While St. Albert soccer teams were busy with their first tournament of the year last weekend, 14 new referees tried their hand at waving flags and blowing whistles for the first time.
The referees hit the field for the Victoria Day Classic girls’ soccer tournament, all of them part of a mentorship program hosted by the St. Albert Soccer Association (SASA).
“We’re trying to mentor them,” said Rick Haxby, senior referee mentor and SASA volunteer. “We started a bit last year, but this year we’re really going to push it in the tournaments, especially in the 14-and-under tiers.”
Haxby said the referees range in age from 12 to 18 years, and are placed with senior referees who teach them how to interpret the game and make calls. All of them have passed the Alberta Soccer Association referee test, and Haxby said the program is also designed to build confidence and fill Alberta’s much-needed gap for soccer referees. According to Haxby, Alberta needs another 2,400 referees if it hopes to meet its three-per-game quota.
He said the lack of properly trained referees is often due to abuse they receive from players’ parents and coaches.
“The biggest problem the refs have is usually parents, they take abuse from parents and they leave the game because they don’t like the abuse,” he said. “All they have to do is make a couple of bad calls and people are all over them.”
There are more new referees than there usually is this year, said Haxby, but he hopes to keep the program running in the coming years as well.
Robyn Yuzdepski, 18, is a veteran of the program. She has refereed games for four years now and doesn’t plan to stop any time soon.
“Other people find it stressful and stuff because there’s the coaches and the parents, but I just enjoy doing it,” Yuzdepski said.
She plays for the Edmonton Victoria Women’s major league team, and she said working with the senior referees helps her with her own game.
“A lot of more experienced refs help you out, tell you things, you learn something new every day,” she said. “I’m aware of the rules, for sure, a lot more and I know what’s going on, and I’m watching soccer so I learn other things from other teams.”
Another bonus, said Haxby, is the money.
“They can make some good money at this. It’s way better than working at McDonald’s or something like that,” Haxby said.
According to the SASA website, referees can make as much as $50 a game, a fact Yuzdepski said keeps her going when games get tough.
“The money’s pretty good,” she said. “It’s discouraging when you have a bad game and parents are yelling at you, so it’s kind of motivation to keep going.”
