The National Sports Center is pleased to announce changes in the referee assigning process for our tournaments. In 2007, Bill Roll will be the lead assignor on all NSC tournaments with assistance from Mike McClanahan. Bill has been the referee coordinator at the NSC for the past three years while Mike has been involved with the referee assigning process for the past three years.

In 2007, NSC Cup, Wal-Mart All American Cup, and Schwan’s USA CUP Weekend will be completely assigned in advance of the tournaments. This will differ from past years when only the first day or two of the tournaments were assigned in advance. Referees will now know the days and times they have been assigned for the entire tournament before these events begin.

For the 2007 Schwan’s USA CUP, we will assign the Tuesday–Friday portion of the tournament in advance. We will wait to assign Saturday (the final day) of the tournament until Thursday afternoon so that all referees have had an opportunity to be evaluated at least once by the tournament assessors.

Game assignments will once again be made available online for acceptance, however in 2007, referees will be required to call the referee assignor to decline assignments. This online acceptance system will be used only once for each tournament in 2007.

These changes have been made in an effort to better meet the needs of our referees by providing more information in advance and simplifying the process for receiving game assignments.

Here's a short summary of who's refereeing Schwan's USA CUP 2007:

• Lead Assessor . . . Gordon Arrowsmith (Canada – Retired FIFA
• Assessor . . . Steve Mortimer (Canada – Retired FIFA)
• Another Assessor . . . Peter Small (Wales)
• Yet Another Assessor . . . Mike Gerkin (Minnesota)
• National Referee . . . Ramon Rodrigues (Brazil)
• Mr. Longevity . . . Forster Davis (Minnesota – Attending for the twenty-third time in the tournament’s twenty-third year)
• First Timer . . . Alexandre Cezar (Brazil)
• Couldn’t Stay Away . . . Donald MacKinnon (Scotland – 2nd time in 3 years)
• Couldn’t Stay Away Part 2 . . . Jennifer Haney (England – Back after last attending in 2002)
• Mr. Resilience . . . Robert Davidson (Canada - Bouncing back after a 2006 set back)
• Fourteenth Year . . . Ray Hamdorf (Minnesota)
• Fifth Year . . . Sean McCarthy (Tennessee) and Jon Bodner (Virginia)
• Another First Timer . . . Dario Rassmussen (Denmark)
• More First Timers . . . Julien Doria (Canada) and Jim Lucania (California)
• East Coast Supporter . . . Barry Brown (Virginia)
• Sixth Year . . . Jonathon Cooksey (Minnesota) and Eric Wood (Minnesota)
• Couldn’t Stay Away Part 3 . . . Monte McBride (Minnesota – returns after a short hiatus)
• First Referee to Register for 2007 . . . Bill Allen (Minnesota)
• First Foreign Referee to Register for 2007 . . . Simone Lini (Italy)
• First US-non-MN Referee to Register for 2007. . . John Landes (California)
• First National Referees To Register for 2007. . . Kyle Borne (Texas) and Anthony Vasoli (Illinois)
• Plenty Of Others That We Appreciate . . . Sorry we can’t list you all!

All National Sports Center Soccer Tournaments are now seeking quality referees for the summer of 2007. The NSC Soccer Tournaments now seeking officials are as follows:

• NSC CUP – May 25-28, 2007
• Wal-Mart All American Cup (Formerly All American Girls') – June 15-17, 2007
• Schwan's USA CUP Weekend – July 15-17, 2007
• Schwan's USA CUP – July 17-21, 2007

The National Sports Center is happy to announce increased referee pay for 2007. In an effort to attract additional quality referees, the NSC has increased referee fees for 2007. This is the third consecutive year of referee pay increases at the NSC.

To view NSC referee compensation details for each tournament, please visit our website here.