Regional Upgrade requiring Adult Amateur Matches only

You’re complaining about wanting to be a “regional” referee and won’t travel regionally. There are plenty of opportunities. US Soccer isn’t culling anything. Your state promotes you and can do whatever they want

 

Or just an attempt to get more refs to work adult leagues?

In my state the old grade 7 was supposed to be required to work adult leagues, but there just weren't enough 7s so assignors used grade 8s whose official certification training did not include the material specific to the adult game. The state committee decided to require every re-certifying referee 18 and older to register as a 7. I don't know if that had an impact on the adult leagues here but it couldn't hurt. Only downside was for those of us that only work youth leagues we had to go through more training and pay a $5 higher certification fee.

 

Let me say at the outset that I'm a lowly grade 8/grassroots who has never been very involved in any high-level referee politics. I apologize for my ignorance of the shadowy workings of the many, many committees that predominantly worry about matters far beyond the youth league games I work.

One of the problems, IMO, is that there is a huge chasm between a brand new grassroots referee and someone who would have the experience to do 50 centers on adult games. Back in the 8/7/6 days my state had a points system for getting to 7 or 6. You had to work a certain number of games and get a certain number of points. I believe any youth games counted toward the number of games (assuming the games had three refs), but the only games that would get you points would be adult games, U16 & up boys league games, and U17 & up girls league games. With that system there was a reasonable pathway for moving up. Now it's really tough, because anyone who's a grassroots ref, even if you are trying to move up, you're probably still working a lot of youth games, and presumably high school as well. Then you're competing with veteran referees for assignments on adult games, so even if adult soccer is well-established in your metro area, it's going to take a while. And how are those adult assignors going to put you any games without knowing you? At least if you were a 7 you could tell them that. I get that there's always going to be subjectivity in assigning and promoting referees, and the old boys' network is pretty much inevitable. FWIW, I think I'm on the good side of the guy who assigns for the biggest youth club, the biggest men's league, and the local high schools. So I can't complain. I just wish we had a system that would recognize that there's a big difference between a brand new ref and many of the "grassroots" referees who have been working for years, know the laws well, are in good shape, and do a good job.

In short, I don't know why we can't have a grassroots-->state-->regional pathway instead.

 

I personally don't feel this is an accurate perception. You most definitely need to be willing to travel regionally to become a regional referee. It's the expectation once you receive the badge, you *must* show your willingness to meet those expectations before you earn it. People who promote beyond 7 do so because they have a desire to do those games, to make the sacrifices necessary. You will be a representative of your state on a much bigger stage that what's currently available to you. They have to know you will make the effort to preform well.

 

Problem is, there's no 7.

 

I don't know what you mean by this?

 

Grassroots, regional, national. There's no 9/8/7/6 anymore. I don't know if some states are unofficially calling people 7s.

 

Okay so a Grassroots II is a 7. Don't be pedantic. Nothing has changed except the words on the badge.

 

With all due respect, I'm not trying to be pedantic here. My state 's website doesn't say anything about "grassroots 2" or anything else like that. They still just have their old 7/6 stuff from years ago. I realize different states do different things, but I assume that in many states there is nothing between grassroots and regional.

 

No such thing as Grassroots II in my state. Progression goes from Grassroots to Regional, no differentiation among Grassroots referees.

 

my impression is:
grassroots = 9/8/7
regional = 6/5
national = 4/3

There used to be a big difference between 8/9 and 7. Not so now.

 

I think you have to look at it on a larger scale. There were many conversations on this board about the bridge between grassroots and regional.

