Photo of the Elite Referees standing and the leadership of Eastern New York's Referee Program kneeling.
By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
June 24, 2014-If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere and the Elite Referees in Eastern New York hope that the expertise and experience they are receiving from New York soccer will help them to successfully officiate top assignments throughout the nation.
Under the direction of State Referee Administrator (SRA) Enrico Romano and State Youth Referee Administrator (SYRA) Ray Wolfe, 50 Elite Referees, both men and women from all eight referee districts in Eastern New York, are officiating the most challenging games every weekend in the Eastern New York State Adult Soccer Association and Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA), including the recently-completed finals in the State Open Cup, Arch Capital Group Cup, Eastern New York Premier League and the Eastern New York Champions Cup. Some are officiating professional games now while others are being groomed to officiate these games in the future.
These Elite Referees travel from all over the Empire State to attend clinics that the program hosts in the New York City metropolitan area on the first Tuesday of every month. Recent clinicians include Herb Silva, Director of Professional Referees for US Soccer, and Major League Soccer referee Jose Carlos Rivera, a product of Eastern New York. 2002 World Cup referee Brian Hall has already given two clinics, the last one on the Referee’s Positioning and Movement at Fordham University on June 3. Brian challenged the referees with this information:
• What referees learned in certification class, to run in a diagonal and always keep the ball between the ref and AR, sometimes does not work for the demands of the professional game. Referees instead need to be flexible in running to the best position and go where the game needs them to be.
• Referees need to show urgency of movement and be close to the play so that the players more readily accept their decisions.
• It’s important that the referee establish a presence by being close to the play. But what’s even more important than being close to the ball is creating an angle of vision to see the challenges between attackers and defenders.
“The information that our referees are receiving from clinicians like Brian Hall and the challenging games they are officiating every week will make them the best officials they could possibly become,” commented SRA Romano.
With 123,843 youth soccer players––68,587 boys and 55,256 girls––and more than 25,000 volunteers, the non-profit Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) stretches from Montauk Point, Long Island to the Canadian border. Members are affiliated with 11 leagues throughout the association, which covers the entire state of New York east of Route 81. ENYYSA exists to promote and enhance the game of soccer for children and teenagers between the ages of 5 and 19 years old, and to encourage the healthy development of youth players, coaches, referees and administrators. All levels of soccer are offered––from intramural, travel team and premier players as well as Special Children. No child who wants to play soccer is turned away. ENYYSA is a proud member of the United States Soccer Federation and United States Youth Soccer Association. For more information, please log on to http://www.enysoccer.com/, which receives nearly 300,000 hits annually from the growing soccer community.
