Teen Referees
West Side Soccer League is looking always looking to provide rewarding volunteer experience to willing and interested teenagers. Teen referees, once trained, can ref as little or as much as they like, choose games and age groups that work with their schedule and level of comfort/interest, and earn those critical community service hours. Being a teen ref is lots of fun, teaches leadership skills and offers an important service to the community.
To become a referee, interested teens need to take the training outlined below and then they can start refereeing. If they are reluctant to get started after training, they will be paired up with an experienced referee for an initial game or two in U6-U8. The mentor referee will go through the process of talking to coaches and kids in the game and on the sideline, monitor the game and answer any questions at the breaks.
Teens can referee at two levels depending upon their training:
U-8 Official & Safe Haven: These courses are required to referee at the U-6, U-7 and U-8 levels. They are also a prerequisite for taking the Basic Referee class.
Basic Referee Training: After taking the U-8 Official course, this additional course is required to referee at the U-9 level and above. At this level teams play with goalkeepers, follow the offside law and we begin using Assistant Referees.
Teenage referees should be at least 11 years old and have played soccer before. They can serve as a Center Referee for games with players at least two years younger than they are, or be an Assistant Referee up to their own division level. Note that service credits are earned both for refereeing as well as the hours spent in the training classes. Teens will need to referee at least two games to get credit for classes.
For a Schedule of games league-wide, click here.
For the Calendar where course dates are listed, click here.
For more information or for help getting involved, please contact John Drayton, Teen Referee Program Director.
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Instructions for Teens to Sign Up as a Referee
Part 1: Register as a Volunteer with AYSO
- Register as a volunteer on the national AYSO site. Referee and assistant referee backgrounds and references are checked by national staff to ensure the safety of our children. Your information will not be shared with any third party and sensitive information is encrypted. The site is found at www.eayso.org/
Part 2: Register as a Teen Referee with West Side Soccer League
- Go to "Log In" found in the upper right of the WSSL home page.
- Click "Register as a new user".
- Use your OWN email address or username, not your parent's.
- Create a password.
- Enter your name, gender, address and phone number.
- Under "Volunteer Information" and "I would like to volunteer as a:", check "Referee".
- After "Ref Division", select "Teen Refs".
- Check "Create Parent Record"
- Check "Family Profile Complete - Continue to Next Step"
- Ignore the message "Registration Status: Not Applicable" as this just means you aren't registering a child to play in the league.
- Go to the referee drop-down menu and select "Activate Referee Functions" if you have just created a new account - this only has to be done once ever (not once a season). If you have done it previously, the option is called "My Referee Record."
- Check "I would like to volunteer as a referee for AYSO" and "Update Volunteer Info"
- Check "I am a Youth Referee"
- Click on the inLeague home menu button
Part 3: Sign Up on the WSSL Schedule for Games You Would like to Referee
- Log in to the WSSL system, if you are not already logged in, using your the user name and password you created in Part 2.
- Click "Referees" on the horizontal bar.
- Select "Referee Assignment Requests" in the drop down menu.
- Find a game you want and click "Open".
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and select "Submit Assignment Requests".
- If your plans change, you can't remove your name and need to contact the Teen Referee Coordinator or a Chief Referee for that division who can take you off the schedule. It is your responsibility to update your schedule if your plans change.