New and Prospective Youth Referees
Local Soccer Association Officials
Local Referee Assignors
Mentor Referees
Participant Allocation By Association

Return to MSSL Home Page
 

The Mid State Soccer League will pay a stipend to youth referees selected for this program AND will reimburse the first re-certification fee for participants.  All youth referees and prospective referees age 16 or younger are invited to apply.

The Mid State Soccer League will pay a stipend to Mentor Referees who participate in this program.

The following program is aimed at  youth referees who work games in the Mid State soccer League, although such referees will, of course, work  games in all sanctioned settings.

HOW IT WORKS:

Certified and Prospective Youth Referees

To qualify:

1.  You must be between 13 and 16 years old.
2.  You must have a sincere interest in refereeing soccer for more than one year.
3.  You must be a certified referee or intend to become a referee.
4.  You must be able to referee matches on Sunday afternoons in your local area with MSSL teams (in addition to other days you may want to referee.)

To Apply:

You apply for this program through your local youth soccer association.   Talk to your local youth soccer association officials to see if they are willing to sponsor you.  If they decide to sponsor you for this program, they will sumbit an application for you.  (If you don't know who your local association officials are, find out through your soccer coach.)

Acceptance:

If you are accepted into this program, you will receive confirmation from the MSSL office.  Notifications will be in early September to begin your first season of mentoring.  If you are not yet a referee, you should also hear from your local referee assignor who will tell you where and when the referee training is to be held.  If you are already a referee, your local soccer association will tell you who your mentor will be during the season (and you may start this program in the spring.)

Payment under this Program:

You will need to pay for your training and equipment like any other referee.  However, under this program, you will will get from the MSSL - up to an $120 bonus in payments for up to 6 games you work with your mentor (in addition to the regular pay).  Your mentor will handle all of the paperwork and you should expect a check after each season of mentoring.  Checks will be mailed in June and in December.

In Addition.....  The MSSL will reimburse you for your entire re-certification fee if you have logged 4 "mentored" games!

Return to Top

Local Youth Soccer Association Official

As a local youth soccer association official, it is of great advantage to your association to develop good local referees.  To this end we are asking you to identify and recruit prospective youth referees for this program in cooperation with your local referee association or referee assignor who assigns your MSSL challenge games.    The numbers of youth referees allocated to your association for participation in this program is proportional to the numbers of teams your association entered in the MSSL for the past three seasons.  (For your association's allowed youth referees number, click here.)

Call your local assignor and discuss prospective candidates and agree on a list of names.  Be sure to get the address, email, and telephone numbers of your youth referee program candidates from the assignor if you do not already have them.  (Program candidates may already be refereeing or may be prospective referees.)  NOTE:  Participation in this program should in no way inhibit your recuitment of additional referees who will not be participating in this program.   Once candidate(s) have been identified, please download the Youth Referee Mentoring Designation form (click here) fill out and sign the form and send it to MSSL.

Also, you must identify candidates for mentors.  Once you have identified such an experienced referee, point him or her at this website for complete details.  (See below.)

Selection of program participants can be made before the fall or spring season.

Return to Top

Local Referee Assignor

As the local referee assignor, we hope that you will appreciate this program as a way to increase the numbers of quality referees you will have available to you in exchange for very little effort on your part.  Further, we hope that the development of mentors through this program will get experienced referees into the habit of encouraging and mentoring young referees even when not participating in this program thereby increasing the experience level and skill of your entire referee base.   Your total commitment should be less than an extra hour per year.  It simply involves confering on the telephone with your local soccer association(s) to agree on a short list of youth referees who would qualify for this program.

Selection of program participants should be made before the fall season, although some may start in the spring.

Selecting Youth Referees

You can expect to confer with your local youth soccer association officials to agree on candidates for this program.   Make sure that you or the local socer assocation officials tell these candidates about referee clinics and how to get uniforms and equipment.   (The number of program participants is limited, click here to see how many your association(s) is (are) allocated.)  The names of the youth referee program participants will be posted on this web page.

