Presentation makes for confidence and confidence makes for selling calls. Let's just say that on one occasion, an astute coach pointed out my colleague's lack of professional wear and questioned their calls when "they couldn't even get their patch on right." But November... is that when refs drop out? November is pretty much end of soccer season...
We have a ref who blacked out the date to create a perpetual badge. He always recertified, but liked the ageless badge.
It isn't that they aren't certified, they just don't bother getting a new patch at that point. Down here in Houston we will have soccer games through at least the second week of December. There is always a division II (I don't really know what that is, but it is the worst soccer I ever work) tournament over two weeks in December that requires a lot of referees. Then unrelated to USSF patches, high school scrimmages start over Christmas break.
Well our state (al) committee just sent us an email- 500 refs from 2019 have not recertified yet. Looks like from gameofficials we have 800. Can’t see that I’ll get it done before the end of the year... hopefully they’ll have some clinics early in the new year.
Hello fellow Alabamian soccer ref! /wave What happens if you don't recertify? Can you work games you're not certified for in that year?
There are several clinics still to come before the end of the year here so the committee is doing well to provide enough chances to recert http://www.alasoccerref.com/recertclinic.htm @gaolin if you haven’t recertified for 2020 you can’t do ussf games in 2020 until you do. If you happen to be a new ref who did your initial clinic in the second half of the year, your initial certification is for 2020, so no need to recertify.
OK here's another quibble. The simulated CPR in the safety video is shown at way more than the recommended 100 compressions per minute ... looks like 150 or more.
Indeed I am a new ref, so all good! Seems like no more games for me, so I'm just finishing up the season with some Adult Amateur games and then rest Dec thru Jan, I suppose.
I have not looked at the numbers, but is the 800 the number certified in 2019? Meaning only 300 have recertified? Or is the 800 include the numbers that have recertified?
800 is the size of our statewide roster on gameofficials which I assume reflects the current registered officials
Anyone having issues with paying for the background check? When I try to pay I get a message asking me to submit my billing address, even though there's no spot for that (apart from the address already used for the background check info, which I double- and triple-checked). It's also a bit strange that they don't ask for the security code on the credit card. It's ridiculous that this stuff doesn't work right. If I thought it wouldn't upset my assignor, I'd be tempted to quit reffing USSF and just do HS games.
considering the game that I ended this past tournament with, I won’t be surprised. U8 Alabama Rec & Parks state Championship game. The poor players getting yelled at by coaches and “adult” parents, often with conflicting information. The coach would scream “what are you doing?“ And then tell the player what to do. The player would do that and the parent would yell “what are you doing?“ And then tell the player what needed to be done. when I first did this tournament, we would have enough referees for me to do three games on Saturday and two games on Sunday. This weekend I did five games on Saturday and three games on Sunday. We just don’t have enough referees who want to do this tournament anymore. And with the way the coaches and parents act, combined with the difficulty of recertification, I can see the numbers dropping off.
Sounds like a tournament that needs to be put out of its misery anyway ... having no referees would be an appropriate way to accomplish that.
Indeed. There are five districts. The winner and runner up in each district tournament are invited to the state tournament. So there should be ten teams in every age/gender group. This season there were six teams in U8, U10 boys and U12 coed, four in U8 and U10 girls, five in U14 coed, and three in U16 and U19 coed. Eight age groups so 80 teams were invited. 37 teams went. It is on its way to being put out of its misery.
I made myself a stiff Manhattan, curled up on the sofa with my wife (who knows zero about soccer), and had her pick answers for the Regional test. I only overruled her a couple of times. She got a 94.
In Michigan, we're doing all the online stuff you are doing, and then a 2 hour in-person, on-field clinic. We're mostly doing mechanics and positioning, but we're starting the clinic by teaching them how to warm up before the game, and we're spending some time on how to blow a whistle. These clinics are ~40 students, and 5-6 instructors. I'm starting to think that 42 students to 6 instructors is the right ratio, but we're going to try a couple of bigger sessions and see how those go. It's a logistical challenge, since we used to have a number of 200-300 person recertification clinics with one or two instructors. To recertify those same referees, I'm now needing upwards of 8 classes and 48 instructors. And indoor fields/gyms/big open spaces instead of classroom/auditoriums. We'll make it work.
I finished my regional recert this past weekend. Did all the online content before the class. It took, overall, maybe 3-4 hours. Then we did our fitness test first thing Saturday morning. 40 degrees and light rain is no fun, but I still passed! After that, we did a 2-hour classroom session. This consisted of an overview of the Learning Center, going over the new law changes, and some video clips (fouls and misconduct). After lunch, we did our outdoor field session. This consisted of some offside drills, referee positioning, referee and AR communication. Had to cut the field session short when the rain got really heavy. Overall, it was a good day, despite the weather. I feel like the outdoor field session will be very helpful. Being able to apply things on the field instead of just sitting in a room and talking about it is very useful.
Everybody. 5500 registered refs in the state, so we'll have at least 100 in-person recert clinics New refs have a similar process, but the in-person, on-field session will be specifically for new refs (we won't have any combined classes, at least not this year). Not exactly sure what we will do for content; it might be the same. First one in my area isn't until January, so we still have time to think it through.
Same issue here. My license does not show up. I have sent emails to two different addresses and I have gotten zero response. Local DRA can't do anything. Also, won't take my Safesport that I already took for ski coaching. Total failure so far.