Referee Program

Contact your local VSA referee assignor at referees@visionsocceracademy.com.

They will be assigning you all your VSA games in Waukee. All the assigning is done through Arbiter Sports so you will have to get registered for the program

(see the video in the arbiter tab on how to do this - post link to it here).

You will need to send an email to your VSA assignor and introduce yourself to them. In the email include these items: 

Your first and last name

your home address

your or your parents email address that is check regularly 

**Each referee is required to have a different email. A family with multiple referees will need to have a different e-mail for each person

**your or your parents contact phone number (please indicate if home, work, or cell)

One the VSA assignor sees this email, they will reach out to you and send you a “welcome” email as well. In this email, you will receive all the information to the website and additional information that is important to know.

All referees must re-certify and re-register every year between July 1 and December 31. Referees who miss this registration window are assessed a late fee.

If you don’t re-register during the normal registration window, you run the risk of not receiving a new referee badge.

• Registering means you are current with your annual registration fees and have been issued your badge for the year. The earlier you register, the sooner you get your new badge.
• As part of re-registering, recertification courses will be made available in the Learning Center each July. Once the assignments associated with the recertification module are completed and registration fees are paid, you will be registered for the following year.

Recertification is valid for each calendar year; however, recertifications can start as early as July for the following year.

• If you first certified as a referee between July and December, your certification is valid for the remainder of that year and for the entire next calendar year.
• If you originally became certified in the first half of the year, then your certification is valid through December of that year.

Why is registration and recertification required annually?

• The Laws change. Memoranda are issued every year. Recertification ensures that you have been made aware of the changes and of any points-of-emphasis for the next registration year. The process of re-certifying means you have met U.S. Soccer’s annual continuing education requirement. Re-registering means you are up-to-date on administrative requirements.

Three things to consider and look into as the reason why:

Did you ever log into your Arbiter account? 

If a referee has not signed-in and accepted the Arbiter, then you were unable to be assigned.

Sometimes the welcome e-mail goes into your junk/bulk folder. Contact referees@visionsocceracademy.com to have the welcome email re-sent if needed. Log onto your Arbiter account. There is a box next to "ready to be assigned." This needs to be checked. If this is unchecked that means you are not "ready." The only time you want this unchecked is if there is a reason you cannot temporarily referee such as if you have an injury, military leave, etc. 

Is your mailing address correct? 

If your mailing address is not entered or entered wrong then this can create issue and possibly make you unavailable.

If you have done all of these steps and are still not getting games, please don't wait until the season is over to let our referee assignor know you are not receiving assignments for games. Every attempt will be made to provide all referees an equal amount of games, so if you haven't been assigned games within a couple of weeks let us know at referees@visionsocceracademy.com.

VSA recommends officials purchase a yellow and Blue referee jersey for local games. Eventually you will need to purchase all five (5) colors but these would be the best options to start with.

Order uniforms here: http://officialsports.com/

You can find package deals under the Kits section. My recommendation would be this package to start off with LINK

**NOTE** You will need to have a watch as well. Any basic watch works.

Other uniform options - You can search up USSF Referee kits but they are all ranging around the same price BUT they must be USSF Style referee uniforms.Uniform details on how to order through Soccer Master will be sent to you by the Academy Director after registration. 

If you have any uniform related questions, please reach out to the Academy Director (academydirector@visionsocceracademy.com)r

Arbiter 

Arbiter System Support

1-800-311-4060

support@arbitersports.com

Director of Extra Programs, Outreach and Referees

Associate Recreational Director

Keisha Jobe

keisha.jobe@visionsocceracademy.com