So I think it begins with the problem. What they were finding was that people were getting to the level of National (or even into the professional ranks; pre-PRO days) without having done adult matches. They would work the youth regionals, get selected to nationals, go to the us development academy showcase, etc. Now they were expected to work a professional match with players from different nationalities without having been challenged at the amateur ranks. US Soccer wants to promote officials to the ranks and have a pool of officials ready to move into the professional ranks. At the grassroots level they’ll leave it the individual states to figure out how to parse the more experienced grassroots from the fresh grassroots.
So to answer your questions are they trying to cull the number of officials (not necessarily) but really boost the amount of officials with amateur adult experience. Are they trying to enforce stricter standards? Not necessarily rather make the pool have a higher quantity of officials with amateur experience.
Will this hurt states without a huge adult soccer base? Most definitely. Places like Alaska and Hawaii, how many regional officials do those states produce? US soccer knows that there is a power vacuum of adult games. That’s why you see officials with a quick upward trajectory come from bigger metros. There is a readily available amount of adult games.
As far as traveling. Let’s be real, you’re going to have to begin to travel. Yes, you will go to regional events but intra-travel in the state should be mandatory to see different soccer outside your local areas. Tbh not everyone is cut out to travel and work the ranks and sacrifice. Alan Black mentioned this at an event I was at “not everyone is cut for the professional ranks. That’s okay to. There’s a place for every official”.

if you work outside your area I’m sure you can get the adult numbers up. Our state required this for a state referee and it took me about 2 years to get the 100 adult matches. But I was traveling 180 miles one-way to get the quality adult matches over the weekends and still trying to work a job and finish college.

 

Officially in US Soccer, there is no Grassroots II. Some states may have it, but not all. However, US Soccer should adopt something between Grassroots and Regional. Right now, a brand new grassroots referee right out of a class has the same qualifications as an old 7 referee whose been doing games for years. But there is a vast difference in experience and ability. An official Grassroots II would reward those long term officials who have experience but for whatever reason cannot move up the ladder.

 

First, regardless of what Chicago says the requirements for Regional Referee are, the SRA/SRC can register anyone as a Regional Referee if they so choose. USSF is not going to audit their decision and approve or disapprove. Therefore, different states can and will have different standards for that upgrade, varying to reflect the state of the game in their state. The last time I looked, every state had at least one State Referee, including Wyoming, which has no adult play. They either got that badge by going to other states to do games, they moved there with the badge already or the state approved the upgrade based on their state's criteria that differ from Chicago's. In business terms, Chicago is staff, not line.
Second, frankieboylampard is exactly right. Getting rid of grade 7 was not a smart move. The grade 9/8/7 distinctions were valuable information for assignors, even if it wasn't meaningful for Chicago. As is apparent from some posts, some states have created their own way of showing who's demonstrated higher than entry level skills, calling them Grassroots II. That does not need to be/should not be based simply on time in grade or even games done. As one colleague put it about another referee, "He doesn't have 10 years of experience. He has his first year repeated 10 times."
Third, I wholeheartedly agree that, at least in my state, anyone with a Regional Referee badge should be capable of handling a typical men's amateur game most of the time. Now we have a lot of adult amateur play. Maybe old numbers, but the figure I saw for adult amateur registered players per capita, we are something like the sixth highest state. We have multiple men's leagues, co-ed leagues and women's leagues, most of them USSF affiliated. The fact is, though, that we do not have enough Regional Referees to cover all of those games, even aside from the typical fall season competition for Regional Referees who are doing college games on the weekends as well. So "Grassroots" referees can and do serve those adult games. And, to be honest, you do not need Regional Referee level skills to handle women's O-30. As one guy said about those games, "You just have to remember that it's their tea party and we've only been invited to serve the cucumber sandwiches." (And his wife plays in that league.)
Finally, at one time USSF thought that they could bring people up through the youth system into PDL and the like, heading ever upwards. They slowly, too slowly, realized that referees need the experience of dealing with adult players of widely varying skills and attitudes about how the game should be played. I fully appreciate that means that some referees who live where there is no local adult amateur play and who want to move up will have to travel. Terry Vaughn lived in Des Moines IA, where there was no adult play. He drove to Chicago to do adult games something like three weekends a month for years. He wanted it that much and he ended up with a FIFA badge. (I'm sure someone here will correct me about some of that statement if my memory is not exact, but the concept is the point, not the name or the number of times a month.) Everyone isn't in a place in life where they can do something like that.

