Pedro Trejo Jr., Ph.D.
Manager of Referee Development
U.S. Soccer – Referee Programs Department

Dr. Trejo has been the manager of referee development with U.S. Soccer in the Referee Department for 6 years where he has focused on referee education and training. Before this role, Pedro was a faculty member at Texas A&M University – San Antonio where he taught undergraduate biology and genetics classes and the corresponding laboratories.

With U.S. Soccer, Pedro has had the opportunity to apply education principles in collaboration with members of the referee community. Among important contributions, Dr. Trejo managed the evolution and enhancement of the referee and referee mentor/coach pathways. This project included collaboration with colleagues in the referee and coaching education departments as well as referee community experts to helped create profiles

for each license in the referee and referee mentor/coach journeys.
Dr. Trejo also manages the content creation for the annual refresher or recertification courses for

referees with the Grassroots and Regional licenses, referee mentors, and referee coaches in collaboration with the department’s operations staff who assist with publishing these online assignments in the U.S. Soccer Learning Center. Here again, the process involves feedback about the content from referee community members.

Pedro enjoys instructing match official with the National license and candidates seeking to become nationals at the annual U.S. Soccer Referee Department National Camp. This training includes the main technical topics (challenges, penalty area incidents, tactical fouls, offside, and handball) and others such as game management, advantage, anticipation, set pieces, and positioning and reading. Finally, Dr. Trejo loves to engage audiences of referees and referee mentors/coaches via video analysis sessions, field sessions with practical exercises, and post-game reflection in game observations or evaluations.

U.S. Soccer Licensing and Training:

• Current licenses:

  o Grassroots Referee

  o National Referee Coach (6 years).

• Past licenses:

  o Referee for 25 years
  ▪ 8 as a National Match Official ▪ 5 as a Regional Referee
  ▪ 12 as a Grassroots Referee

  o Grassroots Instructor (5 years) o Regional Assessor (2 years)
  o Assignor (3 years)

  FIFA Courses and Training:

• FUTURO III Technical Instructor – ‘teach-the-teacher’ training course with CONCACAF instructors

and participants
o Virtual sessions (2020-2022) o In-person training

▪ Jamaica (2017)
▪ Guatemala (2019) ▪ Mexico (2023)