One of the biggest success stories coming from the Canadian Nationals was the fact that we had a group of referees completely separate from players to handle all of the officiating duties. Vince Faso and Calle Karlsson from California as well as Sotaro Yamaguchi from Toronto made the trip to Vancouver, whistle in hand, to cover all of the Men’s and Women’s matches.
Thank you to Vince, Calle and Sotaro for taking on the most difficult position on the court, a role that is immensely important yet comes with little praise nor glory and receives more criticism than is necessary.
Refereeing is really a fine art, a real skill at finding the balance of enforcing rules, allowing for flow of game and figuring out those grey areas in a split second.
We need to follow the commitment of Vince, Calle and Sotaro and put more emphasis and resources into the Development of Referees in Floorball. We can’t just worry about being better players. Players must realize the importance of the ref to be better overall.
Here is an INTERVIEW with Vince Faso of Fresno, California.
BCFF:What is your role as a referee?
VF:I am currently the Director of Referees for the USFbA. I have been mostly involved with organizing the Referees in the US but have mostly been working small scale on the West Coast.
Another responsibility of mine is the training of more referees because I feel that this is a necessary step to raising the overall level of floorball in the US. Calle and I have both taken responsibility of holding training sessions, and have received material from the IFF.
BCFF:What are the different levels of referees?
VF:There are currently two levels of Referees in the States: To become a level 1 referee, one must complete at least a basic referee course taught by a trained instructor and have a comfortable, working knowledge with the rules and game leadership.
Level 2 Referees have participated in several training courses and officiated at least 20 games in at least 3 tournament settings, and have been approved by the USFbA. It is the goal of the USFbA to have every game at a sanctioned tournament officiated by at least one Level 2 Referee. We currently have about 12 Level 2 Referees, with that number increasing at every tournament and training session.
BCFF:Are you able to referee at an International level?
VF:As far as Calle and I are concerned, we have become the first Referee pair from the US to be recognized by the IFF, and are thus available to officiate International Friendly matches.
BCFF:Do you have plans to referee at the WFC one day?
VF:Hard to say. We both are still inexperienced on the international scene, and I am currently still a member of the US National Team.
BCFF:What are the next steps for you and Calle?
VF:We are hoping to have the opportunity to travel to Europe to officiate a few games over a week or so to: 1) Gain experience officiating at a higher level, and 2) to get feedback from IFF Observers so we can continue to grow as a pair.
Right now we just want to soak up all of the experience we can, and work closely with clubs on the East coast and in Canada to compare, trade resources and materials, get support, ideas, etc. so that officiating grows stronger not only in the US, but in North America as a whole.