Under Construction

Howdy,

I'm Jonathon and I'm a soccer referee in Whatcom County, Washington. I've been a referee since 1999, have been a referee instructor since 2000, a referee assignor since 2000, a member of the Whatcom County Soccer Referee Board since 2002 and also worked for several years as the Area Referee Administrator for Whatcom County.

Really what I'm getting at is I've been involved in officiating soccer in several different ways during my time as a referee although I have never bothered to upgrade. For anyone outside of the northwest Washington area, we are a fairly small association here in Whatcom County and the majority of our matches are hosted at one soccer field complex (Northwest Soccer Park). As a result, we know each other, mentor each other and those of us who assign know who can do what game. I've never been interested in traveling outside Whatcom County to officiate matches so although I routinely do some of the higher level of matches round these parts (we don't have a large base of players so the highest level of matches are those of Western Washington University -- I can't officiate WWU matches as I am employed by WWU to announce and keep score at these matches), I'm still a lowly grade 8 referee. There's never been much of a need for me to upgrade, so I haven't. I consider myself a decent referee, I've seen better and I've seen much worse.

Unfortunately, I have a bit of an attitude (or bad attitude, if you rather) and my mouth gets me in trouble. I'd like to say I always think before I speak, but I don't. And when coaches or parents make comments to me I think are silly, I tend to laugh. Usually, turn and laugh. So they know I am laughing at what they are saying. I'd save myself some grief if I could keep those feelings to myself.

I'm putting together an audio podcast which will offer non-officials a terrifying glimpse into the conversations and thoughts of the officials they berate on a regular basis.

I'm hoping the podcast will start seeing weekly posts the middle of March and hoping to get input from other soccer officials about various topics. Once I've established everything to make the process, well, not easy, but not difficult, I'll post more information here.

I'm looking forward to hearing from interested officials.

See you on the pitch.