Become a Teen Referee

West Side Soccer League is looking always looking to provide rewarding volunteer experience to willing and interested young people aged ten years or older. 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 referee is lots of fun, teaches leadership skills and offers an important service to the community.

Youth referees can officiate games at two levels depending upon their training:

  • U8 Official, Safe Haven and Concussion Awareness -- These courses are required to referee at the U6, U7 and U8 levels. They are also a prerequisite for taking the Basic Referee class. (minimum age is 10 years old)
     
  • Regional Referee Training -- After taking the U8 Official course, this additional course is required to referee at the U9 level and above. At this level teams play with goalkeepers, follow the offside law and we begin using Assistant Referees. (minimum age is 12)

Information on upcoming referee training classes is available here.

Register for all in-person and online courses by logging in to eTrainU, our training website:

From any inLeague page, look for the eTrainU Graduation Cap Icon on the top-right. Click on that icon, and then click on the Login to eTrainU button on the next page. There are no separate credentials; you log in to inLeague first and then go to eTrainU from there.

Teen referees must meet the age requirements listed above. 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 age level. Note that service credits are earned both for refereeing as well as the hours spent in the training classes. Teen referees will need to take at least two games to get credit for classes.

For more information or for help getting involved, please contact John Drayton, our Youth Referee Program Director.

Instructions for becoming a Youth Referee

The training requirements for a teen referee are similar to those for an adult. Teens, however, do not require a background check and are not required to provide a SSN, and they are not required to complete SafeSport training.

Part 1: Parents register their child as a Youth Referee Volunteer

  1. Parents:  Youth volunteers must be added to their Family Profile created when their parents joined WSSL. Please do not create a "standalone" profile. This is because AYSO requires that we send the related adult information with the youth volunteer record. Note that Player registration does not translate to Volunteer registration; they are two different things.

  2. Make sure that your teen volunteer has a unique email address that is used only by them and not shared with parents or other family members. 
    To add your teen ref, log in to your WSSL in-league account and click on Family Profile. Click the green Add New User button and follow the prompts to provide the information about the teen referee.

  3. Under volunteer options, select "Referee". The system will automatically recognize your teen as a teen referee based on their birthdate.
     
  4. Click the green Register Volunteers button and follow the prompts. Once on the Volunteer Preferences page, check the box for Referee, and add the divisions that your teen wants to work in. This is used for communication purposes, and in fact referees can officiate games in any division for which they are certified.
     
  5. Log out. Do not go straight to the online training, otherwise the training will be credited to your email address and account, and not to your teen referee.

Part 2: Teens complete the referee training

Teen Referee Volunteers: You must do your training when logged in under your own unique email address that was chosen when your WSSL volunteer profile was created (see above). 

The training requirements are set out in the flow diagram above and explained further on the page "How to Become an Adult Referee". Before starting it is good to decide whether you want to referee games in 6U, 7U and 8U only (simpler rules and less training) or the more senior divisions 9U and up (they have goalkeepers and assistant referees and require more training).

Part 3: Sign Up on the WSSL Schedule for Games You Would like to Referee

  1. Log into your newly created WSSL account using the email and password you entered as part of the volunteer registration.
  2. Select "Referee Scheduler" from the options.
  3. Select a Division and click "View Schedule".
  4. Click "SIGN UP".
  5. Congratulations! You have done it! You are a highly valued member of the WSSL referee team!
  6. Please contact the Chief Referee for that division (names and emails are listed here) if your plans change and you cannot ref a game you signed up for.
  7. For confirmation letters or other high school service credit questions, please contact John Drayton, our Youth Referee Program Director. 

Parents! Please help high school students earn service credits for being a WSSL teen referee. Please enter the contact information for your school’s service credit coordinator on this Google doc. Each season we will send them an email explaining the benefits of being a volunteer teen referee and alert them to upcoming classes.

If new teen referees would like some help to get started, they will be paired up with an experienced referee for an initial game or two in the U6-U8 divisions. The mentor referee will go through the process of talking to coaches and players in the game and on the sideline, monitor the game and answer any questions at the breaks. To arrange a mentor, please contact John Drayton, our Youth Referee Program Director.