New Referees
Detailed instructions for becoming a US Soccer referee are on the website of the MA State Referee Committee (MSRC) at https://www.massref.net/becoming-a-referee/steps-to-become-referee/. The schedule of entry level courses is at https://central.massref.net/courseofferings.cfm. The first class a potential referee would need to take is the “New Referee Orientation” one, which is often offered weekly. That class is two hours long and will help explain the rest of the online and in-person/on-field courses that need to take to become a referee. Most of those are done through MSRC but some are done online through the US Soccer Learning Center.
When a referee gets close to finishing the various trainings, they will need to register as a referee with BAYS and apply to work in Medway. BAYS gives instructions for that process. Once the Medway referee assignor has approved the application, there are a few forms to fill out on the BAYS site. Minors will need to request a parental consent form, which will get sent to their parent’s email. Once the parents have completed that, the referee will need to complete I-9 and direct deposit forms. Once those are processed and the referee completes their certification so they show up in the MSRC database of certified referees, our travel referee assignor will be able to approve their application and start getting them games.
Our travel referee assignor typically assigns games one month at a time.
One very important thing when registering with MSRC, with US Soccer, and with BAYS, is that the referee should use their own email address as the primary address on their accounts and then list a parent’s email as the secondary one.
If you have any questions throughout this process please don’t hesitate to ask by reaching out to our Travel Referee Assignor.
Pay information for BAYS is at https://bays.org/content/referee-payment-information. It’s considerably higher than intramural and he can expect anywhere from 1 to 4 games on each Saturday that he makes himself available to referee.
Returning Referees
Referees need to recertify each year. There are a few courses that returning referees need to take, and a recertification fee paid to the MSRC. While badges are good for the calendar year, the certification year goes from July 1 - June 30. Recertification courses start in August or September and go through March. So, a referee recertifying in September will be certified to referee through the end of the next calendar year, while a referee recertifying in February will get a badge for that year. Referees who have conflicts and cannot referee in the spring but still want to be able to work in the fall season will still need to recertify by spring.
Most recertification classes can now be done online on the referee’s own schedule, but there are a few that require meeting at a scheduled time, usually on Zoom. Those can fill up fast, so referees are strongly encouraged to recertify in the fall. Those who wait until March to look for a course may find that none are available and they’re unable to renew their badge.
To find the requirements for recertification, referees should log into their MSRC account at massref.net and go to the My Status tab, which will show all the courses they need to take and will include a link to pay the registration fee.
