La Referee Academy

[futbolislife]

The La Referee Academy is now open for business. The entire program has been developed and finalized. The referee web page will soon be updated with all the information but here is the brief info.

There are several components to the academy. First the academy is open to any level referee and is not exclusive or by invitation. It will be open to any referee who desires to participate with the goal to become a better referee. The only prerequisite is to complete a short application that provides the academy staff with some basic info about ability and goals. The parts of the academy are:
1. Tournament Training - there will be educational classroom sessions, informal assessment and mentoring.
2. A mentor program that will allow referees to select mentors to assist in their weekly development
3. A local clinic - local classroom sessions tailored to the areas referee needs
4. Email blasts - email blasts to all participants of new memorandums and info
5. A PDL game review - participants will get discounted tickets to a selected game and sit with an assessor or instructor during the match discussing the referee events in the match followed by a Q&A session with the match referees to discuss the whys, hows, etc of the match.

Each event of the Academy gives participants "points". There are items given to the referees for achieving a given amount of points range from shirts to pins, etc. At every event, a patch will be awarded to allow the referee to "show off" his/her participation. At the end of the year, top point participants are awarded gift certificates to Official Sports for gear.


The stated goal of the Academy is:
To provide intermediate and advanced referee training for the purpose of increasing referee effectiveness and education while also providing upgrade incentives and opportunities


All in all, there is some excitement generated by this new opportunity and it will be interesting to see how many referees choose to participate and take advantage.

[furriner]

Personally, I think this is going to be a great thing for refereeing in LA. Combined with TOPS (keeping good kids here, especially at LSU - Mullins, Connolly Jr etc) I see great things in the future for referees. Just in time, too. Anybody looking closely at the refs at tournaments will see that the average age has to be the wrong side of 40 (FIL, do you know anybody with that stat?), or under 18 (and therefore, likely to stop when something else comes along).

if I knew contact info for FIL, I would sign up immediately.

[futbolislife]

I have all the age stats available easily since I quote them all the time in a presentation on referee abuse, loss, etc

1049 refs registered for 2008
41 referees are grades 5,6,7 (4% - consistent across US)
5 grade 5 refs - ages are 28, 36, 37, 45, 51, 58
10 grade 6 refs - ages 2@22, 2@23, 30, 4 in the 40s, 54
24 Grade 7 refs - 9 under 30 yrs old

Total pool by age
157 over 50 yrs old 15%
132 between 40 and 50 12%
60 between 30 and 40 6%
102 between 20 and 30 10%
598 Under 20 57%
Of the Under 20 refs, 468 under 18
which is 45% of total pool of referees

As far as The Academy and contact info. The info should be posted on the referee website in two weeks. But the academy has an email address for inquiries, etc. That address is [e-mail]

Soon application forms will be posted and will need to be sent to that address. This next week, the Academy staff is setting up the prelim schedule of events for the first few months. That will be clinics and tournament academies. Just stay tuned. It will be on the website but I imagine we will also post info here.

[futbolislife]

An update, all the information including the program overview and application should be online at www.referee-la.com before Dec 1. The first academy event is scheduled for January and other events have been scheduled. I don't want to release the prelim schedule pending confirmation from speakers, host sites, etc. But I don't expect anyone who is been asked to turn down the opportunities to host.

Again, this will be open to any referee who chooses to participate. There is nothing but good that can come from these opportunities for referees.

We look forward to the continued growth of this new program.

[happyjack]

hey, I'm only 43, not 45...update that grade 5 stat!!

[furriner]

your only 43??? I had assumed you were the 58 year old.....

[futbolislife]

For the academy, we are still working to get everything online. But if a referee wishes to join the academy or get info, you can email the academy staff at [e-mail] to request info. We can send the general outline of what is involved in the academy and an application.

[futbolislife]

The Academy's First event is scheduled for January 11 at 1-3 pm. It will be at the Holiday Inn South - Baton Rouge
9940 Airline Highway . Baton Rouge, LA 70816
This will be in conjunction with the LSA AGM meeting.

This event will be a clinic. Our speaker will be Bob Wertz, a fantastic speaker with a wealth of referee knowledge and has been around the game and the referee side for years. He will be speaking on "Why fouls occur".

This presentation will give information to referees on thinking about who commits what types of fouls and where they occur. Certain players will commit certain types of fouls in certain areas of the field under certain circumstances. Knowing this and understanding it leads to anticipation of fouls by the referee and puts the referee in a situation to better manage the situation and be proactive rather than reactive.
I will tell you I heard Bob give this presentation once many years ago and it was absolutely great.

Those enrolled in the Academy will be awarded the patches and pins associated with the event and garnish Academy points. But understand that this event is not closed to the Academy participants. Those who choose not to join the academy are also invited and more than welcome. And we urge every referee to consider attending this short clinic. I promise that it will be worth your time.

