Become a Referee

Keeping the Game Safe, Fair, and Fun

Why should you become an AYSO referee? We need you! We cannot have games without referees. More importantly, it's rewarding and working with kids is great fun!

The referees' number one concern is to keep the game as safe as possible for the players. While there is a risk in all sports, the referee is responsible for minimizing such risks from field conditions, equipment, spectators, and the players. 

The referee is responsible for enforcing the Laws of the Game in such a way as to keep the game safe, fair, and fun for everyone: the players, the coaches, the spectators, and themselves. They interfere with the game as little as possible, avoiding making calls for doubtful trifling offenses. Referees only make calls for offenses they are sure occurred. 

We want our kids to continue to play, and they keep playing as long as it is fun. Referees learn that fun soccer varies from age group to age group of players. 

If you are 10 years of age and older, and would like to volunteer as a referee, please fill out the Volunteer section of the online registration when signing up your child to play soccer or as a volunteer only.

Registration Instructions (includes registering son/daughter for soccer) -- CLICK HERE
Volunteer Only Instructions -- CLICK HERE

For more information or questions, please view our Spring 2025 Referee kickoff slides and contact our Referee Administrator at [email protected].

⚽ How to Referee in AYSO Region 498

Thank you for volunteering! All referees in our regions must complete some steps at the start of every season they volunteer. These steps are described in this handy guide!

If you get stuck, please email your RRA and we’ll help you out!

Contact info for your region’s referee administrators

• Referee Administrator: Drew Winstel, [email protected]
• Acting Assistant Referee Administrator: Greg Duke, [email protected]

Registration for All Referees: New, Returning, Cross-Certified & Youth

Every volunteer, every season. New, returning, cross-certifying from USSF… everyone!

If you are a first-time referee, this process is going to take some time. Don’t expect to complete it all in one go. We are standing by to help you out. Thank you for being persistent—it’s worth it!

Before you start - are you a youth referee?

If so, you do not need to do SafeSport or the Risk status (aka the background check).  Just skip over those sections until you’re 18.  Youth referees must be at least 10 years of age to become an 8U official (12 to be a Regional Referee).  (You can get your training a little ahead if you’d like.)

Instructions

1. Go to the AYSO 498 home page
2. Log in to your account, or click Register Now if you don’t have one yet.  If you’re creating an account:

• You must have your own account, not a secondary email address attached to someone else’s profile.  If you’re setting up a new account for a youth referee, see the instructions in the appendix.
• Make sure you use your legal name (see the next part about background checks).  Don’t add a middle name.
• If you’re asked to upload certificates, just skip these steps.  All the certificates you earn later on in the process will sync/upload automatically. Loading certs has actually proven to break the sync process for subsequent seasons, too
• If you already have one but are struggling to login, don’t create a second one.  Save yourself (and us 🙂) some time - email us for help.

3. Register as a referee for the current AYSO season.. Once logged in, click the [Volunteer] button in the left nav bar, then look for volunteer opportunities.  Under MY 2025/26 Board Member/Referee, select “Referee” (if you’re an adult) or “Youth Referee” (if you’re under 18). 

• If you can’t find “Referee” as a role,  use the “>” to the right end of the list of roles to scroll through more options.  Failing that, click “Show All Available Opportunities”.

4. “Risk Status” - Complete your Sterling Volunteer background check. If you’re a new adult volunteer, you need to do this (and is likely prompted to you as part of signing up).  If you are a returning volunteer, check to see when your existing one expires. Start as soon as you can as it can take some time to process.  Follow these instructions.
5. Complete SafeSport. This is a requirement for youth sports in the US and is specifically mandated by the US Soccer Federation. The first time you take it, it’s really (really) long. Sorry. Don’t blame us. Blame the people who took advantage of young kids and who made such training mandatory 🙁. It does expire after a year, and when it does, the requalification course is much shorter. You need this to be in good standing in order to referee this season.  Follow these instructions to access SafeSport.  When in the SafeSport portal, double check that they have your correct birthdate on file and the first and last name both match.  It doesn’t sync to our systems if it’s missing/wrong. If you ever manually upload your training status, this will almost certainly break synchronization in the future. Please don’t do that!

If you are a returning referee, welcome back!  You’re all done. 🎉🎉🎉

Steps for New (brand new or upgrading from U8 to Regional) or Cross Certifying (from USSF) Referees

There are two main kinds of training you must complete before you can referee a game.

1. If you are new to AYSO (new or cross-certifying) you must complete the online safety training.
2. New referees must must train on the laws of the game (both brand new and upgrading U8 to Regional)

Both of these steps require you to access 🎓AYSOU, online training center for AYSO.  To access 🎓AYSOU, log into Sports Connect and look for the button on the left navigation bar:

If it’s missing or if you click right after you register a brand new account, this button will lead you to a login error.  There’s some single sign on synchronization of accounts that needs to happen.  Give it a day and try again.  If it still doesn’t work, email [email protected].

Online Safety Training

Once in AYSOU, click on Training Library > Safe Haven (View Courses).

        

You’ll need to watch the following courses.  They take a bit of time, but are required so you have something to fall back on for the rare instance where something … happens.  You only need to take these once - they do not expire for referees. We do recommend that you retake them every year or two as a refresher.

