ADULT OFFICIALS | INTRODUCTION TO BECOMING AN INDOOR OFFICIAL
Do you think you might like to become a referee in the Florida Region? Start here
A Message from Darin Clark, Florida Region Official's Chair to Prospective New Referees
Hello and thank you for your interest in volleyball officiating. The training season for new officials runs from October through January each year. Official's clinics for the coming season are being planned now for December and January. Keep checking our website at http://www.floridavolleyball.org/adult-officials-indoor-steps.html for information.
The best way to get yourself "into the mix" of working officials is to get certified early in the season by:
* Registering your membership with USA Volleyball (select "No Team Affiliation") and...
* Familiarizing yourself with the rules and taking the test through the online clinics
* Attending an Orientation Meeting (Check our website for up-to-date information on available clinics)
* Getting yourself scheduled to work at a "Training/Certification" site (to be evaluated and receive instruction and guidance to become certified as a Provisional Referee. (Whew!)
The downer for most people is that, when you go to a "Training/Certification" site, you're usually getting paid nothing or next to nothing (at least for the 4 matches you're getting evaluated on). This helps to offset the region's expenditures for paying the raters for working the event. Once you're all certified and you've got your patch, your work is only half done. You now have to sort of make a name for yourself (in other words, get yourself known by some of the head officials and/or tournament directors that run various events, etc). A lot of this comes by word of mouth....a tournament director or head official needs some referees, and they might call and ask our Official's Coordinator (or a Rater, or myself, etc.) if we are familiar with your name. Hopefully, the person being asked has either had direct experience with you or they can refer the question to someone else who does. The hopeful outcome being that someone can say "Oh yeah.....I've seen him/her work at so-n-so tournament (or certification site, etc).....great attitude, etc. and you begin to find yourself being assigned to more and more tournaments.
Again, I'm not trying to discourage you or scare you away (we always want good officials). But I DID want to be candid with you to avoid having you come in with overly ambitious expectations that you could register, take a test, get looked at, and boom!....you're working tournament after tournament non-stop. It definitely requires a little work and determination, but believe me when I say that the payoff is great. The community of officials in Florida is a fantastic group of people and I have no doubt that you would develop some life-long friends from joining it.
Please make SURE that if you are interested in becoming a referee, that you keep tabs on the upcoming clinics in December and January (keep checking our website in December)....we have a number of would-be referees that don't think about it until the middle of February or March and at that point it's too late (all of our clinics are held in December-January).
The best way to get yourself "into the mix" of working officials is to get certified early in the season by:
* Registering your membership with USA Volleyball (select "No Team Affiliation") and...
* Familiarizing yourself with the rules and taking the test through the online clinics
* Attending an Orientation Meeting (Check our website for up-to-date information on available clinics)
* Getting yourself scheduled to work at a "Training/Certification" site (to be evaluated and receive instruction and guidance to become certified as a Provisional Referee. (Whew!)
The downer for most people is that, when you go to a "Training/Certification" site, you're usually getting paid nothing or next to nothing (at least for the 4 matches you're getting evaluated on). This helps to offset the region's expenditures for paying the raters for working the event. Once you're all certified and you've got your patch, your work is only half done. You now have to sort of make a name for yourself (in other words, get yourself known by some of the head officials and/or tournament directors that run various events, etc). A lot of this comes by word of mouth....a tournament director or head official needs some referees, and they might call and ask our Official's Coordinator (or a Rater, or myself, etc.) if we are familiar with your name. Hopefully, the person being asked has either had direct experience with you or they can refer the question to someone else who does. The hopeful outcome being that someone can say "Oh yeah.....I've seen him/her work at so-n-so tournament (or certification site, etc).....great attitude, etc. and you begin to find yourself being assigned to more and more tournaments.
Again, I'm not trying to discourage you or scare you away (we always want good officials). But I DID want to be candid with you to avoid having you come in with overly ambitious expectations that you could register, take a test, get looked at, and boom!....you're working tournament after tournament non-stop. It definitely requires a little work and determination, but believe me when I say that the payoff is great. The community of officials in Florida is a fantastic group of people and I have no doubt that you would develop some life-long friends from joining it.
Please make SURE that if you are interested in becoming a referee, that you keep tabs on the upcoming clinics in December and January (keep checking our website in December)....we have a number of would-be referees that don't think about it until the middle of February or March and at that point it's too late (all of our clinics are held in December-January).
