Referee Program

Darrell Ringman - USSF Assignor (Contact Info listed below)
Kurt Swanson - Director of Referee Development and Mentoring (Contact Info listed below)

Juventus Academy Referee Assignment

Juventus Academy and many area clubs use the  referee assignment system for both league games & tournaments. Register & request games through this system. PENSRA is a powerful and easy to use system that provides the ability for referees to SELF-ASSIGN to matches for those matches they are rated for. You can manually request others. Juventus Academy offers hundreds of assignments each year and referees are expected to be independent and highly reliable. No show, no call situations are dealt with harsh consequences.

Juventus Academy moved to electronic payments for league and tournament referee assignments.  Currently, Juventus Academy uses PayPal to remit payment.  You will need to update your Pensra account with a valid PayPal address in order for the money to be sent to you.  There are currently no fees to set-up a PayPal account or to receive the payment.

Juventus Academy pays referees twice monthly, first for the 1st-15th and second for the 16th-last day of the month. The Juventus Academy treasurer will be authorized to make payments within a couple of days of the payroll period, assuming all referees have submitted their match reports in Pensra.  The payments are virtually instant, once processed.

To get games, be sure to keep your profile updated with a correct and accurate e-mail address, then, mark your profile with the Juventus Academy ‘availability’ check-box. This way you will get the Assignor's messages. Make sure your rating is up to date and accurate and contact the assignor to request rating changes. Leverage self assign as often as you possibly can. Read the PENSRA failure codes to determine why you can’t self assign.

Games are released for self assign about three weeks in advance, but other short-notice opportunities also pop up. Keep your Pensra account Referee-->Inquiry window handy to monitor for matches.

‍Darrell’s Top 10 Advisories…
1.) Do not dump assignments back in my lap; when you’re contacting me because you cannot make a match, be responsible and have a back-up identified – I need to be in the loop and make adjustments in Pensra
2.) While the CR typically provides flags, all officials should have all equipment necessary to carry out the match, including ARs*!
3.) Arrival time is a MINIMUM of 15 minutes prior to kick-off, you need this time for a pre-game conference, check-in and field inspection
4.) Red cards must be reported promptly, each league has it’s own requirements – do NOT delay!
5.) Referees who are awarded matches with conditions to complete training, etc. MUST follow-through and fulfill the conditions before working the match!
6.) There are multiple ways to reach me; use Pensra SiteMail for issues which are not time sensitive, e-mail for important issues, SMS messaging for urgent issues and CALL ME if something critical comes up.
7.) Be responsive. If you don’t reply to me, I will stop using you for assignments.
8.) Do not have others represent you – all officials must be responsible and keep in touch with me, just like a real job!
9.) Do NOT sit on unaccepted assignments, accept them promptly!
10.) SHOW-UP for your assignments – no show/no call situations will be treated harshly.

While I appreciate all officials specific and unique needs and circumstances, please resist the temptation to contact me until after you have consumed all the terrific resources on this page, in PENSRA’s FAQs and on CNRA.net.

License Information

You cannot referee games without a current license. As of September 3, 2019, all USSF referee certification and license renewals are handled centrally via the US Soccer platform (aka CNRA is no longer handling this locally for Northern California referees and rather it’s done on a national basis which long term will help referees that move across state lines, etc.).

Referee Instruction

All entry-level instruction (aka classroom portion of training) takes place via US Soccer’s Digital Learning Center, followed by onsite field instruction, certification, and then in game referee mentoring. Please refer to US Soccer's Referee Learning Center below for detailed information about becoming a referee.

This is a great opportunity to expand our training to better serve referees once they’re on the field. Accordingly, the Entry-Level Program will now consist of three components:

1. Online learning through the U.S. Soccer Learning Center
2. A 3-hour field session taught by a CNRA instructor (also mandated by U.S. Soccer)
3. On-the-field mentoring once the referee starts working games

‍All classroom portions of training take place on the internet via self-paced instruction. This is followed by onsite field training at the location of your choosing. Juventus Academy along with other local clubs typically host a few courses each year. Otherwise, attendance at any other sanctioned course is acceptable but may involve a longer drive for the onsite field portion of the training.

Securing a Ref Mentor & Youth Referee Program

Once you have finished your referee certification (which can include on-the-field CNRA ref coaches to finalize your training), please feel free to contact our club Ref Mentor Kurt Swanson (contact info below) to coordinate a senior referee to join you for additional field instruction and guidance. Advance notification is highly recommended (typically a week or more in advance) in order to secure the time of a senior referee (their calendars book up far in advance for matches that they will be officiating).

Referee Equipment

Referees are expected to coordinate their colors; as a crew, they too should be ‘uniform’.