Jason Pelletier just couldn’t understand what was going on.

Pelletier, who lives in Orrington and is considered an up-and-coming soccer official on the national scene, was assigned to referee a semifinal boys game for ages 12-and-under at last weekend’s US Youth Soccer Region I Championships in Buffalo, N.Y.

Not that Pelletier has a problem working with a younger age group, but it was a much lower level than the 26-year-old had officiated in previous Region I tournaments. And for this game he wasn’t even on the field – Pelletier was the fourth official, which meant he was helping substitutes go in and out of the game.

Needless to say, he was a bit confused, especially because he was hoping to be picked to referee the national tournament later this month.

Only after the game was over and Pelletier learned he had indeed been chosen to move on to the national tourney did he realize what the referee assignors and assessors were doing.

“I think they wanted to test me,” Pelletier said. “I guess they wanted to see how I would handle it. If I gave it the respect and dignity it deserved, then I would stay in the mix.”

That’s just what happened. Pelletier, a familiar face at Maine high school and college games, was one of 12 referees selected to officiate at the 2002 Snickers US Youth Soccer National Championships July 23-28 in Germantown, Md.

Pelletier is believed to be the first Maine official to be invited to the national championships.

“It’s huge,” he said of the impact it could have on his refereeing career. “This will put me on the radar screen for [Major League Soccer]. This will separate me.”

There were about 200 officials at the Buffalo tournament. Region I includes 13 states and 15 divisions (New York and Pennsylvania are each divided into East and West).

Wally Lyslo, the US Youth Soccer referee committee chairman, said a total of 48 officials out of a pool of 500 were selected to the national tourney. There are about 113,000 registered US Soccer Federation officials.

“This is the highlight of any young referee’s career. It’s the most prestigious youth [soccer] event in the U.S.” said Lyslo, who has met Pelletier through administrative meetings. Pelletier serves as Maine’s state referee administrator.

“For referees it’s a pretty big recognition of your ability,” Lyslo added. “The vast majority of the higher level and MLS referees have attended this. … They’ve got some high-level people from the Federation watching them.”

Referees were assessed throughout the tournament and moved on to nationals based on the assessors’ reports.

Pelletier, a pharmaceutical company representative during the week, spends a lot of his weekends traveling to semi-pro and pro soccer games in the Northeast. Getting to the MLS level has been a longtime goal, he said.

Pelletier attended the Region I championships with seven other Maine referees, including Darren Hall of Holden, Charlie Brown of China, brothers Tristan Carrier and Colby Carrier of Winslow, and Alan Johnston of Augusta. Two other referees were from the York area.

“Everyone always learns so much,” said Pelletier. “They come back with so much new information that they couldn’t write it all down on a piece of paper.”

Pelletier said he had a lot of positive feedback at the tournament, including some comments an official from FIFA (the international governing body of soccer) made to a group who knew Pelletier, unbeknownst to the official.

“He said if I was willing to move [closer to soccer hot spots further down the East Coast] … that I was headed right to the top,” Pelletier said. “That was probably the most encouraging thing that happened all weekend.”