Antonio Vitale is very young to be a soccer referee in his hometown of Alliance, Ohio. At the age of 10, he is the youngest licensed official of Ohio and likely in all of the United States.
Antonio completed an Ohio North State Referee Committee clinic in February and passed the 100-question test to become a Grade 8 referee.
He now officiates with Jim Kennedy, secretary of the Ohio Soccer Referee Association’s Canton District at an Under-10 indoor soccer league at the SportDome in Jackson Township, Ohio.
The Beacon Journal reports:
“I threw him to the wolves,” Kennedy said. “But we got out there the first time, introduced him to the coaches, explained that he was a Grade 8 referee, and nobody has had a problem with him learning on the job.”
How old were you when you started as a referee? How young is too young?
Source: Beacon Journal
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We have a few referees in our league that are twelve, but I’ve met none younger. I started at 14. There may be Grade 9′s (recreational referees) that are younger but yeah I’d say he’s pretty young for G8. That was a brave move and I hope he sticks with it.
Well in the picture he doesn’t even have his badge on…
I think you should be at least 2 years older than the age groups that you officiate, meaning 10 years old for U8, 12 years for U10, etc. Even still, 10 is way too young to officiate games in my opinion. A person develops a lot from the ages of 10-12. 12 should be the bare minimum for any young, competitive games.