Somewhat bored while watching her brother’s soccer game, 14-year-old Kathryn Nesbitt accepted her mother's suggestion and stepped onto a Rochester-area pitch with a flag in hand. Her job for the day: assist the referee with out-of-bounds calls on the end line.
“My mom said to me, ‘Go do that,” Nesbitt recalled. “And after the game, the referee came up to me and asked, ‘Hey, do you want to make some money doing this?’ I said, ‘Yeah, that sounds great.’”
Unbeknownst to everyone back then, including Nesbitt herself, that afternoon marked the beginning of an incredible path that would lead her to Major League Soccer (MLS), four FIFA World Cups, and a role as a trailblazer for women in officiating.
When Nesbitt arrived at St. John Fisher University (then College) for her freshman year nearly 20 years ago, officiating soccer matches was still nothing more than a fun summer gig. A member of the Cardinals’ women’s volleyball team for two years, she began her time at Fisher as an aspiring pharmacist and graduated in 2010 well on her way to a career as a chemist. All the while, she remained active in officiating and grew increasingly passionate about the profession as more doors opened. Eventually, she left the lab to pursue it full time.
“Everyone asks me, ‘How did you keep going with it?’ I don’t really have a great answer,” Nesbitt, who still calls Rochester home, said during an interview on campus after she returned from the 2026 Men’s World Cup. “I am not really sure what kept me going at a young age, but I think some of it was that I liked being outside and I liked being athletic. At first, you start with the 8-year-olds, and it’s pretty fun. You are just teaching them how to play soccer. So something in me kept me doing it and kept me active with it.”
NESBITT’S JOURNEY AFTER ST. JOHN FISHER
Nesbitt, after earning her bachelor of science from St. John Fisher, continued her studies at the University of Pittsburgh as a PhD student. That transition meant more time in the lab and a restart of sorts for her as an official. “I moved up to a higher level to officiate games outside of Rochester, but nothing professional yet,” she said. “I had to meet new people and meet new assignors for games.”
Nesbitt established those connections and began working matches for the United Soccer League’s Pittsburgh Riverhounds. In 2013, she made her debut in the National Women’s Soccer League, and not long after that, she became just the second woman to be hired by Major League Soccer. She officiated her first MLS contest in 2015 and has been with the league as an assistant referee ever since. Around the same time, Nesbitt earned her PhD in chemistry from Pittsburgh and became a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan, where she spent two years before being hired as an assistant professor of chemistry at Towson University.
It all made for a rewarding but exceedingly busy time in Nesbitt’s life as she managed – and thrived – with a loaded schedule.
“I think I learned the most when I stepped into Major League Soccer,” Nesbitt said. “When I started doing top-level men’s professional soccer, it was a huge learning curve. I was very young when I was put into MLS. I was very fortunate for that. This is the best soccer that I can see in the United States, and I learned a ton very quickly from that.”
“It was a crazy, crazy schedule trying to do all of that. I will be honest. I always tell people I defended my PhD and two weeks later I refereed my first MLS match.”
Remaining disciplined helped her make it all work. During soccer’s offseason, Nesbitt, whose research focused on improving techniques for sampling brain chemicals, would collect as much data in the lab as she could to ensure she had more than enough to analyze while on the road for games during the season.
Nesbitt also had plenty of people in her corner who respected her passion for officiating, a support system that included professors, bosses and colleagues. If she needed time off to travel for games, they trusted that she would continue to get her work done. As a professor, she had colleagues willing to step in and cover classes for her when needed.
“I had to start asking for more and more time off because it wasn’t just the weekends at that point," Nesbitt said. "It would start to be a two-week tournament here, or, when I first got to Michigan, I had just gotten asked to go to a four-week tournament in the Middle East. I had to convince them (her bosses) on that one and I had hardly been working there. I was like, ‘Hey… can I take a month off?’ People stepped up to help make this happen for me, for sure.”
All along, though, Nesbitt knew working two full-time jobs would not be feasible forever. As her prospects as an official grew grander, she grappled with what she called the most difficult decision she’s ever had to make: leaving chemistry and academia.