 

You're cut off from reality because you're in a state who is giving Chicago the middle finger regarding the changes and you're apparently totally blind to that. Number grades don't exist and haven't for two years now.

It's Grassroots, Regional, National. That's it. A few states (like yours) are trying to be rebels and do their own thing.

You look really foolish telling someone else they're being pedantic.

 

Count me in the group that thinks we don’t need more grades.

first - if you’re an assignor working with new officials that all share the title of grassroots, I think you need to either ask others about said referees ability or go out and watch them yourself. It doesn’t take much effort these days to get a sense of who someone is. There are not so many of us you can’t ask some questions.

Second - I’m not sure why older referees who can’t climb the ladder need rewarding? We don’t need to create a whole level of official for a group of people who are better than a first day ref but not good enough or interested to truly advance.

I get frustrated when people like the OP complain about wanting to advance but not do any of the work to get there. Terry Vaughn did travel to Chicago for games and also many other places. So did I. I went to every state around me and frequently drove 4 hours one way to do a single game. I suppose your motivation is different than mine but next you’ll complain that you can’t get your national badge at the field down the street from your house too.

 

I agree with most of everything here. The only thing ill dissent a bit on is that multiple grades were useful for those referee's traveling from their home state to another state. But I agree that assignor should put the work out there to check out the new incoming official working their leagues or tourney's. I also agree that there are a lot of officials who want the fancy title but not interested to truly advance.

 

I personally just don’t think the gap between grassroots and Regional is appropriate. There is a middle step and they aren’t recognizing it.

They should reinstate the state referee as a grade.

 

Almost all of this depends on the kind of referee path someone is taking. I can’t imagine that the system was designed for the referees who aren’t trying to climb the ladder. Or the referees who are good, but don’t want to do more than local adult leagues. Or those in the twilight of their career who want to mentor.

Regional referees have to travel. USSF wants regional referees being the ones doing leagues that have regional representation. Obviously there will be exceptions to everything, but that’s the general plan. If you don’t want to travel, do the fitness test, or all the other things, why do you want to be a regional referee? Game fee bonuses? Well ok, suck it up and do the extra things.

Not being a regional doesn’t stop you from doing youth games, adult games, NPSL, or USL2, if your assignor thinks you’re good enough. And if any of them don’t assign grassroots to games it sounds like your problem is with your bad assignor, not Chicago. Yes more grades help a little to identify levels, but we’ve all seen grassroots that are excellent and nationals who look like they’re doing their first match. If the assignor doesn’t know the two referees apart and strictly assigns based on grade, the problem is with that assignor.

 

I did a game with a young ambitious AR who asked me why I wasn’t moving up the ladder. As flattered (and amused, given my age) as I was, I told him that while I try my best, I simply can’t get better or claim to be better unless I was willing to go where the competitive adult games are, and I am just too busy to do that.

Regional means regional, not “really good local.” As for recognizing the better grassroots referee, the only recognition that I want is from the people on my crew because we as a team killed it on the game we just did.

 

I have to say I am a little bit confused on everything, because recently I worked with a young kid who has a "state referee 2020" badge. He's from New York. He told me that he's a "state" but not a "regional" because to be a regional you have to go past whatever. But I thought there should be no more "state referee" badges? Just regional or nothing? So that has thrown me off quite a bit. Anybody has an explanation for that?

 

Not every State Org has followed the US Soccer model. Yet.

 

Having done some more research into things, you are completely right that I wasn't aware of some of these changes, and I'm sure the state that I'm in has something to do with that. That being said, I think the take away is you have to play the game laid in front of you. My state has a lengthy (two to three year) process to obtain a regional badge. The length of that process is the sole reason why I haven't gone for that badge since I am likely leaving the country in less than a year so not enough time. We still use number grades on misconduct reports, in assigning, in registration, pretty much everything. I apologize that I was out of touch.