I was in your position a year ago. I had been working some church league games and wanted to really get into it. But it was too late in the year to join the local association and get going. So, while I waited for the year to pass, I:
- Got the rules book and officials manual from the NFHS. Contact info is on their website at
http://www.nfhs.org
- Hung out here and learned a ton
- Worked a lot of games in the off season to practice what I learned
- Went to some good camps
- Worked on my fitness (big difference between hs and pee-wee)
- Contacted the local assication president and told him of my desire to join
Excellent mentors are awfully difficult to come by when you're only working these non-school leagues, so be careful who you accept advice from. Any bad habits you learn along the way will have to be unlearned. One really good use for these leagues is to practice your mechanics, so pick one or two things to work on each game. They probably won't care about your mechanics in the pee-wee league, but it'll be a good leg up for the school season next year.
This year I've certified, and been working high school games. I still do church and rec league stuff, but the really fun stuff is the school ball. And I'm continuing with the stuff I did over the summer (study, this forum, camps, fitness, lot of games), because improving is going to be a career-long endeavor.
Welcome to the club.