My state limits HS's to two scrimmages during official pre-season. Sometime there's 3-4 teams doing round-robin halves which are fun. For those and even if it's just two teams, we'll often rotate positions and try to get rookies training with us. Sometimes the schools do the paying, others are by the boosters or even by the teams. For the latter, a ref-buddy and I that both have ties to a particular school once did their summer 3x25' scrimmage for $20/each plus wings & beer with the coaches afterwords . I used to do some local club friendlies solo in late summer, but after too many turned quite UNfriendly, i backed away from the 11v11 solo offers. Amen to that!
Before I started doing NFHS, it seems my association did similar jamborees. We had an all day deal with a half dozen or more schools playing 30 minute games. High school 1 boys JV vs. high school 2 girls varsity. Middle school 1 boys vs. high school 3 girls JV. Mix and match teams from all over the area. The referees would use this as a clinic. The teams would be in on this clinic creating scenarios that referees had to handle. Defender swapping jerseys with a keeper during live play. A player actively flirting with a referee. An AR blowing the whistle when something happened (foul throw, perceived foul, etc). The referees would come back to the assignor and an instructor for a debriefing. I don't think the referees got paid for this. I didn't start NFHS until 2021 and they didn't have this type clinic.
For us, pre-season games are paid at $10 an hour. However, those monies go to the referee association and they credit our account for paying assigning fees ($3 per game). My time is worth way more than $10 an hour, especially because most of the scrimmages are during winter break which is the only time of year that my wife and I have NOTHING at the same time for more than 3 days.
So in PA, each referee chapter (which is usually counties) negotiates with the league their own rates, so it all varies a lot. For example, in my neck of the woods, we get paid $89 for varsity (regardless if 2 whistles or 3 whistles), $73 for JV, $66 for Varsity JH and $63 for JVJH. Differences are such that in a neighboring county, they get paid $75 for varsity and if you a double header, meaning do a Varisty and JV at the same site, you do not get Varsity + JV, you get a "combined rate" which is lower - they excuse that as less driving. Go figure. Anyway, this means that pre-season is different everywhere so this will only apply to my area. We used to get exactly half of the fee for pre-season and it meant you are there for 2 hours and doing a scrimmage. So our chapter went to the league and said that we are spending MORE time at scrimmages and getting only half of the fee. Either make it a regular game or pay us the full fee. Because more often than not, we will do quarters - teams will want to play 4x20 instead of 2x40 for varsity etc. So, this season, we ended up with full fees for those games. Having said that, I did a small private school vs a small rural school the other day, varsity girls (the small private school only have 17 players total, no JV program). Did 4x15 and my partner was disinterested, angry that we do more than 1 hour (he thought it was one hour) and left as soon as the final whistle blew. I thought that was super unprofessional. At the end of the game they asked me if I would referee their PSO. I said you have me for 30 more minutes so of course! And we did the worst PSO ever, going through 7 players each (instead of 5) and actually playing to completion so kids could practice more. Score in the PSO: 3-1. They told me they would never get to the stage where they have to participate in PSO so it's not bad but that they will practice them after seeing what happened
High school JV game at a multi-field complex. The referees reported that, when they arrived, they were informed that there was a man sleeping on the field. The coaches had not been able to get his attention and had called 'the authorities.' When the referees went to him, they were able to wake him up. He apologized and left. "and the game started on time." I guess the uniform is pretty powerful. Reminds me of the time that my daughter was going off to college for the first time. She wore her USSF referee warm up jacket on the plane. The trip required two flights and in Detroit, she had to make a change to her second flight. She went to the airline counter and told the CSR what she needed. The CSR asks, "Are you over 17 years old?" She said, "Yes." The CSR then looked up from her computer, saw the USSF emblem on her jacket and said, "I'm sorry. You're in the armed services, aren't you?" I think she said, "Yeah, something like that."
Missed one from last weekend.U17B game. First time I've ever thrown out a parent. Defender shielding ball over touch line, attacker has arms on his back but not pushing. Defender didn't like it, picks up ball for throw it and as attacker is retreating (back to ball), defender throws ball off of his back (not violent at all, just a quick toss so he can keep playing but obviously a little "f you" to the guy for putting his arms on his back). Play continues and spectators up in arms about that perfectly legal play (players don't care), and suddenly I hear AR2 over comm (we were being tryhards using comms) saying HEY HEY I HEAR ONE MORE THING LIKE THAT YOU'RE OUTTA HERE. Next stoppage I go over and ask what happened, he says the mother of the kid who got the ball thrown off his back yelled "HEY NUMBER 10, YOU DO THAT TO MY SON AGAN I'M GONNA F'ING KILL YOU". I immediately tell her to get off the property. She tries to refuse so I go over to the bench and one of the team's assistant coaches escorts her to her car. After the game they apologize to me and say "yeah we all know that throw was legal, we saw pros do it".
I gotta give credit where credit is due; the Copas, et al. that were illegal for us until last year are now cleared for action.
