To be eligible to referee BAYS League home games for Newton teams you need to become USSF Certified. For more information on the certification process you go to Massachusetts State Referee Committee (MSRC) website. Certification classesare held all year around.

Entry Level Referees will become Grassroots referees. Each year the referee has the responsibility to renew his qualifications through the MSRC Grade re-certification program.  For new youth referees, the initial entry level fee is reimbursable by NYS (just contact the NYS Referee Assignor) one time only once you have refereed games in Newton. The referee is responsible for purchasing the referee’s uniform.

Each new, certified, and NYS-approved referee needs to create a BAYS Referee account. Then, the referee needs to contact the NYS Referee Assignor to start the assignment process. 

There are two seasons – Spring and Fall – starting in April and September. The season lasts 10 weeks and all regular season games are played on Saturday afternoons and on Sundays (High School, Spring only.)

The NYS Referee Assignor assign games to the referees usually a week prior to the games.  The referee has the responsibility to accept/reject games within 48 hours. The games will be re-assigned if they are not accepted within the specified time. Each referee must be familiar with the IFAB Laws of the Game and the BAYS League rules and regulations.

The referee is the person responsible for enforcing the Laws of the Game during a match.  The referee is also responsible to promote a professional appearance, wearing tucked-in complete referee uniform. Referee starter kits can be purchased from any referee store. 

Referees need to conduct themselves in a professional manner.  For more information on the Referee Code of Ethics, click here.

When you have free time from schoolwork, please review the following videos

1. Center Referee Signals (~8 min)

2.  Assistant Referee Signals (~10 min)

3.  Advice to New Referees  (~26 min)

4. Foul Recognition Rules

1. How to Become a USSF Certified Referee. For a description of the process on how to becomes a USSF Certified Referee click here.

2. Referee Grades Explained – NYS recommends for all youth referees aged 14 years or older take the Grade 8 Entry Level course. For a description of the different grades click here.

The BAYS referee pay rate is posted on the BAYS web site. BAYS pay on the 3rd, 6th and 10th week of the season.  Please refer to the Pay History dropdown in your BAYS account under your My BAYS-->Referee->Pay History for your payments due.  NYS pays at the end of the season.  The Referee is responsible for keeping track of the games and tallying up the final pay report. The pay rate table will be emailed at the beginning of the season.

All referees may be required to provide their social security number to both BAYS and NYS for tax purposes. For BAYS payment issues you need to contact the BAYS person responsible for the payments. For NYS payments please contact the NYS Referee Assignor.

The Chair of the Newton Referee Committee is Ioannis Kyratzoglou (netwonrefereeassignor@gmail.com)