RATO (Referee Advancement & Training Organization)
RATO Mission:
Advance referees by skills training and review the maximum number of Texas referees in the shortest reasonable time frame and prepare those willing and able for further advancement.
- Develop and maintain a short list and long list of potential territorial referees and work through exchanges and interactions with domestic and foreign sources to provide them with opportunities and intensive training.
- Use film and technology to exponentially expand numbers of reviews.
- Train more coaches and mentors (targets set by RATO)
- Exclude no referee for age, sex or ethnicity from the opportunity to be reviewed and advanced
- Develop a cadre of young referees
- Train and develop a cadre of trained AR’s
- Link training of referees and team coaches to promote best practices and advance the game here in Texas
- Revise and refine mission statement and work with schedulers to execute plan.
RATO Staff:
Group Leader:
Traci Schmidtke – Vice Chairman
Group Members:
James Wolfinger – Chairman
Dave McPhail – TRU Rep
Jon Savage – Head of TRU Rules & Laws (R&L) Committee
Regional Representatives*:
Wendy Young
Scott Green
Richard Zdunkewicz
*The Schedulers have filled this position at this time. However, the regional rep does not have to be a scheduler.
Referee Coach/Mentor Coordinator:
Jon Savage
Regional Secretaries*:
North – Wendy Young
Central – Jessie Enriquez
South – Jessie Enriquez
*Tracks online assessments & coaching reports.