US Soccer migrated to descriptive Referee levels in 2020, Grassroots Referee (GR) and Regional Referee (RR) are the two levels that contain the vast majority of Referees. Although WisRef has migrated to the Grassroots and Regional levels – licenses – registrations, we continue to also differentiate by the old US Soccer levels of 9-8-7-6-5-15-13. Thus, we have designated the WisRef levels as Grassroots Referee GR-9, Grassroots Referee GR-8, Grassroots Referee GR-7, Regional Referee RR-6, Regional Referee RR-5, Regional Emeritus Referee RER-15/SE-15 and National Emeritus Referee NE-13 in the WisRef assigning platform (currently GameOfficials). You can see your Referee level in GameOfficials identity 1233.
Most Referees are Grassroots Referee GR-8. If you are <14, you are a Grassroots Referee GR-9 – you will be upgraded to GR-8 soon after your birthday when you turn 14. GR-9s can only be assigned to rec or recreational games. Grassroots Referee levels of GR-8 & GR-9 do NOT correspond to school grades.
For those Referees looking to move up in the Referee ranks, the first step up is to Grassroots Referee GR-7. This requires one passing assessment, evaluation or field observation (“evaluation”) by a Grassroots Referee Mentor, a Regional Referee Coach – all at the direction of the State Director of Assessment (“SDA”), or by a registered WisRef Program member approved by the SDA. The directions for requesting and payment for the evaluation are found at http://wisref.org/assessments/. You will also need to pass the field test or run, and complete attendance at an Advanced Recert course.
For those Referees looking to move from Grassroots Referee GR-7 to Regional Referee GR-6, you will need three passing evaluations for upgrade. All three evaluations need to be by either a Regional Referee Coach or National Referee Coach. You will also need to pass the field test or run, and complete attendance at an Advanced Recert course. After attaining the Regional Referee level, Regional Referees are required to have two annual retention evaluations to maintain the Regional level, pass the field test or run, and complete attendance at an Advanced Recert course.