Pelletier finds quick feet a bonus for soccer ref

On a cool, misty spring day in Boston, soccer referee Jason Pelletier blew his whistle and awarded a free kick to a team from just outside the penalty area. Moments later he was running for his life.

“I had to abandon the match,” Pelletier said of the men’s league game. “The joke among referees down there is you always park your car facing away from the field and unlocked for a quick getaway.”

In this case, it would have been a good idea. Pelletier said he positioned himself for the free kick when all hell broke loose.

“You never know what you’re going to get. They were all mad at me thinking I didn’t know what I was doing. It wasn’t even a penalty. They started coming at me. I ran, jumped the fence, and took off.”

Such is the life of a soccer referee. Particularly one as good and youthful looking as Pelletier, who is 26.

“When I walk out on the field they all look at me and say, ‘What’s this high school kid doing here,’ because I’m so young looking. I have to be on my game right from the go,” Pelletier said.

Pelletier, who works as a pharmaceutical salesman, hopes to someday work either as the head referee or a linesman in Major League Soccer games. That may be a lofty goal, but Pelletier is well on his way. The Orrington native has worked A-League games. The A-League is a quasi minor league to the MLS. However, A-League teams regularly defeat MLS teams in cup play.

“[A-League games are] so fast. It’s as fast as I can run on a dead run to stay up with them. They are smart players. They know how to cheat. It’s a mental game as well as physically demanding,” Pelletier said.

Pelletier played soccer for Mike Jeffrey at Brewer High School before going to the University of Maine, where he graduated in 1998 with a degree in chemical engineering.

Jeffrey has watched Pelletier grow as a referee.

“He’s outstanding. He’s the only kid who ever played for me that went into refereeing,” Jeffrey said. “He’s done a lot to help refereeing around here. He’s worked to get officials to calm down. He’s very good at allowing play to continue. He’s with the play all of the time.”

But Pelletier said his refereeing career almost ended before it began. He started working youth games during his junior year in high school.

“I was ready to quit after my first year. It was miserable. Everybody was screaming at me. I couldn’t do anything right. I wasn’t really trained well enough to be out there,” Pelletier said.

But he hung with it. Realizing the only way he was going to learn was through experience, Pelletier took on all comers. After graduating from high school, he joined the high school board. He worked youth games and high school games. People began to take notice that not only was he hard working, he was good and getting better.

“I’ll never say no to a game. I never ask how much am I going to get paid. I just ask when and where,” Pelletier said.

Pelletier progressed through the ranks working Division I college games and then added semipro games to his resume.

He is receiving national attention. He recently worked the Tampa Bay Sun Bowl, a prestigious tournament for elite youth teams for players up to 19 years old. Last year he worked a regional youth tournament at Niagara Falls.

“The first time I went to those tourneys, I was doing like U-13. If you do well you move up. I’m doing semifinals and finals in the upper age groups now. Only 10-12 referees are doing those games out of 300,” Pelletier said.

He also attended an Olympic Development Program in Princeton, N.J., last year. Of the 250 referees in attendance, only five were invited to move on to the next stage. Pelletier was among the five.

“The thing is if you get invited to the right tournament, you get more exposure, then your name starts getting kicked around,” Pelletier said.

He’s hoping it gets kicked all the way to the MLS.

Don Perryman can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or dperryman@bangordailynews.net