Kelly Lehman
Special to the Sun

The day of Jan. 9 arrived early for four local Kern Valley High School teenagers. They were scheduled to referee games in Bakersfield for the AYSO Area Playoff tournament. They had to arrive in Bakersfield by 7 a.m. That morning was very foggy in Bakersfield. You could barely see 10 feet as they stepped onto the Soccer Park fields on Alfred Harrel Highway.

These four referees were scheduled to be AR's (assistant referees) on two games apiece. However a sudden shortage of referees put them into a position to be center referees as well.

Left to right, Hali Evans, Jordyn Acosta, Nick Solis, and Cody Lehman are volunteer refs for Kern Valley Soccer and AYSO.

This is one of the toughest jobs a referee has. They are the judge of the game. Top that off with this day being a day of tournaments, these kids had a moment of worry. Could they do it? Would they be okay out there? Well Kern Valley Soccer's referee administrator, Chris Surico felt they would be and he was willing to stand by them all day long to make sure they had the support they needed.

Now, all this is bad enough right? Foggy, cold, very early in the morning and add all this sudden change to a teenager makes them cranky. Those of you who have teenagers know what I'm talking about. Well add one more thing, the kids were told they had to referee five games that day. You would have expected them to say no and walk away in disgust. Not these four kids. Hali Evans, Nick Solis, Jordyn Acosta and Cody Lehman said as one, "You got it, we're up for it."

They worked in teams of three, usually with one taking a break for a game to get water, bathroom breaks or update the other board members/parents on where they were.

Solis started the day off "red carding" a coach. A red card offense is one in which a player, coach or spectator is causing a dangerous situation on the field or violating Kid Zone policies. A red card offense requires the offender to be removed from the current game and the following game. That took these coaches/players by surprise. A young man refereeing and red carding a coach right off the bat.

Well that also set the stage for these teams to recognize that these were not just kids, but trained referees. Most of the rest of the day went without a hitch, the teams were talking sotto voice about the kid ref that carded a coach. No one wanted to mess with our kids

Acosta also had to issue a card to a coach, but a yellow card. A yellow card is issued when there are problems on the field that don't result in serious dangerous play but are not following AYSO rules and regulations. Acosta's card was issued after lunch time and again, this settled everyone down.

Kern Valley Soccer and AYSO are proud of these kids. As one board member said, “They were awesome with a capital AW!” To show these young ladies and gentlemen how important they are to our region and how proud Kern Valley Soccer is of them, they will be given a new green referee jerseys for their use next year. "We want people to know that these kids are the best and they deserve a pat on the back and a handshake to remind them that they are special.”

Volunteers are hard to come by and these kids are volunteering, giving up most Saturday mornings through soccer season to referee and then play a game out of town as well.

Kern Valley Soccer has the largest contingency of youth referees of all the surrounding regions. We have five youth referees that have been refereeing for three years, six for two years and six for one year. We have six youth that are signed up to become new refs this coming year.

The Kern Valley should be proud that they have such wonderful young people living in their valley.