Mission
Mentors are to new referees as coaches are to players. Once new referees leave their licensing class, mentors are the ongoing front line for fulfilling the training and development objectives of local Referee Coordinators. From theory to practice, caring mentors explain and demonstrate the how's and why's of soccer officiating to our newly licensed referees, whose parents are responding with exceptional support and participation. There are many approaches to mentoring, ours is primarily what we call in-the-game mentoring, where assigned mentors, usually as the Center Referee, officiate games with newly licensed referees.

In-the-game mentoring embodies the best of all teamwork concepts while simultaneously role modeling desirable characteristics of an ideal Center Referee. Whether your involvement is with USSF, AYSO, ODP, PAL, USL, adult or premier level leagues and regardless of the status of your referee grade, if you have a solid/current foundation in the fundamentals of soccer officiating and want to be a part of the delivery system for improvement in your local league, your heart will find no better way to bring about change than by being a mentor. A quick phone call could put you "in-the-game" in the very rewarding capacity of being a leader and teacher of the art of officiating.

Today's mentors are more ready to lead, to teach, and role model than ever before.

Today's new referees are more ready to learn than ever before.

One newly licensed referee put it this way, " Hey, call it what you like, transitioning, morphing, whatever, I want to know what to do."

Mentors can be deployed in several ways, as developed on the In-The-Game-Mentors page:

1. As Center Referee for the game, training newly licensed Assistant Referees as well as relatively new Assistant Referees(one or two seasons of experience)in regular season or scrimmage games
2. As AR1, Mentor from the touchlines working with new Assistant Referees or new Center Referees
3. Center / Mentor out on field with a new Center Referee...in scrimmage games; with possible assistance from another Mentor who works with new AR's

Today's soccer referee administrators, referee coordinators, assignors, mentoring program coordinators are ablaze with energy. Much of which stems from gratifying results associated with mentoring newly licensed referees. It makes eminent sense to pool the best local resources available to teach those who need to learn the most the quickest and who demonstrate the strongest desire to learn.
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