Corey Rockwell’s first international match as an assistant referee with a FIFA badge was at Estadio Azteca, in front of 90,000+ Mexico fans for a World Cup qualifier against Jamaica. It’s an intimidating atmosphere, but Rockwell’s previous experience prepared him for the moment.
A World Cup qualifier in Mexico City is charged, but it pales in comparison to a U-8 soccer match between rival clubs in Powder Springs, Georgia.
“I was in either in my first or second year refereeing and the parents were yelling at each other, yelling at me, and yelling at the players,” Rockwell recalled to ussoccer.com recently. “Apparently there was a big rivalry in Powder Springs, Georgia, between two U-8 teams, and I just got so fed up with it, I just told all the parents to leave or I was leaving.
“I told every single parent of both teams to go to the top of the field, work it out and we ended up refereeing the rest of the game very quietly with just coaches and players, and it was so nice. I don't know what the parents did. But they were 100 yards away at the top of the hill, still battling it out while we had a nice quiet game out there.”
To get from the U-8 fields of Georgia to the FIFA Club World Cup Final and everything in between, Rockwell’s referee journey was shaped and molded in part by U.S. Soccer’s referee training program. It allowed him to go from refereeing to earn a little extra spending money to a life-long career, to competing against some of the best officials in the United States and around the world.
