CVSRA History

Humbly Supporting Our Community for Over 35 Years!

The Central Virginia Soccer Referee’s Association, Ltd., (CVSRA) was established on March 22, 1982, in response to the need for officials to referee the blossoming of youth and adult soccer in the Richmond Metropolitan area. The Central Virginia Soccer Association, Incorporated, (CVSA) had been established on September 3, 1980. This followed the spread of soccer in Virginia initiated by the formation of Virginia Youth Soccer Association, Inc. (VYSA) on September 20, 1977, in Northern Virginia. On the north side of the James River the Richmond Strikers Soccer Club, Inc., was formed on October 6, 1981, while on the south side at about the same time the Richmond Metropolitan Youth Soccer League was formed by Pocoshock Valley Youth Soccer League, Inc., Midlothian Youth Soccer League, Incorporated, and Chester Youth Soccer. The first Virginia High School League (VHSL) boys’ soccer state championship was held in 1982 won by Lake Braddock High School, which repeated as champions in 1983. Girl’s high school soccer in Virginia would not crown the James Robinson High School girls’ soccer team as state champions until 1984. Mills Godwin boys would be the first Central Virginia state champions in 2003 and the girls from Cosby High School would be first of their gender to claim the state soccer championship in 2012.

The Richmond Interscholastic Soccer Officials Association, Inc. (RISOA) was formed by a group of the senior referees in CVSRA on November 21, 1988, in an inaugural meeting at Thomas Jefferson High School to establish by-laws for this group of soccer referees certified by the VHSL to provide professional referee services to VHSL member schools. With few exceptions these officials were also the core of soccer referees certified by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) to provide professional referee services to the vastly expanding pool of USSF sanctioned adult and youth teams competing in Central Virginia. In the Fall of 2006 RISOA was dissolved as a separate entity and the Scholastic Division of CVSRA was established as a VHSL sanctioned organization of soccer referees serving its member schools.