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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 18, 2021)
2B | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2021 | SIUSLAW NEWS SYSA follows the pro- gressional guidelines from US Soccer “by having the younger kids’ games be much smaller and more coach-driven, and not hav- ing a referee with a whis- tle,” Tomaro said. “Then, we have the refereeing start in that U10 age group, and developmentally, they’ve done a lot of looking at how it works for kids to learn the game, have fun and develop.” Conveniently, the age at which kids are about ready to start playing the game with an official referee pairs perfectly with the age at which slightly older kids are ready to start training as youth referees, which is cur- rently 13 years old, as speci- fied by US Soccer. “For the referees in U10, we always tell them this is a teaching situation, so that the kids learn the rules,” said Tomaro. Up to this point, many players may not have been playing with all the same rules, and they may not know some of the more complicated rulings. “So, [we tell them], ‘When you make a call, make sure they know why you have made the call,’” Tomaro said. “And sometimes it’s as much about educating the coach as it is about educating the kids; the coaches might mis- understand something, or they might just have some- thing in their head that isn’t quite right, so they’ve been teaching their kids to do something that we’re go- ing to call them for because COACH from page 1B “We’ve got a good mix of some strong players and then also some beginning incoming players. So, I think it’s going to be a great atmo- sphere for the older kids to mentor the younger kids and kind of rebuild this pro- gram. They’re a nice group of kids and they work really well together,” she added. This year, the Lady Viks have Desi Tupua and Ashley Hennessee returning to play in the front row, with libero Hayden Muller and setter Zoe Alberti holding it down either it’s dangerous, and they didn’t realize it, or it’s an age-group-specific rule because some age groups can do certain things others can’t, like head the ball.” Luckily, the U10 age group is a bit easier to referee than the older groups. “The kids are generally just making mistakes be- cause they’re really excit- ed,” said Tomaro. “They’re not fouling on purpose at that age. So, we usually put our younger refs, or our kids who don’t want a more stressful situation on those games.” SYSA also has adult men- tors on the side of the field who are certified referees. “They can give support and explain things if the ref- eree needs help,” she said. “I also like to do that because there have been some coach- es who’ve been vocal when they think a call should be made, and I think having an adult standing there is a good buffer for that; when you have a 13-year-old, and there’s an adult saying, ‘This should be the call,’ even though the kid is the certi- fied ref, they start to feel a little bit either pressured or unsure.” Tomaro makes sure that all of her youth referees have a great deal of support and guidance throughout, with kids being trained as both assistant and center field refs over time. “We mentor the youth, but we give them a lot of independence,” she said. “In the games, when you have a center ref, they go out and do their work and the mentor is watching from the sideline. They’ll ask questions and point things out, but you kind of have to be immersed in the process and the expe- rience, and then you learn as you go.” That’s part of why US Soc- cer allows referees as young as 13. “We start the kids at the younger ages, and then we move them up,” Tomaro continued. “We first put them as an assistant ref on the side so they can get used to the speed of the game with older kids and what they’re going to be looking for. When they feel com- fortable, we move them into the center position. Some kids are really comfortable and confident making those calls and being in that cen- ter position pretty quickly.” Throughout the process, the youth refs gain a great deal of experience, and they ma- ture along the way. “I do think it’s good that the kids learn leadership, they learn to trust them- selves,” said Tomaro. “They learn a lot of good teamwork, because they’re working to- gether to communicate with each other, the players and the coaches and show a little authority.” There are several youth referee training programs offered via the US Soccer website, but in Florence, SYSA runs their program once a year in the fall. “You sign up on US Soc- cer for the course you’re reg- istering for, and you have to pay attention to the location because they’re all over the place,” Tomaro said. “You do some online modules be- forehand, and then you have to do a concussion training that’s required of all refer- ees, because it’s not our job to evaluate whether they’re cleared to play again, but if we see symptoms or the signs of a concussion, we can send them off the field. That’s part