Mark Arblaster

Bryce Alderton

Mark Arblaster doesn’t know how to be a spectator, especially when it

comes to soccer.

The Newport Beach resident has an acute passion for the game,

which he played beginning at age 13 and all the way through college

until he stopped three years ago to avoid injury.

But avoidance merely meant Arblaster could continue refereeing

soccer, something the 43-year-old has done since he was 15.

Arblaster is a lead official for games on all levels: AYSO, club,

high school, college and the Women’s United Soccer Organization. He

has officiated men’s Major League Soccer games in the United States.

In a year, he will officiate roughly 100 games, sometimes

traveling from fields to do four or five on a Saturday. Other

weekends he will have no games to go to.

“The pro games will be posted on the Web site and you have the

option of accepting it or not,” Arblaster said. “They will call you

with the youth leagues. At this stage of my life, I can be pretty

flexible with what I do. [On May 10] I refereed an under-10 girls

AYSO game. It is just hobby.”

A pastime that can be as grueling as actually kicking the ball and

running down the field for a player. Referees do their share of

exercising during a game.

“The center referee might be the most difficult [officiating] job

there is,” Arblaster said. “You probably run five to six miles per

game and it is just you out there.”

To keep in top shape, Arblaster either runs sprints or pounds his

feet along the treadmill five to six days per week.

With proper fitness, Arblaster, vice president of The Keller

Group, an Irvine investment management firm, is more able to position

himself at the ideal angle to make a call.

“If you don’t get the best angle, you’re not likely to see what

10,000 other people might see,” Arblaster said. “To see what occurred

with a camera gives a different angle than what I viewed with my

eyeballs.”

Arblaster will review himself, watching films of games he calls,

normally college or pro. He also watches an average of 10 games a

week on television.

“I love the game, I’m a fanatic,” he said.

His most memorable moment officiating came when the Saudi Arabian

and Jamaican men’s national teams played an exhibition for a

tournament.

That is the closest Arblaster has come to refereeing international

competition, which includes the World Cup.

Soccer’s governing body, Federation Internationale De Football

Association, selects referees up to age 37, making it difficult for

some to climb the ranks if they started at a later age.

“There’s a mandatory retirement age for 45 in FIFA, unlike other

sports where people are going until their late 50s,” Arblaster said.

“The amount of running and physical demands an official takes, it is

pretty much a young man’s domain. I’ve kind of hit the plateau.”

Two weeks ago Arblaster refereed an exhibition involving the Los

Angeles Galaxy at Cal State Fullerton and he is scheduled to go to

Boston to officiate a WUSA game pitting the Atlanta Beat against the

Boston Breakers May 25.

Following his trip to Boston, Arblaster will hustle back to get

ready for the kickoff of the Daily Pilot Cup, scheduled to begin May

28 at the Farm Complex in Costa Mesa.

Arblaster will coach his son Gavin and the rest of the Mariners

Elementary School fifth- and sixth-grade boys team in this year’s

Cup. Last year Arblaster coached two third- and fourth-grade boys

teams for Mariners.

“I can’t think of any other event where you get to play for your

elementary school against one another,” Arblaster said. “Everything

else they do is recreational or with club. The mix of public and

private schools is great. It is a chance to find out about another

school. It is a mini World Cup, but instead of nations, there are

schools.”