These women had a set of club games in Torrance. Those games are assigned by a different association than high school games.
Jonny Joseph, who is the president of South Bay Soccer Referee Association (SBSRA), which assigns referees to club games throughout West Los Angeles has been receiving emails from high school parents who claim that referees are trying to “wreck” the high school soccer season. He responds to the parents and tells them SBSRA assigns club games, it does not assign high school games.
Club Soccer referees undergo different training than high school referees. The rules vary slightly.
Joseph, in an email to CTN, shared what he has been sharing with parents:
In a nutshell:
-CIFSS (CIF Southern Section) decided to implement a new methodology for determining high school sports officials’ fees
– fees are set for 3-year periods
– accordingly, the fees were set for 2022 – 2025
– they were set to achieve an hourly rate of $35 by 2025
– standard hours that officials spend on campus were calculated for each sport
– rates pregame for 2025 by sport were set using these amounts
– amounts were for year one and were set to arrive at the target rate for year three.
This resulted in certain sports officials getting double digit percentage increases (football, baseball and basketball – what a shocker!) while others got zero (soccer, field hockey, gymnastics and water polo).
This overly simplistic methods does not take into account:
– “work” required, a soccer referee may cover 2-3 miles per game, a volleyball official not as much,
– working conditions -an outdoor field or a gym, often air-conditioned. This followed a prior 3-year period with $1 per soccer game increases.
For more about club soccer referees visit: click here. To learn more about high school officiating visit: click here.
(Editor’s note: Working a club soccer game yesterday, November 11, a referee told this editor he was working in Norwalk a week ago and someone from Loyola approached him and another referee and asked if they wanted to work high school. The ref asked the pay, and the Loyola guy quoted him $60 for a JV game and $70 for a varsity game. The referee, who is a certified high school soccer ref, did not identify himself as such to the Loyola guy. The ref said he would not work for that amount. Currently, varsity refs make $75 and JV refs make $61. The man is Hispanic. Is a certain ethnicity being targeted with the hope that group will work and will work for less? I hope not because that would be truly despicable.)