Inadequate referees

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And sadly, it shows!

Signed,

300 lb soccer dad who gets winded just walking to the field

[Unregistered]

Signed,

300 lb soccer dad who gets winded just walking to the field

300lb dad/ aka lowest level referee because requirements were too hard, and not enough applied because standards might make them, "Better," refs?

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300lb dad/ aka lowest level referee because requirements were too hard, and not enough applied because standards might make them, "Better," refs?

It's not fear of any standards. It's like having the coaching classes be either the F license age group modules or the A license and not offering BCDE licenses. Not qualified to be an A licensed coach or don't want to spend all the time it takes? Well sorry, you are just an F license rec coach. Not going to let you get a BCDE license and serve that part of the game.

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What's the incentive to participate in more instruction? Who pays the instructors?

To go to grade 7 must: politic with an assignor to get appropriate games and coordinate an assessment, drive up to 3 hours to fitness test if not in one of the 4 main cities in the state (there is one test for each FYSA area), pay more money to register, get another assessment every year (and ref has to give the assessor the game fee), do at least 15 90 minute games per year. If you don't want to do all that, no training for you.

Interesting note. This year, US Soccer recognized that not enough refs were getting advanced training and removed almost all those extra requirements to become grade 7. Instead they are supposed to just take more advanced classes online. The Florida referee administrators didn't want more refs getting that training and made it harder to become a grade 7 than it was before US Soccer decided to make it easier.

This is a good discussion. I am enjoying it very much. (Hope you haven't created a monster! LOL)

I think you are echoing my thoughts. Right now, unless a referee aspires to referee professional games or beyond, there is no incentive to upgrade ... the games are basically the same level (although higher grades generally are asked first to work DA and other higher level games), the pay is the same ... and it is not easy to do so as you have noted ... which is why you have many career Grade 8 referees. As I noted, most Grade 8s never go through a formal assessment, because it is not required unless and until upgrading from 8 to 7 and beyond. (An assessor once told me that some Grade 8s may claim to have 10 years of experience, but what they really have is one year of experience, repeated 10 times.) This is a problem.

For the record though, although USSF did change the grade requirements this year, what they did was to permit each state to offer Grade 7 as another entry level grade in which an entry-level Grade 7 referee would be considered qualified to work adult games from the start. FSR rightfully, in my opinion, did not adopt this change, and maintained the requirements for upgrade to Grade 7 basically the same. They did, however, make it much more difficult to become Grade 6.

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For the record though, although USSF did change the grade requirements this year, what they did was to permit each state to offer Grade 7 as another entry level grade in which an entry-level Grade 7 referee would be considered qualified to work adult games from the start. FSR rightfully, in my opinion, did not adopt this change, and maintained the requirements for upgrade to Grade 7 basically the same. They did, however, make it much more difficult to become Grade 6.

Not true with regard to 7. US Soccer says states cannot require fitness test or assessment for grade 7. The state does not have any discretion on this one. If you look at the official documents on US Soccer's site instead of Florida's version you will see this. The only thing Florida is allowed to do is say if you want to do special games like state cup, you have to do extra stuff.

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Not true with regard to 7. US Soccer says states cannot require fitness test or assessment for grade 7. The state does not have any discretion on this one. If you look at the official documents on US Soccer's site instead of Florida's version you will see this. The only thing Florida is allowed to do is say if you want to do special games like state cup, you have to do extra stuff.

You are correct ... but I don't think the SRA did this because he didn't want referees getting the extra training; rather, he didn't feel it was appropriate that newbies could start off at Grade 7 simply by taking more classroom training, especially since many had "earned" the grade already by taking the extra training, passing the fitness test and passing assessments. I don't always agree with the things that the SRA does -- I know of one instance where a National referee wasn't allowed to transfer his badge to Florida (which doesn't make sense anyway given that it is a "National" badge) basically because the SRA doesn't like him -- but I think he is correct in this instance. Whether nationals comes down on him for adding the extra requirements to make the grade remains to be seen.

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Being a dyed-in-the wool capitalist, I would like to think that this would be true, but what I am afraid will actually happen is that, by raising fees, we will only attract more of those who referee primarily for the money. Those who referee for the money generally do a poor job and don't last very long anyway. I've seen that scenario over and over again. ***** But hopefully some of them would be higher skilled workers/more educated people that don't think it's worth their time now because it's only a little spare change. No one says everyone has to get games if it goes from shortage to surplus.

This comment sparked my curiosity, so I ran down the list of the adult referees that regularly work games in my area (Sarasota/Bradenton), and what we have amongst our ranks are (among others): 4 lawyers, 1 Circuit Court Judge, a physician, an actuary, an environmental engineer, a former college Dean, a regional operations manager for a packaging company, the manager of an Amscot store, the manager of the parts department at an auto dealership, a convenience store owner, a corporate controller, an oceanic cartographer, a retired Chrysler plant manager, an executive chef, a postman, 3 or 4 general contractors, a Professor of Physiology (who is also a former Olympic decathlete), a Sheriff's deputy, several school teachers, an insurance consultant, several salesmen, a few auto mechanics and an installer of high-end video and audio systems.

[Unregistered]

Being a dyed-in-the wool capitalist, I would like to think that this would be true, but what I am afraid will actually happen is that, by raising fees, we will only attract more of those who referee primarily for the money. Those who referee for the money generally do a poor job and don't last very long anyway. I've seen that scenario over and over again. ***** But hopefully some of them would be higher skilled workers/more educated people that don't think it's worth their time now because it's only a little spare change. No one says everyone has to get games if it goes from shortage to surplus.

This comment sparked my curiosity, so I ran down the list of the adult referees that regularly work games in my area (Sarasota/Bradenton), and what we have amongst our ranks are (among others): 4 lawyers, 1 Circuit Court Judge, a physician, an actuary, an environmental engineer, a former college Dean, a regional operations manager for a packaging company, the manager of an Amscot store, the manager of the parts department at an auto dealership, a convenience store owner, a corporate controller, an oceanic cartographer, a retired Chrysler plant manager, an executive chef, a postman, 3 or 4 general contractors, a Professor of Physiology (who is also a former Olympic decathlete), a Sheriff's deputy, several school teachers, an insurance consultant, several salesmen, a few auto mechanics and an installer of high-end video and audio systems.

Where did you get this information?

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Where did you get this information?

I asked.