REFEREE OVERVIEW

Love soccer and want to have a great part-time job? Love soccer and want to have a great part-time job?

Become a referee for the Orangevale Youth Soccer Club! Here are a few things you should know about refereeing for our Club: Become a referee for the Orangevale Youth Soccer Club! Here are a few things you should know about refereeing for our Club:

• You get paid for every game you ref.
• You must be 13 years or older.
• You get paid for every game you ref.

In order to become a certified referee, there are several things you need to do: In order to become a certified referee, there are several things you need to do:

• Complete online training and testing
• Attend a one-day in-person field training session
• Pay registration fees
• Purchase referee equipment
• Pass a background check (if you’re 18 or older)

If you have questions, please read the other pages under the Referee section on the website
or email us at refereetrainingcoordinator@ovalesoccer.org.

Become A Referee

In order to become a referee, all of the following are required:
1. Be 13 years or older.
2. Register for the official referee course online.
3. Complete online referee course & pass the online test.
4. Complete online concussion training.
5. Complete Safesport online training (only if 18 or older).
6. Pass a background screening (only if 18 or older).
7. Attend a one-day in-person field training session.
8. Purchase referee uniform & equipment.

Details for each step are listed below.  If you have any questions about becoming a referee, please email refereetrainingcoordinator@ovalesoccer.org.

If you decide to become a referee, please let our assigner know by sending an email to refereeassignor@ovalesoccer.org so that you can begin receiving notifications about upcoming events, instructions, and any concerns about the upcoming soccer season.

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1. Be 13 years or older.
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You must be at least 13 years old to complete any of the training and receive referee assignments.  This requirement is set by the California North Referee Administration and cannot be altered or waived by the Orangevale Youth Soccer Club. 

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2. Register for the official referee course online.
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The official referee course is provided by US Soccer.  This course is available through the US Soccer Learning Center.  The cost for the course is $75.00 and online payment is required.  Once registered, different training modules will teach you what you need to become a referee – including all the Laws of the Game.

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3. Complete online referee course & pass the online test.
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Once registration and payment have been made on USSoccer.com, you will gain access to the online training to learn the 17 Laws of the Game. It takes approximately 4 and 1/2 hours to complete but does NOT have to be completed in one sitting.  You can start/stop anywhere along the way.  When you come back to the training, you resume exactly where you left off the last time. The training is broken up into small modules and is fairly interactive.

After the online training, you will be required to pass an online test by correctly answering a minimum number of questions.  It doesn’t matter how many questions you miss because it will continue to provide you with questions until you correctly answer the required amount.

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4. Complete online concussion training.
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The online concussion training is included as a module in the US Soccer online training.

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5. Complete Safesport online training (only if 18 or older).
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If you are 18 or older, the Safesport training will be included as a module in the US Soccer Learning Center. The online concussion training is included as a module in the US Soccer online training.

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6. Pass a background screening (only if 18 or older).
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If you are 18 or older, you will be required to fill out a background screening form that is included as a module in the US Soccer online training.

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7. Attend a one-day in-person field training session.
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Once the online training above is completed (including the test), you will be ready to participate in the one-day field session.  You cannot attend the in-person field training until your online training is complete and you have passed the online test. In-person attendance is required.  This session will train you on the proper flag and whistle mechanics, field positioning for center and assistant referees as well as other game-day concerns.

The next field training session will be held as follows:
Date: August 11, 2024 (Sunday)
Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm
Location: Golden Valley Charter School (9601 Lake Natoma Drive, Orangevale, CA 95662); we will meet at the tables by the picnic area.

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8. Purchase referee uniform & equipment.
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Once you have successfully completed the online training and field session, you will need to purchase a referee uniform (shirt, shorts, socks) and referee equipment (flags, whistle, watch, red/yellow cards).  This equipment may be purchased online (ie: Amazon) or locally at Soccer Pro (located at 11726 Fair Oaks Boulevard, Fair Oaks, CA 95628).

Register on Stack Sports

After you have completed all the steps above, please register on https://stackofficials.com/.

