Heya, I just passed my level 8 test last weekend. Now the question floating in my mind is: How will the assignors know I exist to do games? Do I have to pound pavement to get my name on thier lists? Do I sit back and expect they will get my name from state? BTW, I want to thank you guys for your questions and posts. It helped me be in the right frame of mind when attending the clinic. It was odd though, being older than all the kids, but still being the youngest adult there. ==SparkeyG
Definitely. Be sure to contact the local assignors to let them know when, where, and at what level you can work. Speaking as an assignor, I will try to get all involved, but when it comes down to filling a game, the folks that pester me for games are likely to get games (assuming they are competent for the level). Definitely not. One word of warning. The quickest way to get on a referee assignor's sh!t list is to offer availability and then decline to accept a game because of another assignment. When you get assignments from one assignor, be sure to notify the other assignors that you are unavailable in those time slots. While they may not be happy about it, at least they know now and not later.
In rustic Tacoma/Pierce County WA the local county refs association has a website that lists all the available games. Each referee has an experience/skill rating and each game has a requirement. As soon as the games are listed you can assign yourself to any available line or center and the software checks to see if you have the qualifications, if you are doing too many games, too little time between games, etc. and the assignors review the assignments and make such adjustments as they find necessary. A very nice system that limits the impact of the "old boy" system and gives everyone a fair shot at games. Jim
Re: Re: Finding games to ref I have a related question. (I too am a newbie, just got my Grade 08.) Initially I thought about getting on the list for just one of our local clubs, convienient to my home. It sounds like our area clubs are so desperate for refs that any given club can keep you pretty busy. But a ref friend of mind insisted that I get hooked up with assignors for three or four different clubs. He said that with coaches and parents, too much familiarity can breed contempt, and it's best to rotate around. So what is the best way to juggle assignments from several different clubs without pissing anyone off? I could decide on a schedule at the beginning of the season, like work for Club A this week, Club B next week, Club C the week after that, and let all the assignors know which weeks I am available for their club. Or do you just wait for the phone calls to come every week and accept one and turn the others down?
Re: Re: Re: Finding games to ref While not all assignors work this way, and there are always last minute changes, normally referees provide the assignors a lisitng o of the times and days they will be available to that team to do games. Then the assignors schedule the crews for the games weeks, and somtimes the full season, in advance. They will let you know when you are assigned, where, with whom and for whom. If they do not need you will will know in advance and will usually have adequate time to make yourself available to another assignor. Some assignors, if they don't use you, may ask you to remain on a standy list in case of an emergency, if you do not get another assingment that day. I am not certain what you mean by club. Do you mean a local association such as a league or town program's assignor or do you have referee assingors for each club which might only have one or two teams, where you are located? In your first season, I would not bite off too much. What you should be looking for is the opportunity to work sets of matches with more experineced referees so they can answer your quesitons and support you. You will get to see how it is done. You may find this easier to achive by working closely with one assingor. Once you have a season or two, then you may want to take your act on the road, but the most important thing right now is to work on your mechanics, teamwork and game experinece. Start internalizing the Laws.
First, decide how many games you'd like to do a week (and when). Then, talk to experienced refs and assignors where you want to work and find out how many games you're likely to work and when they do their assigning. Depending on how many teams assignors work for, one may be able to keep you busy for many seasons without seeing the same teams more than once or twice. Or you may need to work with numerous ones to get enough games. I do mostly youth and high schools. In fall, I work through 2 assignors - one for older and select, and one for u12 and u14 rec. In spring, I work high school with a crew chief/assignor and sometimes fill in with a u12 or u14 game.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Finding games to ref I guess I am a little confused by this too. We have the region-wide Capital Area YSA, under which are about 30 "clubs", many having both rec programs and select teams. But there are individual assignors listed for each of these "clubs". (Although a couple of assignors work for multiple clubs.) Some clubs have separate assignors for rec and select. Perhaps when the different local clubs play each other the home team is responsible for assigning? Although my Level 8 class was very good, I wish they would have discussed the assignment process. We were given a page listing the phone numbers for 25 or so CAYSA assignors and told to call one or more.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Finding games to ref This actually does make sense. I would suggest you call the assignor most local to you and let them know that you have recently recived your certification, want to do some games, and that you are committed to the program and wish to learn from experineced officials by working as part of a crew in the diagonal system of control. Also make youself avaialble for small sided games as a single middle. The reason to call the local guy first is twofold. First is that he or she will probably have already heard of you having recived a list from the state association. Second, most assignors give the local refrees first refusal on the best assignments in their area. Don't worry too much at the early stages, about becomming too familiar at local fields. If you can't get enough games locally, offer your remaining availablities to other assignors, but if you do this, make sure your local assignor knows that you are no longer available for an eleventh hour call on those days. Once you start working games, you are going to have a few problems or questions. This happens to everyone. It is important that you notify your assignor any time you have a problem, or the teams or coaches have a problem with you. Good luck, Sherman
As an assignor I prefer this approach. As a referee I do the former. I offer availabilty to League A on weeks 1, 3, 6, and 8. I offer availability to League B for weeks 2, 4, and 7 plus their playoffs on week 9. (Week 5 is a Rev/US National team doubleheader that I don't want to miss. ) Now if League A does not give me games for all weeks that I am available, then I send a note to the assignor for League B to let him know about the additional dates I am available. (I also make a note not to offer as many time slots to League A next season. )
For the new referees or the referees that only work in their local area, I think that the approaches spelled out by IASocFan, whipple and nsa are good ways to do it. However, I'd be interested to find out how some of the more experienced guys do it -- juggling assignments between professional and higher level assignors and local assignors and juggling assignments between high school and college if your HS plays in the fall.
Where I am at, NC, we have 1 assignor that does our "club" , rec, adult and high school games for a large portion of the state. He, for sure, has a lot of work but does a great job. At the beginning of the season we fill out a form that provides him with all the week ends that we are availible. He then assigns games based off that. The more competitive games are on Sat. and the rec games are generally on Sundays. High School games are all during the week which really only effects whether you get to do the adult "for fun" leagues which are co-ed. These do not count towards my game count so i only occasionally do them. I tend to call and bug my assignor a lot on Thursday night to make sure that I can get the competitve and age appropriate levels that I want. Anyway, that is basically how it is done where I am at.