MISSOULA — A referee clinic hit the field in Missoula on Sunday with a goal, to train more youth soccer referees — something badly needed in Montana.
“Montana, collectively, needs about 400 refs to be at a place where we're comfortable, otherwise we wind up with people being wildly overworked,” said Devin Harbour, a U.S. Soccer referee coach and state director of referee assessment.
The state used to have about 1,000 youth soccer referees. Now, it hovers at around 600.
“Being a referee is not a popular hobby,” Harbour said. “Referees are expected to make a decision on something that not everybody saw clearly and maybe they didn't see clearly.”
Harbour, who is also the referee assigner and trainer for the Missoula and Bitterroot Valleys, said the shortage can impact games and the refs themselves. Saturday, he moved 20 miles while calling games.
“It's a lot of work physically. It requires more physical activity than a lot of other sports officiating,” he said. “We wind up with people like Ray and Austin out here doing seven, eight games a day.”
To deal with shortages, U.S. Soccer had to institute an emergency protocol to keep games running. But, in addition to helping with player safety and fairness, a certified referee means that the game has insurance.
“If there's no referee at game time in order to prevent a game from being canceled, any person can step up,” Harbour said. “Referees feel tremendous pressure to pick up games. Yesterday, down in Hamilton, I had to ask people to go way outside their comfort level, otherwise these 10-year-old’s games would not get covered.”
That is where the clinics come in. Montana youth soccer referees typically become certified through a combination of online courses and a field clinic, like Sunday’s on the Sentinel High School soccer field. U.S. Soccer is also testing a solely virtual training program here in Montana.
The online program teaches the basics, like player safety, rules, flags and whistles. The field clinic is a chance to learn by doing and polish up skills. The minimum age to become a certified U.S. Soccer referee is 13. They often referee the younger games.
“The majority of the new refs that we get are in fact youth refs,” he said. “We love having the youth refs, but one of the problems is that, if they're playing, who's reffing their games?”
Sunday’s clinic had about three adults in a class of about 15. Harbour said that there incoming youth refs and some older refs who have been calling games for decades, but they are missing people in between.
People interested in becoming referees can check out the Montana Youth Soccer website and pursue certification through the digital program or the field clinics, hosted across the state in the spring and fall.
“I’ve been reffing for 11 years,” Harbour said. “The thing that keeps me doing it is that I love it. We work so hard to try to bring everyone up.”