• 1. Safe Haven
• 2. Concussion Awareness
• 3. Sudden Cardiac Arrest.

Cross-Certifying from USSF

Are you already certified as a referee with USSF? Has it been at least six months since you completed certification? Then you can get cross-certified and skip the AYSO training on the laws of the game. Follow the instructions on the AYSO Wiki.

Training on the Laws of the Game & Your Role as a Referee

To get your referee training, first navigate to 🎓AYSOU and visit Training Library > Refereeing

• 

To officiate 6-8U games, you need to become certified as an 8U Official. To do so, take the 8U Official Course on 🎓AYSOU.

Skip down to the final notes section.

• 

To officiate 10U and older games, you need to become certified as a Regional Referee.  To do so, take the Regional Referee Online + In-Person Companion Course on 🎓AYSOU.  This will allow you to do most of the training on your own time (via online slides), but there’s an in person component where you get some practice doing it for real with support.

• 

(For U10+ only) Sign up for an upcoming field session in 🎓AYSOU.

1. Click Training Event in the left navigation bar:
   
2. Search for training events near you. Most of the time, it works best to clear the AYSO region in the leftmost search box, and then enter your ZIP code in the middle search box.
3. Type Regional Referee in the rightmost search box and select the online + in-person companion course.
   
4. Click these buttons to toggle between the calendar view, location view & list view. The list view usually works best!
   
5. Click Enroll on the course of your choice.
6. You must get through the online course, including the exam, before attending!

Notes

• You can attend any AYSO class, not just those from your region!
• DO NOT JUST ATTEND WITHOUT SIGNING UP IN 🎓AYSOU!  You may not get credited properly for the course. Or the date or location may have changed (oops!). Email your RRA if something seems confusing or incorrect.

When You’re All Done…

When you receive class completion certificates, either hard-copy or via email, please scan and store it for future reference. You might need it in case something gets lost in the online system.

After completing training, it can take a day or two to sync to your Sports Connect volunteer account. You can check the status of your certification in Sports Connect by looking for “My Roles & Certificates” and clicking “View”.

 

You’ll be able to view all your required certifications, including background check, fingerprinting, safety training & referee training. You can also log into 🎓AYSOU and click “My Training” to view your completed courses.

Once you think you’ve completed the required steps, email your RRA and we’ll get you ready to referee! You’ll receive your referee kit if you didn’t get it at your regional referee training & be added to our scheduling system.

⚽ Referees help our games to be safe, fair and fun. Thank you for volunteering!

(Send ideas to improve the readability of this doc to [email protected])

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Special instructions for setting up new Youth Referee Accounts

To create a secondary account for your child, the easiest path is as follows:

1.  Login to ayso498.org as the parent (same account you used to register your child for their team in the fall or for spring select).  Click on Volunteer in the left navigation bar.

2.  Click Find Volunteer Roles down at the bottom of the main part of the page

 

3.  Click View Divisions to the right of MY 2025-26 Board Member/Referee

 

then check the box and click View Opportunities.  

4.  Scroll way to the right until you find "Referee" and click "Select" followed by "Sign up a New User".

Follow the rest of the instructions from there. Make sure to use a separate email address from your own!

Your child should receive an invite link in their email.

5.  Online training - Once your child is logged in, they’ll be able to follow the instructions earlier in this doc above.

6.  In person training - once they’ve finished the online components, skipping the parts youth should skip (see the main instruction doc), they’ll need to attend an in-person class.  Instructions to sign up and all the details are in the above doc..

Based on: tinyurl.com/ayso45-ref-instructions (Thanks to Area 2J!)

Referee Training

Come join the guardians of the game by attending online and in-person training.

To be an AYSO Referee, you must: 

• Be at least 10 years of age (Youth referees can referee players whose entire division is two years younger than them)
• Register as a volunteer for AYSO (register by clicking Register Now (if you are new) or Login (if you have an account) on our Home Page)
• Complete the free online Regional Referee Training course. Follow the steps below
  1. Go to AYSOU, or by clicking AYSOU under your volunteer position on the volunteer tab in your account at www.ayso498.org.
  2. In the left navigation panel, click Training Library.
  3. Under Safe Haven, click View Courses.
  4. Enroll in and complete each of these courses (total time is 6-8 hours):
     • AYSO's Safe Haven
     • CDC Concussion Awareness
     • Sudden Cardiac Arrest
     • SafeSport if you are at least 18 years old (click "Access This Training")
  5. Go back to the Training Library and open the Refereeing Courses.
  6. If you are 10-11 years old, take the 8U Official - Online course. Otherwise, you have two options:
     • Take the Regional Referee Online Course (1.5-2 hours) plus the in-person companion course (2-3 hours), or
     • Take the Regional Referee Full In-person Course (6-7 hours, including more hands-on time)
  7. Strongly encouraged but not required: take the AYSO Summary of the Laws of the Game online course
• Complete a background check (instructions will be emailed to you during the volunteer sign-up process).

For more information or questions, please contact our Referee Instructor at [email protected].

Thank you for stepping up to keep the game safe, fair, and fun for the kids!