[futbolislife]

The first Academy Tournament has been confirmed. IT will be the weekend of March 8/9 at the Lafayette Hub City Ford Cajun Cup. The academy will start the Friday evening the weekend of the tournament with some instruction, games on Sat, instruction and game feedback session Sat evening and Sunday games.

The clinic sessions are open to all interested but the tournament events and training, field sessions, etc are for Academy members only. If you are interested, send an email to [e-mail] to register for the event or inquire about entering the academy. A reminder that the academy is open to all who choose to register and show interest. There is no prerequisite or fee.

Another tournament in the spring is in the works but is waiting on confirmation from the tournament host club that they will participate.

[futbolislife]

Just a reminder of the academy clinic this coming Sunday......

The Academy's First event is scheduled for January 11 at 1-3 pm. It will be at the Holiday Inn South - Baton Rouge
9940 Airline Highway . Baton Rouge, LA 70816
This will be in conjunction with the LSA AGM meeting.

This event will be a clinic. Our speaker will be Bob Wertz, a fantastic speaker with a wealth of referee knowledge and has been around the game and the referee side for years. He will be speaking on "Why fouls occur".

This presentation will give information to referees on thinking about who commits what types of fouls and where they occur. Certain players will commit certain types of fouls in certain areas of the field under certain circumstances. Knowing this and understanding it leads to anticipation of fouls by the referee and puts the referee in a situation to better manage the situation and be proactive rather than reactive.


I will tell you I heard Bob give this presentation once many years ago and it was absolutely great.

Those enrolled in the Academy will be awarded the patches and pins associated with the event and garnish Academy points. But understand that this event is not closed to the Academy participants. Those who choose not to join the academy are also invited and more than welcome. And we urge every referee to consider attending this short clinic. I promise that it will be worth your time.

[tonygalinto]

Haven't seem anything on here concerning the Referee Academy's first tournament training at the Lafayette Tournament? Was there a big turnout of eager referees, SRC members and assessors? How many of the SRC members and assessors actually helped out with the Academy training at the tournament?

I kept waiting to see something posted on here about the Academy but if it was I must have missed it.

[futbolislife]

The First academy tournament had 9 referees particpating. There was also an assessor and a national referee acting as a mentor. The FRiday night instruction was done by a member of the SRC. From the feedback, it was very well received and beneficial to those who were a part of it.

Another academy was scheduled and had to be cancled due to outside circumstances. We are looking to get another one scheduled very soon.

[furriner]

I would very much encourage any referees who are juniors / seniors at high school to contact either their local assignor or FIL / Happy Jack through here and become part of the academy. Yall are the future of the game in Louisiana. If yall are / were happy with the level of refereeing in Louisiana, then please give back to the soccer community (and make a few $$$$s on the side).

If you feel the level of refereeing has to be improved, then please get out there and show us that you are capable of doing better. I had the privilege of seeing one of our all state players working as a ref recently. We need more like him out there.

[tonygalinto]

Mar 23, 2009 6:23:15 GMT -6 futbolislife said:

The First academy tournament had 9 referees particpating. There was also an assessor and a national referee acting as a mentor. The FRiday night instruction was done by a member of the SRC. From the feedback, it was very well received and beneficial to those who were a part of it.

Another academy was scheduled and had to be cancled due to outside circumstances. We are looking to get another one scheduled very soon.

Is the Referee Academy still in existence? I haven't read anything about any academy activity for nearly a year.

[dulac]

And I'm not 51, that needs to be corrected too.

[SWLASocFan]

Dulac, we know you aren't 51... Your the one that is 58

[futbolislife]

Tony
The Academy is still around. we have offered several events and have had no response. As a result, we sent out inquiries and asked why people had no interest. It seems the reason was it required too much time over the course of a weekend. So we have been restructuring it to make it more time friendly. As soon as HS ends, we should be adding some events and hopefully get more response and interest with a shorter format.

[furriner]

to FIL and HappyJack (is he/she still in Louisiana? He / she is very quiet this year).

I agree the step 1 above can be time consuming all round (weekends away at tournaments including Friday night not just for those wanting to learn, but the assessors, instructors and mentors).

However, steps 2 and 3 can be more easy to get people recruited and into the program. Personally, young, local referees (Mitchum (in Lafayette) , Connelly Jr (Northshore), Cruz (NOLA), Silver (North of I-10), Heidi (Frozen North) could "work" on a couple of weekends to identify some talent and mentor them. With the help of local assignors, the (presumably) new / young refs could be got together to work as teams for a Saturday and, with any luck snowball from there. Once some local talent is recruited, getting them involved in a tournament may be easier, especially if a few from a single area wants to go somewhere fairly local (the BR tournaments should be fairly central for most of LA).

Like I said, just my 2c.