of the responsi- bility keeping athletes safe from head injuries, and the referee definitely plays a role there.” After the trainees have completed the online mod- ules and they have their cer- tificate of concussion train- ing, they begin the in-person training, which is a one- or two-day course. “There’s a classroom por- tion where they learn dif- ferent rules and talk about different considerations and situations that might arise on the field,” said Tomaro. “Then, they go out on the field, and they practice the different movements, how to hold their arms and hold the flag. They teach you a good warm-up and talk about having your game face — whatever you do to make yourself ready to go out and be an official for the game and have your official game aura about you.” Tomaro does her best to coordinate trainings to hap- pen while there is some type of real recreational game play going on. “If possible, we like to do the trainings when there are either games going on for a club or even pick-up games,” she said. “Something where they can just see play hap- pening and be a referee for the back row, defense and setting up the team’s of- fense. “It’s an outside hitter that I’m looking to fill,” said Blake, “and based on the kids that we had last year at the varsity level, there’s nobody really that can shift into that easily. We’ve had a couple of swingers from last year, one of them with a lit- tle bit of height, Ava Center. Then, we’ve got a couple of the incoming freshmen that have some real height to them.” Any of these players could step into the position. “I definitely am excited to get to assess these girls to see who the best fit is to take that place,” the coach said. “There are definitely some prospects coming up that I’m excited about.” The girls had their first practice on Monday, Aug. 16, and their game schedule is set for the season. “We’ve got a multitude of games up until league starts Sept. 21,” said Blake. “So again, getting lots of games ahead of the actual league start is going to be really good for these girls.” The Lady Vikings start the season with a Jamboree at Philomath, where they will play five other teams on Thursday, Aug. 26 at 4 pm. They will then play a tour- nament in Newport on Sat- urday, Aug. 28, with more information coming as the tournament approaches. working and watching what’s happening in the game. “It’s partially to see how a referee works a game, and it’s partially for them to start looking at the game in a new way,” she said. “A lot of these kids have played soccer for years, so they look at the game as a player, but you have to start training your- self to look at the game as an official.” After the course is com- pleted, youth referees receive their badges, and they get a new one each year as proof of their certification. “Every year you have to re-register,” she noted. “At our level of certification, you’re not required to do any continuing education. They do require us to read and ac- cept that we’ve read all of the new rules for every year, be- cause there are rule changes happening all the time that clarify or change things a bit. You have to know what those are, and you have to reup your concussion train- ing every year.” For each of SYSA’s sea- sons, referees have a meeting and go over the rulebooks and age-level-specific rules. Once certified, Tomaro schedules the youth refer- ees throughout the SYSA season. Although programs were paused for a portion of the pandemic, Tomaro was able to bring back the previ- ously certified youth refs this past spring. “We started practices af- ter spring break, and then we did five weeks of games for U8 and six weeks for the older age groups starting on April 10,” she said. “So, six weeks of refereeing games this past spring. I have a cou- ple of kids who’ve been wait- ing [to be certified] because we got the last group in be- fore COVID, so we haven’t done any new certifications for a couple of years.” SYSA player registration closed on Aug. 14, and prac- tices will start after Labor Day when school starts. Fol- lowing about two weeks of practice, games begin. “In the next few weeks, I’ll get in touch with all the ones who reffed and a cou- ple who are high schoolers,” said Tomaro. “Then, for the kids who are already certi- fied, we will set a meeting date, probably in early Sep- tember, and get everybody up to speed and refreshed on everything.” Tomaro herself is going to the Lane County Soccer Referee Association training day for already certified reps on Aug. 21. “I’ll bring back all that in- formation and make sure the kids are all up to date, and I’ll be communicating with those people who are inter- ested about whether we’re going to do a class on the coast this fall,” she said. For more information on joining the youth referee training program in Flor- ence, email SYSA at sysa@ siusalwsoccer.com, or send a message to SYSA Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ siuslawsoccer. 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