DENVER, CO -- Andrew Kirst has been a referee for 14 years. For the Colorado native, the main obstacle and the questions he gets are always the same: can he prove to coaches and teams that he is capable of his job despite his lack of hearing? The answer to both is a resounding yes.
Andrew Kirst was adopted when he was 15-months-old. Shortly after, his family took him to the doctor for some tests and discovered he was Deaf. Even though he’s been profoundly Deaf his whole life, that hasn’t stopped him from pursuing his goal of becoming one of the best referees in the game.
It all started with an ad in the local newspaper. Living in Lincoln, Nebraska in 2004, U.S. Soccer Grade 7 referee Andrew Kirst saw that a high school game needed a referee. He gave them a call, shared with them his experience and got the gig. With whistle in hand, he hasn’t stopped since then.
“Being a referee, you get to help future generations learn the game so they can become top players,” Kirst said. “Plus, it’s a good work out too and no two games are ever the same so I’ll never be bored.”
Kirst has been a referee for 14 years. For the Colorado native, the main obstacle and the questions he gets are always the same: can he prove to coaches and teams that he is capable of his job despite his lack of hearing? The answer to both is a resounding yes.
“I’ve found ways to find a good balance between not being able to hear and being able to referee,” Kirst shared with ussoccer.com “I’ve been doing it for a while but I still need to prove to coaches and players that I can do this. For example: if there’s a foul, people hear it and they say, that’s a foul – it’s a yellow card. And I say no, it’s just a foul. I can see it. What you hear is not what you see. Sometimes hearing is deceiving and visual is more important.”
Besides proving that his skills are up to par on the field, Kirst breaks the ice before a game starts by making sure coaches know that they are free to talk to him as much as they want to. After all, he won’t be able to hear them.
“I tell them it’s an advantage for them,” Kirst admitted. “It relaxes them, relaxes me and puts us all at ease. It’s a free country so they can talk all they want, I just let the air take care of it.”
With the inaugural 2017 U.S. Soccer Girls’ Winter Showcase currently taking place in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, where 315 games are being played, the opportunities for Kirst to hone his craft are expansive.
Not only is he able to improve by refereeing several games in a day, but he is getting a chance to interact with hundreds of other referees from across the country, all from various grade levels, and learn from them while they all share their passion for the game and their past experiences.
“Making it to the Development Academy Showcase here in Florida is one of my top achievements so far,” Kirst said. “I’ve had a lot of people in my past who have helped me get to this point: people back in Colorado, many of the assessors, the evaluators, the ones who give me the assignments. It’s been a long 14-year journey and it’s something that I’ll continue to go through the rest of my life. It motivates me to wake up in the morning.”
The process to become one of the top referees in the world is not easy, and the journey is long and arduous, but for Kirst, who has already surpassed obstacles just to get to where he is now, there’s really nothing that is going to stop him as he continues his ascension in the USSF referee program.
“I’d like to be one of the top referees, and I feel that I have the ability to do that,” he said. “It’s one of my goals to become a referee that the program would be proud of. The pitch is a beautiful place to be.”
SOURCE - USSoccer
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