The problem with the USSF refereeing gig, is that unless you are a level 5 by the time you are 22 to 24, you will go nowhere. You also have to kiss so much butt, and be able to travel all over the US to do academy games/other big tournaments that nobody with a real job has the time to do it. They also expect you to be able to drop everything that you are doing at a moments notice to travel 2 states away to do a game. Forget that if you have a family or a real job.
There needs to be a HUGE change of the way they pick and develop officials in the US. How is it that MLB, NFL etc...use professional referees...and the MLS uses officials that are questionable at best at times? The pay for MLS referees is poor....I can go on. From my past experience, I can say that a lot of the official problems stem from recruiting/deveopment/retention of good officials. Maybe if it wasn't so much of a good old boys club, you would get good younger officials to be involved in officiating long term. Instead you get a select couple people involved with officiating in each state that hand select who THEY want to go on, and everyone else is left behind/out. It is a broken system.
