Officials Introduction

Welcome, officials, to the Walker Recreation Department youth soccer program!

Many of the officials come from the soccer program itself, and go from being players to officials. As a player, one could count on their coaches and the officials to teach and regulate the game for you. As an official, one can no longer rely on others to guide you; instead, you must now become the guide. This requires that you learn the soccer program and the rules of the game in great detail. That’s what this online training section is all about!

While the most important topics are highlighted in the officials guide, you actually might benefit from scrolling through the official’s slideshow first. It’s the quickest, most visual way to cover all the topics you’ll need to know and understand. From there, you can browse whatever topic most interests you to learn in greater detail.

About Recreational Soccer

This soccer program is designed to be a community activity for the participants. It is not designed to conform to the competitive model of club-level youth soccer; therefore, many aspects of competitive league officiating are missing, such as the need to track goals and goal scorers and keep track of standings.

Even still, the expectation to exhibit fairness and professionalism rests upon your shoulders. Your duty to do so is built upon your knowledge of the game and the designs of our soccer program that you will have to master in order to properly execute the very enjoyable task of taking the field with two teams of youth soccer players and call a fair game for them.

Equipment

Your Uniform, uniform badge, yellow and red cards, and whistle are issued during your first scheduled working shift at the park. You are required to provide your own timer (i.e., a countdown timer with a conspicuous alarm).

At the end of the season, you will be required to return the following in order to receive your paycheck:

• Your uniform jersey
• The yellow and red cards

The uniform badge and the whistle are yours to keep! You will need them for next season, so keep them in a safe place. Do not return them.

Education and Training

Officials are given 3 hours of training at the beginning of every season, which are divided into 3 separate 1-hour sessions:

• Knowledge Preparation (on-line learning; 1.0 hrs. paid)
• Field Training (outdoor, 1.0 hrs. paid)
• Field Testing (outdoor, 1.0 hrs. paid)

Classroom Training and Testing (Online)

All needed study materials are available online:

• Officials Guide: Everything you need to know can be found there.
• Safety: Pay particular attention to this topic.
• Slideshow: A very visual way to quickly get an overview of your required knowledge.
• Rules: All the rules of the game; most importantly, fouls and misconduct.
• Test Questions: You get to study the field test before you take it. No surprises!

Once you have completely studied the online guide, you will be provided with a website link to take the online test (via email or text messaging). There are only 10 questions, but most of those have checkboxes with a “check all that apply” type format, so there are 65 points available. You must score 46 points or higher in order to pass the examination and qualify as an official.

Field Training and Testing

After completing the officials’ knowledge preparation and field training sessions, you are finally ready for a practical examination of your skills. You will be asked to verbally explain and/or demonstrate each skill on an actual soccer field. This examination is required in order to qualify for the job. Don’t let that scare you; it’s much easier than you think! It does require a little bit of preparation, but by the time you study for (and pass!) the online examination, the field testing will go well for you.

Good luck, officials! You are going to enjoy this experience and have fun working for the community in the soccer program that has brought you and other young athletes years of enjoyment and a lifetime of memories.