My understanding is that a ref has to be the "school year" above those he's refereeing - so if Joe was a player, he would have to be playing at U17's or above in order to ref U16's.It can't be easy refereeing kids of virtually the same age. I thought a ref must be two years older than the players (maybe i just invented that)
@Tino Best hit the nail on the head regarding the adult coaches - Bullies
This won't reflect badly at all on you with anyone, but these 'responsible adults' will have some demeaning questions asked of them
This could has the potential to be good experience for you, although i'm sure it was very intimidating at the time