What Happens After You Certify

Passing your course makes you certified. It does not put you on a field.

Certification is a credential sitting in the US Soccer Digital Learning Center. No assignor can see it, offer you a game, or pay you until you connect it to the system Oregon actually uses to hand out games.

That system is RefTown, and connecting to it is the one job of this stage: register as an official. Everything else here — joining leagues, setting your zone, getting paid, packing a bag — depends on that registration existing first.

Work through this stage in order:

1. Register as an official on RefTown, using the same email address as your certification account.
2. Join the leagues and zones you actually want to work.
3. Set up direct deposit so the games you work actually pay you.
4. Get the gear you can’t work a game without.

Once that’s done, you’re not done — you still have to be offered or claim an actual game, which is a separate stage covered in Getting Assignments. This stage only gets you into the system that makes that possible.

Most Oregon referees run their whole career through one platform: RefTown. It’s where you register, get connected to leagues, and eventually get offered games. (A few tournament assignors use a different platform — see Assigning platforms if you’re told to use something else.)

Inside RefTown, the organization that fronts most local leagues is NorthWest Soccer Central (NWSC) — a consolidated group that represents Oregon Youth Soccer Association (OYSA) and a long list of recreational and competitive clubs. Registering with NWSC is how you get in front of all of them at once, instead of applying to each league separately.

Register here to get started:

Go to the RefTown Official registration form for NWSC Use the same email address as your USSLC account Fill in your personal information — name, address, phone, and the rest of the account fields the form asks for Submit the form

Once it’s submitted, you have a profile. You can check its status any time by clicking your name in the top right and going to My Profile → My Qualifications — that’s also where you’ll see your license and registration status if something’s wrong.

A completed profile doesn’t yet get you games. Two things still have to happen: joining the specific leagues and zones you want to work, and setting up direct deposit so you actually get paid. Both come next.

Registering on RefTown gets you an account. It does not connect you to any league yet, and it does not tell RefTown where you’re able to drive to a game. Both of those are separate steps, done from the same place.

Click your name in the top right corner, then My Profile → My Qualifications Find the list of organizations you can request to join Request the leagues you actually want to work Expand the Zone section and select the geographic zone(s) that match where you can realistically get to for a game

Most Oregon youth leagues sit inside one consolidated RefTown organization called NorthWest Soccer Central (NWSC), so this list is where you’ll find them rather than having to apply to each one separately. NWSC includes Oregon Youth Soccer Association (OYSA), which runs competitive youth games, and a set of recreational and club leagues including Willamette United Football Club (WUFC), Eastside Timbers, Lake Oswego Soccer Club (LOSC), and Tualatin Valley Youth Soccer League (TVYSL).

Requesting to join is asking, not being added. A request doesn’t make you eligible for a league’s games by itself — some leagues admit any registered official automatically, but most need an assignor to individually enable you before you show up as available for their assignments. If a league you requested still isn’t offering you anything after a few days, that’s normal enough to just ask your assignor about — contact details for most assignors are on the RefTown home page, scrolled down.

Game locations inside NWSC are organized into these zones, so leaving yours unset — or set too narrow — is a common reason a new official sees nothing to claim. Claiming and requesting individual games, once you’re eligible, is covered in Getting Assignments.

Registering on RefTown (see Registering as an official) gets you onto the schedule. It does not get you paid — that’s a separate step, and nothing stops you from working a game without it.

Log in to RefTown and click your name, top right. Click Profile, then Direct Deposit Account Info. Click Add Account Information and enter your checking or savings account details — you’ll type each number twice to catch mistakes, and it won’t be shown back to you afterward. Read the terms and click I Agree to submit.

This is set up per organization — if you work for more than one league or club through RefTown, check that each one has your account on file. Some organizations pay through PayPal or Venmo instead; if so, the same Profile menu has a payout option for that in place of direct deposit.

Once this is done, actually getting paid for a game you’ve worked comes down to the game report — covered in Your First Games.

You do not need much to work your first game, but a few things are not optional. Get these before you’re standing on a field wishing you had them.

A whistle you can actually control — a Fox 40 with a finger grip is the standard choice.

Yellow and red cards.

A wristwatch with a stopwatch function. Your phone doesn’t count — you can’t referee with it buzzing in your pocket.

A referee wallet (often just called a “book”) to hold your cards and notes.

A uniform: a yellow jersey to start, plus a second color — green is common — for when both teams show up in something close to yellow.

Starter kits that bundle most of this are sold by Official Sports, the Referee Store, and Capelli Sport. Individual pieces — a whistle here, a watch there — are easy to find on Amazon. In the Portland area, Tursi’s Soccer also carries referee gear; call ahead to check what they have in stock.

This is the short list — the minimum to walk onto a field and do the job. Rain gear, spare gear, and the comfort items experienced referees swear by are covered in Equipment and where to get it.