Advice on recruiting youth soccer referees?
My daughter's team desperately needs referees to affiliate with her team. My understanding is that teams usually fulfill this requirement by recruiting teenaged siblings or soccer-oriented parents to ref for the team but her team doesn't have any eligible candidates. We considering offering a bonus for any ref willing to affiliate with us, in an amount that should cover the licensing/uniform costs for a beginning ref (her league will also reimburse the cost of a uniform after 5 games), although experienced refs would also eligible for the bonus. Any idea how best to get the word out, or otherwise find people who would be open to affiliating with us? I am new to youth soccer but hear this issue has been a problem for years -- I'd love advice from anyone who has been through this before.
Parent Replies
The best thing to do is speak to the referees at your child's first game -- ask them if they are already affiliated. If not, sign them up. (It is best to do this after your child's match is finished). Make sure, though, that they know which league they are obligating themselves to ref five games for. (They will, of course, be paid by the league for those games, but youth refs are often very pleased by this bonus. When I was coaching I think we paid $100, but we probably could have offered $50 and it would have been enough.)