High school varsity girls, first game of the season for both teams. The other AR and I have done the JV game at an off campus site. When we arrive at the stadium, there's been a major injury in the JV football game on the field, ambulance called. The first year AD comes over. She's all fussing about her not having the 'official' state roster form, the team has new shirts coming tomorrow so the numbers will all change, she's got the varsity boys soccer team ready to switch out the equipment, yahda, yahda, yahda. Oh, and she's embarrassed but the clock operator is new. He is asking us about how long the halves are and how long halftime is. Okay, we think he's got this under control. At halftime, the other AR tells the center that the clock didn't stop on any of the three goals. Great. And, instead of putting 10 minutes on the clock for halftime, he's put up five. We and the teams just ignored the halftime horn when it went off. About five minutes later, we start to wander out there and he gets on the PA system "Sorry about the clock, refs." Second half, we have an injury, so the referee whistles and signals for the clock to stop. It doesn't. He signals again. Clock continues to run. I'm looking across the field at the stands and press box. There's no one in the press box! I see a guy in a white shirt walking, slowly, out of the stands and about a minute later, the same guy is now in the press box and stops the clock. It took quite a bit of time for him to stop the clock during two subsequent injuries as well. And, oh, by the way, the home team is down a goal. With 19 seconds on the clock, we have another injury. By my watch, we are past 40 minutes. When we go to restart (after I, again, had to suggest to the home coach that she might want to sub for her injured player), there's 33 seconds on the clock! Now the visiting coach is upset. When nobody was watching, he was putting time back on the clock to make up for his inattentiveness. SMH.
I got a bit of ribbing from a few fellow refs when I told them I showed our region's referee coach a pair of running shoes I wanted to get for games (I only ref in running shoes) because I wanted the ones that were all black with white accents (white outsole, white logo, white shoelace tips) rather than the all black ones because all black running shoes usually look like complete crap. When I reminded them that he assigns MLS Next games and I didn't want an issue there they laid off. He said the shoes were fine. I absolutely understand not wanting refs having any colors on their shoes (and I view them as less professional if I see it) but the white accents aren't a problem at all. What's with the power trip these people have. I can't imagine someone voluntarily purchasing those horrifically ugly shoes unless forced to. Then again, the only refs I saw wearing them are NB's core demo of 60 year old white guys
I definitely prefer to not wear any flashy colors in my shoes. I stick to black, white, and maybe a little bit of silver or gray. For example, I own a pair of Nike Reacts that are similar to this, but the swoosh is outlined in the color of the sole and the sole of my shoes are black. But I know some referees wear black shoes with yellow or red accents. I'm not a fan. A colleague of mine wears size 15s, so he sometimes doesn't have much of a choice. But outside of black, white, and a little gray/silver, I don't want my referee shoes to have any other colors. I do have to hand it to New Balance, though. They make a great pair of astro-turf soccer shoes. I wear them on the line for most of my matches, and I occasionally wear them in the middle. For soccer-style shoes, they are really comfortable!
^^ This. 90% seem to max out at size 12/13, some at 14. Some brands/models are cut narrow (ie. Nike) but are impossible to find in an E width (not X-wide).
I once worked with an otherwise normal appearing young referee (in his early 20's at the time) who wore size 24 shoes. He had been able to special order some size 22's from Adidas in Germany, built on their largest last.
I had my first college game tonight, and it was as an AR1 so it was right away into the monster's den, no shielding from the benches. It was a great experience, a D2 game, definitely a different animal than anything I've done before, even though I have done adult amateur games etc. Loved it and looking forward to more!
I missed an opportunity to make the parents laugh today. U12 girls, two teams from the same club meandering their way through tournament consolation game, and they go through a stretch where they bog down on the sideline in front of the parents. Throw-in after throw-in. The ball never gets more than five yards away from the line. What I thought of saying just a few seconds too late: "Man, when my kids were this age, they were trying to get AWAY from their parents."
Working summer soccer leagues this summer and I was able to talk with a lot of HS coaches about HS officials. One told me if they show up in all black shoes he does not expect good calls. My shoes are all black.
HSBV, dual, visitors are supposed to be the underdogs in this one. But mid-2nd, Visitors are controlling the game and put another one in to go up by 3. Teams are lined up, there's no subs, so we blow for the kickoff. Home takes their usual short tap kickoff, but this time Blue #10 takes a setting touch then drills it high and straight up the field... Visitor's GK had sauntered 10+ yds above his PA to continue yucking-it-up with his teammates over their goal... he panics and starts to run back as the ball sails over his head, takes one bounce, and goes straight into the goal. I've seen similar in small-sided youth, but that was a first for me at the HS level.
Community college women's game today. Natural grass field. The home coach says 'when you swing by [the AD], tell him that we need a turf field." Yeah, I'll get right on that, coach. As we are inspecting the field, we notice some peculiar things. The goal area lines are only two yards outside the posts. The hash marks are only five yards from the corner. Well, except for the one that is missing. "And the game shall not begin." The center circle has a 20 yard radius. The arc for the penalty kick restraining line is about 15 yards instead of 10. And the width of the lines varies between 1/2" and 1". When I officially inform the AD that the field is mismarked, he says, "Tell [name of coach]. He marked the field." So now we know that the coach absolutely does not know the rules, even something as simple as the size of the center circle. And he confirmed that he does not know the rules during the game. Both teams have subs waiting to enter. I turn and wave both subs on. The coach then asks "Can we sub on theirs?" "Yes. [I paused to mentally check whether this was a trick question.] It's a goal kick." His team lost.