“You need glasses!” When a parent yelled this from the sidelines, the referee of a recent Long Island soccer game wasn’t taking any disrespect. Joshua Crespo ejected the parent from the game.
Crespo is 15. As a teen referee for the Long Island Junior Soccer League, he controls the game, calling out players for breaking rules, blowing his whistle for time outs and to signal the end of a match, and, from time to time, admonishing an unruly spectator. He earns $46 to $84 per game. The high school freshman from Shirley estimates he has earned more than $3,000 so far.
Crespo is one of many teens across the Island who are earning money as sports officials.
The Police Athletic League trains high school juniors and seniors to be rookie lacrosse officials to work its weekend games, paying $40 or $65 for 75-minute faceoffs, says Tom Campolettano, a Nassau P.A.L. game assigner. The Long Island Baseball Umpires Organization launched a new junior umpire program in January to train kids ages 14 to 17 to be umpires at Town of Brookhaven youth games; they will receive $55 to $75 a game, says Bill Ambrosini, co-owner of the organization.
They can make more money umpiring baseball games than they can working a side job in a grocery store. It’s less time and it’s more money.
- says Bill Ambrosini
Youth referees help deal with a shortage of officials in all youth sports, says Randy Vogt, public relations director for Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association. “The number of referees in the past several years has gone down by 25%,” Vogt says. About 37% of the league’s current roster of 595 certified youth soccer referees are younger than 18, he says. Other sports also face shortages; the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials hopes to have a youth referee program up and running on Long Island by the fall to combat a “massive shortage of officials,” says Gary Moller, past president of the eastern Suffolk County board.
HOW TO GET THE BALL ROLLING
Crespo started as a youth soccer referee in his local intramural soccer club near his home before he even turned 14, as a paid referee for games for 5 and 6-year-old players. Different towns and leagues have their own age requirements for beginning referees. Other local sports programs may also offer younger kids a chance to get started. Local parishes that sponsor intramural Catholic Youth Organization basketball games pay youths to become referees, says Richard Nortwich, president of CYO Basketball for St. Bernard’ Parish in Levittown.
At 14, teens can start to officiate at more competitive games such as travel team competitions or tournaments, and they can referee for older groups up to the U18 category that has players up to age 18. Typically, the teenagers must take brief training courses that involve a combination of eight hours of online, in-person and on-the-field training and testing.
For the Long Island Junior Soccer League, for instance, kids start as assistant referees holding flags on the sidelines, working under a center referee in charge of the game play. “As the referee is getting experience, they move up in the ages that they’re officiating,” Vogt says. As they gain more confidence, they can also move up from assistant referee to center referee; that’s the path that Crespo took.
While no experience is necessary, “it’s helpful to have played the game, to know what a foul feels like,” Vogt says. And referees need to be in good physical shape. “Soccer referees in an average game are running five miles,” Vogt says.
Training typically includes startup costs. Becoming a soccer referee costs $170 and includes the classes and a uniform kit with two shirts, shorts, socks, whistle, flags and other necessities, says Marty Foeppel, recruitment director for the Long Island Soccer Referee Association. Ambrosini’s umpire program doesn’t charge for the classes, but teens must purchase their own protective equipment and umpire uniforms, which can run between $300 and $600. “They can make that back in a weekend,” Ambrosini says.
THE DEMANDS AND REWARDS OF THE JOB
The kids typically start out under the wing or mentorship of adult officials. “We don’t want to put them in a situation where they’re going to want to throw their gear in the lake and quit,” Ambrosini says.
Gianni Santulli, 16, of Shoreham, is training to be a baseball umpire. “I like the game of baseball, so I said, ‘Why not?’” says Santulli, who is a junior varsity pitcher and first-baseman for Shoreham-Wading River High School and whose father, Michael, has been a referee for years. “I thought it would make me a better baseball player and a better teammate.”
Teen officials can typically set their own schedules, blocking out times when they aren’t available. The average teen does two soccer games a week or 18 to 20 games during a three-month fall or spring season, Foeppel says. Teens can also block out a radius of where they are willing to travel; parents often have to be on board to drop off and pick up their kids, Foeppel says.
Officiating teaches responsibility at a young age, says Sofia Benenati, 19, of Massapequa, who has been reffing youth soccer since she was 14 and can continue to do so for as many years as she wishes.. Refs must manage their schedules, email with the other referees, show up on time, and more, she says.
Officiating can be intimidating at first, Benenati says, but experience builds confidence with making calls and interacting with adults including team coaches and parents. “You learn how to deal with people,” she says. “I had a friend give it a shot and she wasn’t able to deal with the backlash from the parents and coaches. She quit after two games.”
But for those who love officiating, it’s worth it despite once in while being told “you need glasses.”
“Getting paid to do what you love to do is great,” Benenati says. “I will tell anybody who will listen to look into refereeing.”
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
