our local organization. Last year was my first year in the schools (got into it after my watching my son's games for the past 6 seasons and meeting the qualifications you outline above-though I am not sure about the walking one). I'm in my 11th year of USSF. I followed all the rules last year doing mainly MS games (put a bullet in my head). Got well above the minimum of evaluations from peers and coaches. Did everything outlined to me necessary to upgrade to be eligible for varsity matches. I am later told that everyone who took the class last year will continue to be ineligible for varsity games. New rule. I've been told I need to 'hone my skills.' Oh OK. Basically my observation after year one is that doing MS games makes you a lazier ref as all the games look slow and awkward. Watching that striker who doesn't know how to make a run and the defense that is set up like a fussball table is not going to help me with my positioning for a varsity offside call. Only doing varsity games makes you ready for varsity games. And yes there will be the teams that are set up like a fussball table atthat level as well
When my daughter went to Williams College, she wanted to continue her refereeing career. She was the only USSF grade 7 for two counties in any direction. She got six JV girls' games as her entire high school schedule. Another female freshman at the college, who was a local, got a similar schedule. Meanwhile, the good ole' boys were complaining about how many games they had to do. She quit in mid-season when they scheduled a meeting an hour away with a fine for non-attendance larger than the game fees she would get for doing the rest of her schedule. The other girl and the girl's father also quit. All the more games for the good ole boys.
Williams? That's only a 45-min drive for me, but we have a state border in the way, though their local youth club teams play in our local league. May be a border, but sure damn sounds like the same BS I'm dealing with. I love pointing shit out to a bunch of baseball umpires and basketball referees.
For those who don't know, Williamstown is the kind of place where the local newspaper reports the scores of all the rec league soccer games. She even was in a front page picture of one of the games. The adults who want to play have a team in the college's intra-mural league.
Rep for this comment as well as the foosball comment Bobby Bouche. Yah, HS is always a crap shot. That’s unfortunate they’re making you hop through all the hoops. I agree 100% with the sentiment that those low low level ms games do nothing for me except put more $ in my pocket. There’s multiple reasons high level referees don’t do low level games. This being one of them.
In reality it f**ks with your internal referee metronome. Last fall I went from two months of Modified matches of 4 quarters and coaches timeouts rules to a series of friendlies of U17 and U-19 high end club matches (with teams that ultimately were good enough to play in Dallas Cup this past winter, lots of D-I talent). My head was spinning for 15 minutes during that first match.
This makes me sad. Our small HS association serves both sides of the state border on which we sit, but currently have zero females certified for my state's side; there's only a few for the other side/state. It's a mirror of the local youth leagues - most all adult referees are male and the teenagers (both boys & girls) usually quit. I've tried recruiting some of my daughter's recently graduated HS teammates as a way to stay connected to the game they loved and to make some money -- no interest whatsoever. Ha, I would not have minded cutting my teeth on a few JV games to start my rookie HS season... my four years in USSF was all U8-U15 Rec League and some U9-U16 Club friendlies (no youth travel/club leagues nearby). Well, first ever HSBV assignment turned into my first ever HS Dual and involved a state perennial top 10 team - AR1 was reassigned last-minute. Baptism by Fire. Fortunately, said team took care of business and I didn't affect the final outcome. We're so short, first year I got to do varsity duals as often as I AR'd. Granted, they often involved at least one not-so-good team (my assignor's not stupid), but it was still cool yet sometimes nerve-wracking to have a whistle that season. Funny part is I'm 50, but considered one of the youngin's for local HS games...