Again, thank you for your participation in this program.  We trust that the few minutes of your time that this will take will yield the benefits of increasing numbers and increasing quality of referees at your disposal for scheduling in games well beyond the MSSL challenge games on Sundays.

Return to Top

Mentor Referees

Thank You!

Thank you for agreeing to help out as a Mentor Referee in this program.  We are all excited about the progress we can cooperatively make in advancing the skill level and confidence of young referees -and the key is: YOU!  You will be given a list of participating youth referees by your local youth soccer association.  You will be paid a stipend for each mentoring session.  You will be expected to meet with the participating youth referee before, (briefly) at half time, and especially after the game to support and encourage the youth referee and to provide tips and comments on his or her performance.  In each post game discussion you should try to touch on (as apporpriate) deportment and appearance, mechanics, foul recognition and appropriate action, interpretations of the laws, and relations with players, coaches, and parents.

Phases of Mentoring

You should arrange work a total of six games (over a seasonal year) with each youth referee participant in three sets of two games each designated a mentoring "Phase".  The first two games (Phase I) will be with the youth referee working as an AR.  The remaining four games (Phase II and Phase III) should be with the youth referee working the center.  (While a complete game is preferred, working by halves will suffice if the required pre and post briefings are accomplished.  For flexibility in scheduling, 4 halves may be worked instead of two complete games per phase.)  For a complete outline of the phases of this mentoring program, please click here for the specifics.  Thanks, and again, above all we trust that you will be positive and encouraging with your youth referees.

Getting Paid Your Stipend

Upon receipt of the Application for Stipend Payment form (click here to download) both you and the participating youth referee will be sent a stipend check from the MSSL.  You and the youth referee with whom you have completed a mentoring phase both complete the same form, rather than submitting seperate forms.  You will be paid $25 for each game you act as mentor for an assigned youth referee.  You may act as a mentor and get paid for as many participating youth referees as are approved for your area.

Return to Top

Program Allocation

The numbers of allowed youth referee mentoring program participants are based on a proportinal allocation of the average numbers of teams entered in the MSSL in the last three seasons.  The total number of mentorships financed by MSSL will be approximately 35 per year (two seasons.)   Allowable participants for the next year's "class" will be calculated on an annual basis in July.

     Participant Allocation Scale

Average Teams  In MSSL Each Last 3 Seasons	Program Participants Allowed Annually
3 or Less	1
3.3-6.9	2
7-9.9	3
10-13.9	4
14-17.9	5
18-23.9	6
24-30.9	7
Over 30	8

*Annual Allocation Calculation for Youth Referee Program Participants

Assoction Name	Spring Teams 2007	Fall Teams 2007	Spring Teams 2008	Average Teams	Allowable 2008-2009 Referee Participants
Carolina Soccer Club	7	6	4	5.7	2
Chatham Soccer League	4	6	5	5.0	2
East Wake Soccer Association	8	6	6	6.7	2
Fayetteville Soccer Club	5	3	6	4.7	2
Fuquay-Varina Athletic Association	15	13	12	13.3	4
Greater Cleveland Athletic Association	4	4	4	4.0	2
Johnston United Soccer Association	9	10	8	9.0	3
Lumber River Soccer Association	0	2	2	1.7	1
Neuse River Youth Soccer Association	3	3	3	3.0	1
Oxford Youth Soccer Association	5	4	4	4.3	2
Sandhills Youth Soccer League	8	8	6	7.3	3
Sanford Area Soccer League	4	5	6	5.0	2
Scotland Youth Soccer Assocoation	3	3	2	2.7	1
Triangle Footbol Club	15	10	9	8.7	3
Triangle United Soccer Association	23	12	11	9.3	3
Triangle Y Soccer Club	4	5	4	4.3	2

 *  Note:  This program will run annually on a seasonal year basis.  Each new "Class" of youth referee participants should start Phase I in the fall season of the year of the allocation.

Return to Top
Return to MSSL Home Page