US Soccer changed the hierarchy and naming strategy of it’s referee program a few years ago. Since all of the state associations that implement the US Soccer changes are run by volunteers getting everything up and running and onboarded often takes a little time.
Here are the steps if you’d like to get back into it in PA.
Part one are the required background checks by the Commonwealth and US Soccer. Since the Penn State Sandusky issue there are a few extra steps here in Pennsylvania.
- PA State police Criminal Record Check (PATCH)
- https://epatch.pa.gov/home
- approx cost $27,
- select “submit new record check”
- Reason “employment”
- Save a copy of the results as a PDF so you can later upload.
- PA Child Abuse History Clearance
- FBI Criminal Background Check
- Safesport Training
As you are doing all that fun stuff you will also need to do the PA West registration with US Soccer
https://pawestsoccer.omgtsys.com
- Create a profile for yourself.
- Find a course to take in person or virtual.
- If there isn’t a course on the list that you’d like to take ask an assignor or club to host one,
If you are not currently a USSF Referee there are new courses scheduled through 4/5/2025
https://pawestsoccer.omgtsys.com/AvailableClinics.aspx
https://pawestsoccer.omgtsys.com/ClinicInfo.aspx?cid=213
The biggest hurdle is the mentality within US Soccer. The old school method said only referees looking to advance the next level of competition needed the coaching and assessments. The new process says that we need to support all referee types–> Grassroots who will continue to support the grassroots game and competetive refs who will want to advance to more challenging games. Referees, like players need to be met where they are, not where we hope they will be.
The other kicker is you need to be an active US Soccer referee for 2 years.
FCArmstrong 
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