Refereeing

Our Volunteer Referee Staff

We have a great staff of volunteers who help recruit, train, promote, and generally support our valuable referees. They can help with training, uniforms, on-the-field mentoring, and anything else on the referee side of AYSO:

Regional Referee Administrator	Patrick Shopbell	referee@ayso13.org
Assistant Regional Referee Administrator	Matthew Goldman	matthew@ayso13.org
6U-8U Referee Administrator	Kai Ryssdal	ref8u@ayso13.org
10U Referee Administrator	Rich Aguilar	ref10u@ayso13.org
12U Referee Administrators	Brian Bonham and Matthew Goldman	ref12u@ayso13.org
14U Referee Administrator	Mark Windsor	ref14u@ayso13.org
Upper Division (UD) Referee Administrator	Cristi Tudusciuc	ref16u@ayso13.org
Referee Instruction	Steve Hawkins, Chip Heller, and Steve Bickel	dri@ayso13.org
Uniforms	DeWayne McMullin and Toni Maddison	ref-uniforms@ayso13.org
Referee Upgrades and Assessment	Bruce Hancock	ref-assessor@ayso13.org

How to become a referee

AYSO offers the most thorough soccer referee training program in America, providing classes, equipment, and mentoring at no charge. When your child is in the 6U-8U divisions, the officials’ primary job is to teach the players about the flow of the game. As your child grows through the divisions, moving up to 10U, 12U, 14U, and higher, the game gets more complex, and you’ll learn the referee skills needed to keep the game safe, fair, and fun.

Apply to volunteer through the InLeague registration system (includes a background check).
Take the online safety classes: Safe Haven, CDC Concussion Awareness, and Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness.
Adult volunteers also take the SafeSport online class and get fingerprinted by LiveScan.
Attend an in-person training class, depending on your division.
- 8U Official – to referee 6U-8U divisions
- Regional Referee – to referee 6U, 8U, 10U and 12U divisions
- Intermediate Referee Class – for returning referees in 12U (recommended)
- Intermediate Referee Observation – before 14U

Many classes are offered at the start of the season. Register on eTrainU. You can see the calendar of training sessions on our Calendar.

Please check our Volunteer FAQ for additional details on registering and completing training courses.

Youth referees

We strongly support our youth referee program, called our PRO (Player Referee Organization) referees. Players who also referee have a deeper understanding of the game, and they are able to interact with younger players in a more unique fashion. They also receive volunteer hours! Anyone interested in becoming a youth referee should contact us at referee@ayso13.org. The training is essentially the same, except youth referees do not need background checks (although they still must register as a volunteer in InLeague), they do not take the SafeSport class, and they do not need to be fingerprinted.

Mentoring

Don’t let becoming a referee make you nervous! Even after your training, our more experienced referees are available on the field every weekend to mentor you. We do our best to locate a volunteer experienced referee to meet you at your assigned game and help you through it. When the fall schedule arrives, there will be a box to check to request a referee mentor – it’s easy!