BAS Hosts Match Official Certification

On April 14th, 2024 Brampton Adult Soccer hosted over 80 individual future referees, 30 of which were members of BAS, as we participated in facilitating an Ontario Soccer Match Official Certification session.

Back in February 2024 BAS announced that we would be covering the cost for past and present BAS members, in good standing, to become certified Ontario Soccer match officials. After weeks of communication, organization and registrations, the final stage arrived and we successfully saw the certification of 80+ new match officials available to officiate youth matches in Ontario.

While we don’t have any official document to support this, BAS has been reliably informed that this was the second largest Match Official Certification course run in Ontario.

After having spent hours studying through self-guided online modules and videos, attending several lengthy webinars and online education sessions, the prospective new referees attended a 5 hour, in person, practical training session on the outdoor field at the SaveMax Centre in Brampton.

Once the match officials in training had undergone all of the practical sessions and were evaluated, they were sent home to complete an online test. Those that passed were issued official Match Official Certification documents from Ontario Soccer.

Before being dismissed for the day, the BAS members that were part of the match official certification program were treated to a guest appearance from Junior “Rambo” Hanson who got to tell the group about his successful transition from being a playing member of BAS, to becoming a BAS referee.

Brampton Adult Soccer would like to extend its sincerest thanks to Kurtis Portengen, Richard Bowen and David Figliano from Ontario Soccer, to all of the referee educators and instructors who provided valuable instruction and guidance to the prospective match officials, and also to FC Toronto’s 2010 Girls team for volunteering their time to help organize the event.

Most importantly, we would like to congratulate the BAS members that successfully completed all the steps and have now become certified referees. We can’t wait to see you all on the pitches in coming seasons.