I'm a new grade 08 working with CASL in the Raleigh-Durham area. I am very eager to pile up some experience hoping to progress quickly to grade 07 in 1-2 years time. However, I'm having a really difficult time getting the number of assignments I would like. Here we are heading into the 3rd week of the season and so far I've only been assigned 3 games, all of which were rained out. We have an interesting situation here where we have almost twice as many certified officials as we do games and the assignor's doing his best to dole out the games fairly and evenly based on experience and availability. While I support the fairness of this, it does put a damper on my plans for quick promotion to grade 07. I was wondering if this is the normal situation around the country. I kind of figured that the situation would be reversed...with most leagues finding it almost impossible to fill all the available referee slots on any given weekend with qualified officials. Also, are there other leagues around the southeast (for example, Greensboro, Fayetteville, Wilmington, Columbia, Florence, Asheville, Charlotte, Greenville, Spartanburg, etc.) that you guys work with that are having trouble filling assignments? I would be more than happy to drive a few hours and even stay over a Saturday night if I could guarantee to get 6-10 games over a weekend.
It sounds like your referee association has done a real good job of recruiting. We have a similar situation here where we've worked hard at getting and retaining officials, so some guys tend to not get as many games as they would like. I travel a lot because my son is playing all over the midwest and nearly everywhere I travel they are short referees so I get to work a lot. I would recommend that you get in touch with assigners that are an hour or two away. Find out what they have. I know that I can go to Indianapolis (3 hrs away) or Fort Wayne (1.5 hrs away) and get as many games as I can handle. So when I have weekends where there's only 1 game available for me to work locally, I will frequently call one of the assigners elsewhere. If they can use me for 4 or 5 games, it makes it worth the trip.
I am in Raleigh as well. I too live in Raleigh and received the email from our assignor last night. I have been reffing here for a few years now and have no trouble getting games. We have had the problem of nasty weather so the first 2 weeks were rained out. That being said it looks as if this is going to be a tough year as far as getting the number of games in that you want. My suggestion would be to look to TFC in Durham and Chapel Hill. This is mostly a classic level of competition so it might not be appropriate for your level of experience given that you just got your badge. I do know that Greensboro has its own league. I have not inquired as to what the situation is like there. You can go to www.ncsra.org and check out It looks like Roy Shulman is the assignor there. I think it is www.gysa.com I also know that Charlotte has a league as well. You can find the assignor for that area at ncsra.org as well. If you are willing to travel you can check out the sites for the D.C. area. There are lots of tournaments that go on in that area. It seems that I am going to have to look harder this season as well to get the number of games I need to upgrade. So good luck to you and I hope this has helped some.