Referees required

CALLING all basketball fans, a new season is about to begin.
To ensure another successful season for the Korumburra Basketball Association, the committee is looking for more qualified referees.
The Allen family has been amongst Korumburra’s team of referees for years, and have found the experience very rewarding.
Jo Allen has been refereeing for 11 years, and has passed on the love of the sport to her children. Her daughter Zoe has been refereeing for seven years.
“I started reffing 11 years ago to help Korumburra Basketball Association out. As the years went on I really enjoyed reffing, and whilst my children were playing tournaments, I would ref at those tournaments,” Jo said.
“From there, my children got involved with reffing and we travelled to various tournaments to ref.
“Four years ago, I stepped up to start reffing CBL (Country Basketball League), and have strived to improve my reffing from there, winning the most improved Victorian Senior Women’s Referee for 2016. From there, I then became a level 2A referee and in 2017 started reffing Big V.”
Zoe is now a referee after playing basketball for 15 years.
“Some of my highlights (from playing basketball) would be participating in the U12s jamboree in Albury, and then getting selected to participate in academy,” she said.
Over the years, the whole family has played basketball, and currently four are refereeing.
They enjoy watching basketball on television, and also enjoy playing soccer.
As domestic referees, the Allens conduct themselves as they would in any other form of employment; on time, in uniform, and doing their job to the best of their abilities.
As well as CBL and Big V, they also referee Victorian Junior Basketball League and at Basketball Victoria Country events.
“We have theory exams, ref coaches to evaluate us on our games and critique, and we also do fitness tests,” Jo said.
Jo and Zoe said refereeing is great because it is very social, excellent for fitness, and offers a bit of extra cash on the side.
A novice referee can participate in a Level 0 referee course to get the basic knowledge to get them out on the court, where they can then receive training from fellow referees.
Novice referees need confidence, and good listening skills to further improve their skills.
While learning the ropes, new referees will be offered plenty of support through the association.
The Allens said having more qualified referees will benefit junior players in the long run, as they can talk to the referees during the game to try to improve skill level.
At the moment, a shortage of referees means a parent volunteer is thrown into the role at the last minute.
Matches are played in Korumburra on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights.
Most referees are required for two or three games a night. The season goes for around 16 weeks, and there are two seasons per year.
The next season starts on February 5.

Join the game: Zoe and Jo Allen are encouraging more people to become referees for the Korumburra Basketball Association. Having more qualified referees will boost the skill level of the young players who go through the association.

Short URL: /?p=23862

Posted by Sarah Vella on Jan 23 2018. Filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry