Question Number: 15073

League Specific 3/29/2007

RE: travel Under 14

ken Teevens of lansing, michigan America asks...

im pretty sure that my local rec league you have to be 16 and older but do you think i can convince them to letting me ref. i know in baseball for the leagues they have 13 year old empires

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

I know a bit about Michigan referees. You can see this site for information: http://msysareferee.net/

There is no set minimum age for taking the referee certification class. Some instructors will have restrictions on who they will allow into classes, based on problems they have had with younger people in the past.

Everyone now takes the Grade 9 certification class. Once a referee has turned 14 years old, he or she is eligible to take the bridge class to become a Grade 8.

However, simply taking the class does not ensure that you will be able to referee. You have to go through your local assignor. I know our assignor has problems with younger-age referees, finding games they can do. That's because by Michigan law, younger-age sports officials must have an adult supervisor on the field. So if you are all alone at a u8 game, there's no supervisor. You may be an AR for a u12 game, but only if the center referee is an adult. If the center is a HS student under 18, you wouldn't be eligible for that game. You also cannot referee in your own age group - you have to be older than the players so you will have some credability.

All this is not to discourage you, just to point out the problems that younger referees might have. If your local assocation has set an age limit of 16, it's probably because they have had problems in the past. Also, certification classes are usually held in the winter in Michigan. That's because the instructors are refs themselves, and are too busy out on the fields during the spring and fall seasons, and the summer tournament season.

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

Ken, the referee admin books has no min age for grade 9 and 8 referees, Some state associations have different policies on this, but you can take the course and at least be on the list. I teach several grade 9 courses during the summer week days as I am a teacher so I have summers off and time to do that. Obviously you will want to find a course close to you in MI. But go ahead and ask somebody and find out when the nearest course is to you and where. There are possibly courses in the summer.