Registration is free, but required.  This site is where you will let the assigner know when you’re available to referee and is the only way that you will receive and accept (or decline) referee assignments for Orangevale Youth Soccer Club.

If you have any questions about how to register or use StackSports.com, please email refereeassignor@ovalesoccer.org.

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Payment Information

In our Club, refereeing used to be a volunteer job – but not anymore!  All our referees are paid.

How much money you make depends on a few imporant factors:
– the age group for the game you ref (older = more money)
– the type of referee assignment: center or sideline (center = more money)

We don’t post the current rates because they change over time.  If you want to know what the current pay is, please send an email to refereetrainingcoordinator@ovalesoccer.org.

Payment (and your availability) are all managed through https://stackofficials.com/.  In order to get paid, you’ll need to have a free account there.

You won’t receive a 1099 federal tax form unless you referee enough to earn more than the federal limit of $600 in a single year.

The more available you are, the more likely you are to get assigned multiple game.  For example, if you can only work from 10-noon, you’ll be lucky to get one game.  If you are available from 8-3, then there’s a decent chance you could be assigned to more than one game.  In most cases, when you are assigned multiple games, they will all be at the same location.

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Game Assignments

Every referee is assigned to a specific game. In order to be assigned to a game, you have to let us know when you’re available.  The more available you are, the more likely you are to be assigned games to referee.

There is one person who assigns referees to games in our club… and that person is called “the assigner.”  Besides just figuring out who is available, the assigner also needs to consider the age level of the game, the specific referee assignment (center or sideline), and the abilities of each referee.

In order to manage all this, we use a website: https://stackofficials.com/.  Every referee will need to create a free account and then log in to mark when they are available to referee.  This can be done every week… or you can do it all at one time at the beginning of the season.  The sooner your availability is posted, the more likely you are to be assigned a game to referee.

When an assignment is made, each referee has to accept that assignment.  If you wait too long to accept an assignment, the assigner may withdraw the assignment and give to someone else.  If you ever receive an assignment that you can’t accept, please decline the assignment as soon as possible so that the assigner has time to make an assignment to another referee.

It is possible to be assigned with someone else (ie: ref with a friend/sibling or ref with a son/daughter) – but that is not guaranteed.  The more you ref, the more the assigner gets to know you.  The better the assigner knows you, the more likely they are to find opportunities for you to ref with a specific person.

If you have questions about referee assignments for the Orangevale Youth Soccer Club, please email refereeassignor@ovalesoccer.org.

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Policies

If you referee for other clubs, you’ll learn that there are several things that we do a little differently in the Orangevale Youth Soccer Club (OYSC) to help make sure your referee experiences are the best that they can be:.

 – If you referee at least three games, OYSC will reimburse you for the cost of the referee course.

 – Even if you start your referee service because of OYSC, we don’t mind at all if you decide to referee for other clubs or organization (but we do love it when you give us a shot to assign you games before the other clubs… ;).

 – If you already have a referee license from another club, we’re happy to have you referee for our club.

 – We strive to ensure that at least one adult is an assigned referee for every game.  Even when a young person is an experienced referee, we’ve found that having an adult on the referee crew makes it less likely that things get out of hand.

We hope that these policies will help you feel our appreciation and maybe even learn to love the greatest game in the world just a little more.

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Advice

As a new referee, there will be lots to learn – regardless of whether or not you are an experienced soccer player or coach.

There’s a good chance that you’ll get plenty of advice from experience referees that you work with – and even some well-meaning coaches.  If you want to get a head start, we recommend taking some time to review the advice that US Youth Soccer has put together right here.

Rules

Laws of the Game

The 17 Laws of the Game are managed by the IFAB (International Football Association Board).  Their website is a terrific resource for basic information about the Laws.  Visit their site at www.theIFAB.com.

If you’re just looking to see what recent changes have been made to the Laws, visit this page on the IFAB’s site: https://www.theifab.com/law-changes/latest

If you would like to download the Laws of the Game or recent changes, visit this page on the IFAB’s site: https://www.theifab.com/documents/?documentType=all&language=en

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Additionally, US Youth Soccer provides their policy on players and rules that can be accessed here.