Nesbitt, who in 2016 earned a spot on the FIFA panel of assistant referees, was selected for the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France. That, coupled with FIFA announcing that the United States, Canada and Mexico would host the 2026 Men’s World Cup, sparked her decision to resign from Towson, where she ran her own research lab in addition to teaching courses. At that point, no woman had ever refereed in a men’s World Cup.
“This was the best part of my chemistry career,” Nesbitt said. “... But I knew they had never invited a female to referee at a men’s World Cup before. I just wanted to see if I could try and do it. So I got that goal in my head. Could I go to the 2026 Men’s World Cup? I knew at the time that if I was going to try and do that, I was going to have to go all in and put all of my time and effort into one thing.”
Her pursuit of making it to a men’s World Cup began swimmingly, as her ascension continued during that 2019 Women’s World Cup. She still smiles thinking about the immense pride she felt as she stepped onto the pitch for her first match – Norway vs. Nigeria at the Stade Auguste-Delaune.
“There is just something about your first World Cup match,” she said. “I can still hear the music we walked out to with the players, the passion of the crowd, the whole thing. It’s really hard to describe, but you feel so prepared for that game.
“…Every decision is right there. You know exactly what to do; you know what the players are going to do before they do it. It’s such a cool feeling to feel like, ‘Wow, I belong here.’ Everything you have worked for comes to this big, huge moment. It feels like you are exactly where you are supposed to be.”
Months after the rush of her career to that point, though, everyday life as everyone knew it paused as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe. It left Nesbitt suddenly unemployed, without any soccer matches on the horizon. At least some doubt crept in about her decision to leave her job as a chemist/professor.
“I was just at home, unpaid and scared to death that I had made the biggest mistake of my life,” Nesbitt said.
But instead of worrying about what she couldn't control for too long, she went to work. Nesbitt focused on getting into the best physical shape possible and analyzed old matches to stay sharp. “I wanted to find ways to continue working toward my goal,” she said.
Following a lengthy hiatus, professional soccer began returning to action in summer 2020, with Major League Soccer resuming that July with the MLS Is Back Tournament at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. Nesbitt’s officiating career continued to take off from there.
In December 2020, she became the first woman to referee a championship match in professional men’s sports in North America when she worked the MLS Cup between the Columbus Crew and Seattle Sounders. Nesbitt was named MLS Assistant Referee of the Year a month before that, becoming the first female official to earn year-end recognition in any of the five major North American men’s professional sports leagues.
Making more headway toward a men’s World Cup, Nesbitt in March 2021 became the first woman to officiate on the field in the men’s World Cup qualifiers. Then, in 2022, she achieved her ultimate goal much sooner than she envisioned when she became the first American woman to officiate in a men’s World Cup match. She was the reserve assistant referee for the World Cup final that year between Argentina and France at Qatar’s Lusail Stadium.
The historic achievements and high-profile assignments have only continued to pile up since for Nesbitt, named the inaugural U.S. Soccer Female Referee of the Year in 2024. Nesbitt worked the 2023 Women's World Cup final between Spain and England in Australia and the 2024 Women's Olympic Football Tournament in France. At the 2026 World Cup, she took the pitch for a group-stage match between Czech Republic and South Africa in Atlanta as part of the first all-American, all-women officiating crew in World Cup history.
Asked which of her accomplishments she feels most proud of, Nesbitt didn’t hesitate with her answer. That 2022 Men’s World Cup will always have a special place in her heart.
“It wasn’t surprising, but it wasn’t my initial goal,” she said. “I said 2026 because that was how long I thought it would take for me to achieve that goal. Being selected with the five other women from across the world who got to go for the first time, to show the entire world what female officials can do, was the most incredible thing I have ever done.
“To have that female representation there and to know that there were billions of people watching that game and that they got to see a ponytail, they got to see something they have never seen before. I hoped that that could change mindsets and show other girls what they could do. We all knew that it was much bigger than us.”
