PSC Match Officials – 2019 Year in Review
After over 1,050 assignments in 2019, the match officials of the Pickering Soccer Club are bringing a successful season to a close. The assignments include head match officials and assistant match officials for PSC recreational league and recreational interlock regular season, year end tournaments and playoffs, FDP U8 to U10 games and the Pickering Soccer Club July Festival.
In the 2019 Outdoor Season we also saw the Pickering Soccer Club continue to be a leader in match official development. Under the direction of Head Referee Mike Balfour and Assignor Dave Lord, over 50 1st and 2nd year match officials received at least one mentor session from the Club’s mentors and a total of 90 mentor sessions took place. In these sessions a more experience match official would attend a game to provide support for a young official in their first couple of assignments. The young official would receive a report providing them with the areas of strength from the game as well as 1-2 areas to develop. The goal of the feedback was to provide support, develop confidence, to assist in the young official’s growth as a match official, and to provide encouragement to continue to be a match official.
In July, 6 match officials, 5 of them under the age of 20, successfully completed the Ontario Soccer’s Mentorship Course and became certified mentors. The PSC’s mentorship program is the leading program in both Ontario Soccer and Durham Region.
The PSC hosted an Assistant Referee’s Workshop on June 9 that saw individuals from across Durham Region participate. The session focused on the use of flags and proper signals. Following the classroom and on field session the participants were invited to do the pregame field inspection with the crew assigned to the Durham United FA League1 Women’s game. The clinic participants used the game to observe how an experience crew worked together and how the AR’s managed the game.
The 2019 season also saw the PSC participate in an OPDL Pilot Project. One of 3 clubs to participate in this program, PSC had the opportunity to assign up and coming qualified match officials to U13 OPDL games. Tristan Forgie and Samy Menendez were assigned to their first OPDL Head Match Official assignments while Alanna Takashima, Daniel Bianca, Destinee Muir and Sharukh Mughal all received assistant match official assignments. In August, Tristan successfully passed an assessment that saw him achieve a Grade 7 Level with Ontario Soccer and this puts him on the path to move up to a regional level official in the very near future.
90 match officials – from as young as 13 – were assigned to games this past season. The Club traditionally holds Ontario Soccer Small Sided Game and Entry Level Clinics in mid April. If you and your son or daughter is interested in becoming a match official for the 2020 season, please email
scheduler@pickeringsoccer.ca
in January to get your name on the contact list for the 2020 clinics.
