I just completed my online recertification test. It was the easiest test that I have ever taken. I think you could pass it even if you have never taken a referee course. Now on to the in-person clinic.
My recert clinic here in Eastern PA is in January of next year - the only one this year is upcoming on December 8, but there is a tournament then that I am working so preferred to go on an empty weekend.
Well that's one big advantage of doing it all online like we did in Georgia this year -- you can do it at your leisure and convenience.
Not to get too sidetracked (pardon the pun) here, but was this the Mary Cain story? (Note byline here: https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2019/11/07/mary-cain-womens-health-alberto-salazar/
Okay, full disclosure. I have met Alberto Salazar a couple of times, when he was the speaker at a small group to which I belong and i have read his autobiography. His sons played soccer at my high school. I have never met Mary Cain. Alberto is a very focused person. I am perhaps too much of a polymath to be like him, but I truly admire people like him and he is not the only such person I've been around. I will also posit that no coach is the right coach for every athlete. Having said that, after Mary Cain's big article, Jordan Hasay (who was the blonde speed demon before Mary Cain) has said that, yes, Alberto obsesses about weight but then Alberto obsesses about everything. She is absolutely right. That's just the way he is. He even has said that his heart attack was God's message to him that he needs to not be so obsessive and that some earlier incidents in his life were similar messages. He says that he is a sinner. He was recently suspended from coaching for four years by the World Anti Doping Agency. Their decision is currently on appeal to the Court for Arbitration for Sport. WADA did not find any evidence that he had doped any athlete he was coaching. He did possess testosterone, which he had admitted that he used in an experiment on his own son to see if someone could sabotage a runner by, say, putting testosterone on the runner's skin after the race with a congratulatory pat on the shoulder, for example. Mary Cain does not allege that Alberto doped her or had her use performance enhancing drugs. Her statements come down to "he wasn't nice to me." Gee, a coach wasn't nice to you? He should be shot! I know that guys should not talk to women about their weight. But when you are their coach, you have to discuss things like that, even including their menstruation cycle. Your body is your job when you are a professional athlete. Counter example: Deanna Price won the world championship in women's hammer this year. She publicly attributes her success this year to having lost 40 pounds since last year. Mary turned pro right out of high school. She moved to Portland to be coached by Alberto and attend University of Portland. That lasted one semester. She then moved back home while being coached 'remotely.' I don't think I'm stretching here to say that it's apparent that Mary was a very naïve teenager, who wasn't emotionally ready to be a professional athlete. Physically yes, but not emotionally or socially. From what I know, which may not be very much, I would estimate that she was making six figures a year as an 18 year old and the first digit was probably not a one. The fact that she continued to be coached by Alberto, IMHO, only reinforces my opinion about her maturity level. And it's not like Nike was forcing its athletes to be coached by Alberto. Yes, Alberto is on Nike's payroll. But there are other coaches at Nike, like Jerry Schumacher, that are alternatives. Alberto can't and doesn't coach all of the Nike athletes. I feel sad that Mary Cain feels the way she does about her experiences with Alberto, Nike and the sport. I am not trying to be dismissive when I say "Be very careful what you ask for. You just might get it."
I think this style of coaching is going to die. We saw in USA Gymnastics that it created a too-perfect situation for abuse. A gym had a horrible coach who ridiculed injured gymnasts. They'd go see the friendly doctor -- Larry Nassar. No more Karolyis. No more Salazars. It's a new era, and I don't think that's a bad thing.
I put my first name in but not my legal first name and it won’t allow me to edit my name says I have to email them to do it. Well about three weeks now and no reply to me. I have sent 5 emails yet to be returned. In meantime I can’t do anything so this sucks
I was having issues, including multiple emails that were never returned after weeks. Got in touch with my SRA, he knew the person to contact, got it cleared up in a day or two. If your SRA doesn't get back to you, I would try to contact any refs or assignors you know in your state who may have ties to people higher up the food chain.
Just an update on my issues with the US Soccer Learning Center. It has been over a month since I emailed their support email addresses and I still have gotten no response. I went back to the Learning Center website today (January 1, 2020 is fast approaching). Now when you click on "US Soccer Referee licenses - Missing information" you get a request to help with duplicate profiles and there is now a confirmation. They must have been having a lot of issues with this. Hopefully this can now get resolved. Seems like there should be a box where you can enter your USSF ID and it would pull in all the other info.
Has anybody had an issue with the SafeSport training freezing and not allowing you to go forward? I am just into Unit 3 and can’t get past a page with scenarios on it? Any help would be appreciated.
Safe Sport sucked royally. That was some dark shit. Test was easy. Didn't even need the book for it. Tomorrow is the 4 hour in-person class. Received an email today stating that we should wear USSF gear and/or if not a collared shirt. Yeah, sure, I'll get right on that US Soccer.
Right now for me all that is listed is about a dozen clinics, all 2+ hours away from me. Do the tests (SafeSport, modules, etc.) get assigned to you only after you register for a clinic?
My state's re-cert is 100% online but if I remember it correctly, the answer is Yes. I had to wait on the background check and get my exiting license fixed before I could register for the online re-cert clinic, then I could start on Safesport and the training modules. Wow, 2+ hours away for re-cert clinics? That's how it used to be in my state (mostly rural) until 2016 when the 100% online clinics were made available and returning referee counts jumped by 30%+.
They haven’t loaded in all of the clinics yet, so those are the only available ones right now. Obviously they will add more later.
We're doing almost 100% online (the USSF learning center modules, test on LotG, U11 heading, concussion). We finish with a 2 hour in-person were we cover things like AR mechanics, blowing your whistle, warming up before the game. Yeah, pretty basic stuff, but most 9s and 8s have never had anyone tell them this stuff. We're getting pretty positive feedback.
You can't register for a course unless your background check is authorized. Most states have dropped in person courses for recertification as it's not required by U.S. Soccer. Sorry to hear yours has not.
What system? It's confusing to write things like this on an internet forum. Some states are using the Learning Center for registration. Others are not.