THE CHALLENGES ALONG THE WAY
Reflecting on the challenges of reaching soccer’s biggest stages makes moments like the 2022 and 2026 World Cups even more gratifying for Nesbitt.
Significant pressure to be supremely accurate comes with the territory as an official, especially at the highest levels, but women in the industry feel that heat more. While the daunting nature of being one of the few female officials in soccer (and all of professional men's sports) has lessened for Nesbitt over the years, she has not forgotten the difficult realities she confronted early in her career.
“It felt like I had to be absolutely perfect all the time,” Nesbitt said. “It felt like I had to be better than everyone if I was going to stick around or be noticed. If I made a mistake, it was going to be seen differently than just any referee making a mistake. That weighed on me, and I think that is still there for women who are working in these men’s leagues.
“...It took a long time for me to gain enough confidence that every day when I set foot on the field, I felt like I belonged.”
Being instantly accepted and respected by her male colleagues helped Nesbitt manage the heightened pressure. Most importantly, she understood early on the importance of not taking it out onto the pitch with her.
“I am good at shutting it down,” she said. “I have my routines and superstitions, all the little things that have added up to consistent behaviours to calm me down and make me present for the game I am working on. The second that whistle goes, all I am thinking about is the next decision.”
Nesbitt has also accepted that perfection can’t be attained. Mistakes happen, as do bad games altogether, and she has developed grace for herself as her career has evolved.
Earlier in her career, she subscribed to what she called the 24/24 rule: 24 seconds to move on from a mistake during a game and 24 hours after a game to review it on tape. In recent years, however, she has realized that method does not always work.
“Having some sort of method to get past a bad call – I have tried pretty much everything,” she said. “Sometimes you need to call a friend, ask a mentor how to do it better and sometimes you need to look at a mistake and conclude, ‘You know what? I can’t do anything better here. This was the best I could be with this particular decision.’ The biggest thing I have learned is that sometimes it takes longer than 24 hours.”
One of six female referees in MLS and one of five women who worked on the field during the 2026 World Cup, Nesbitt has quite the tight-knit community to lean on, too.
“We recognize the pressure that is on each of us individually and as a group,” Nesbitt said. “The 2022 World Cup in Qatar was one of the first times I felt like I wasn’t alone in having this pressure on me. We talked about the struggles. What was really cool about that is all six of us, from very different regions around the world, came together and all faced the same challenges (to get to that point). It was eye-opening for me and gave me even more confidence. We are doing it together. Let’s make change across the world.”
Nesbitt, a driving force behind that momentum, encourages aspiring female officials and sports professionals to embrace the challenges that come with the journey.
“That’s what will fuel your fire. Nothing worth having is easy,” Nesbitt said. “Being yourself through this entire process is going to be what makes you the most successful and the happiest throughout the process. My greatest advice would be: whatever goal you want to approach in life, do it your way and do it for you. Even if you don’t reach exactly where you want to go, whatever you end up accomplishing along the way is going to feel incredibly meaningful for you.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR NESBITT?
With the 2026 World Cup in the rearview, Nesbitt, who will turn 38 in November, has been asked what the future holds for her quite a bit recently. She doesn’t have a definitive answer, although she will surely have plenty of options whenever her career as an official comes to an end.
Still very much passionate about chemistry and teaching, Nesbitt hasn’t ruled out returning to the lab or classroom at some point. She also foresees instructional opportunities in soccer.
“I realize that running (up and down a field) for a living is not a long-term job,” Nesbitt said. “ I like to share my knowledge, and whatever way I think I get to that and continue doing that will be the path I will want to take.”
As for Nesbitt’s next big goal on the pitch, she’s unsure about that too. And for once, she isn’t in a hurry to figure that out.
“I haven’t thought about that in a long time,” she said. “For me, it was all about going to this World Cup. It’s kind of cool – this might be the first time in my entire life that I don’t have (something in mind). I have always been a very goal-oriented person, but I feel very relaxed and accomplished, honestly.”
As she should.
