Girls in Derbyshire had a chance to get into refereeing recently.
The Derbyshire County FA held a Female Referee Course at Buxton Community College in the High Peak recently, which was well attended by candidates from Buxton Juniors FC who live locally and from the Ashbourne area by players who expressed a wish to Officiate.
The club has invested a significant amount of money into the course by sponsoring the candidate’s course fee, to aid the current recruitment drive nationally!
The Buxton Juniors FC Coaching team invited Nigel Smith, Derbyshire CFA Regional Development Officer along in early January to address them with regard to his role and the development of referees’ in the High Peak.
The evening was well represented by the club and Nigel held a presentation called 'You’re the Ref' designed for the coaches to appreciate what a Referee goes through in the build up to making a correct decision. The Coaches participated in the decision making progress and there was a broad spectrum of decisions made by them when they were presented with the DVD Clips and a summary of each clip was offered to the coaches.
At this meeting, it was quite obvious that the coaches, managers and secretaries were concerned about retention and the investment by the club into the course for the candidates. They would also not gain from this sponsorship by getting the girls to officiate on the leagues that they play on within this County.
So, moving forward it was decided that along with the training on the course the club would assist by inviting them along to their training nights and stage games for them to officiate in. From this, they could gain experience as a referee before they venture in to competitive games on various leagues.
Also, to aid this development of new referees, it was decided that the County would offer more support by creating an Academy Workshop Group, which would go along to these training nights and assist in this development by offering advice as to positioning and movement, offside, Law 12, management of players and communication. This significant change by the Derbyshire County FA should aid retention and go along way in developing referees within the County.
To enhance the importance regarding the retention of Referees, Amy Rayner was invited by DCFA along to the event to give a presentation on how she started as a referee, her personal development from the tender age of 14 to present, issues she has come up against, how she handled them, her promotion path, her career, honour games, her travels, her occupation management of time, commitment, training and the options open to them as a Referee.
Amy’s comments were well received by the group and should aid there development as they progress through the local leagues or via the Women’s game through to the National Level.
If you have any questions related to refereeing, please do not hesitate to contact us by emailing
FAMOA@TheFA.com
or by calling 020 7745 4651.