US Lacrosse offers training and certification programs for officials of youth and adult lacrosse. Because the games and rules are so different from each other, separate certification is offered for men’s and women’s games. This training and certification occurs at local clinics held across the country.
To become certified to umpire women’s lacrosse, you must first contact your local board chair to register and find out about local training. Certification takes place through a combination of online training, classroom training and on-field rating sessions.
To become certified you must attend the required meetings and pass an online test that shows your knowledge of the rules. Once certified, you must take a yearly written exam and attend any required rule interpretation meetings. Local board chairs are listed on the website: USLacrosse.
Women’s lacrosse has several rating categories. The beginner level is youth which is separated into Youth/Junior Rating and Youth/Adult Rating. Both levels qualify beginner referees to work youth lacrosse. Youth/Junior is for candidates under the age of eighteen and Youth/Adult for anyone eighteen and older. With time and experience, officials can achieve higher ratings which will allow them to umpire games at the middle school, high school and college levels. To advance, you must pass a written test geared to the higher level and also demonstrate from your on-field work that you are capable of umpiring higher level games.
For men’s lacrosse certification, the country is divided into eleven districts which are responsible for training and testing new officials. To become certified, you must contact your local district training coordinator. Your coordinator will provide you with information about where and when lacrosse training clinics are held in your area. These clinics consist of classroom, video and on-field evaluation, which teach the rules, mechanics and game management of lacrosse.
Begin by contacting your district training coordinator. A list of area coordinators can be found on the US Lacrosse website as well. Beyond training, your coordinator can also assist you with getting game assignments through local assigning authorities, and help you advance your game to higher levels of play.
