Ok, so by now, if you have ever tried to delve into the world of officiating, you know that it is like every other aspect in life. There are a lot of people or organizations that do good, or make good products and then there are those that do not but try to pass it off as the best. Those that seem to spend more on Marketing than their actual products, seem to lure you, but you have to be careful to look at everything before you leap.
In terms of buying the equipment, there are many options from many companies. I started out at OfficialSports.com because they are the 'official' place to get gear (read as more expensive). Since my goal for this first season was to just get a feel for the game, I decided to buy their starter kit with a black shirt. It arrived all nice and dandy but it set me back almost $90 for the kit with the flags, bag, shorts, socks, two ref shirts, data wallet, cards, whistle, etc.
I also bought extra shirts (yellow, red) as well as other essentials from Score Sports. They had an interesting line of items and the prices were much better than the ones from Official Sports. Shipping was much more expensive too from these people in comparison, but I suspect it was all related to the distance as Score is based in CA while Official Sports is in IL (I believe) and the shipments were coming to VA.
Finally, I bought some other shirts (long sleeves) and accessories from a place called Soccer One. Their pricing was great for the closeout stuff (the old shirts were just $10 each whereas the shirts from Official Sports range from $25 for the closeouts to $45 for each of the new official ones).
All said, I think I am in for about $300 between all the shirts (I have all 5 in short sleeve and 3 in long sleeve), ref shoes (Diadora ones that are fantastic), pants, bag and accessories. I could have spent more if I had gone with the best quality on everything and I certainly could have spent less as well. But that should give you an idea of what it takes to get started in terms of equipment.
The actual referee course cost $65 and required four evenings of my time where we got to cover the rule book, the procedures for a center referee and an AR and a ton of videos. The exam, I did not find too difficult. It consisted of 100 questions and many were based on what the restart should be if such and such happens. I got a 95% so it was not bad at all. BTW, passing score was 75% which is too low in my opinion.
I will try and get some links up to all the sites in the next couple of days (I am new to the blogging world) and will get a more detailed view of the way to actually get games as it seems hard at first, but then when you uncover the way the system works, there are plenty of games out there.
2 comments:
Were you happy with your 'starter kit'? Since I ended up replacing all the bits with better quality gear, I felt it was wasted money. Had a hard time finding decent affordable jerseys, but lucked out with ebay. A 4 colour set of new long sleeve jerseys for less than I paid for one at the store.
The starter kit from Official Sports was an utter dissapointment. I did not have anything to compare with at the time, but the fact that you could not get their Pro version shirts, only their Economy version said a lot. The main difference there is the flap and the velcro on the chest pockets. The Pro version has them, the Economy does not, and it is a big difference.
The flags were decent but cheap (and only one solid color, instead of the typical multicolor orange and yellow). The duffel bag is too small. I still use it but I am running out of room. The socks of the kit were probably the best. I have four sets of socks now and they are the best I have used. And the short is really comfortable. In the end, I would have to say it was disappointing. The kits you can get from Score Sports are much better for the same price or cheaper.
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