Toni Smith-Hunwick writes about all the happenings for our basketball referees from the 2022 season
2022 Saw an improvement in the referee shortage during the season thanks to monumental efforts from the Clubs and Schools entered in our competitions. We do acknowledge that we are still working on this and have some plans in place for the next season.
We also had a very successful representative season for our referees who officiated in National Age Group, National League Referees and International competitions.
Marty Davison, Matt Bathurst and Toni Smith-Hunwick were all nominated for international duty. Davison to the U17 Women’s World Cup in Hungary, Bathurst to multiple World Cup Qualifying windows and Smith-Hunwick to the Oceania U15 Championship in Guam, and Women’s World Cup Warm-Up Games in Sydney.
Jacob Cromb, Hamish Dale, Harry Apes, Matt Bathurst, Marty Davison and Toni Smith-Hunwick were all part of the NBL and Tauihi National Leagues Panel. Working home and away games during the respective seasons, with Dale refereeing one of the Tauihi Semi-Finals and Bathurst refereeing the NBL Final. All six will continue on in the panel next season as well.
The Schick 3x3Cup was able to be played this year, with Hamish Dale and Toni Smith-Hunwick heading down to Invercargill for the dual men’s and women’s tournaments being played for the first time since 2020.
The National Tournaments were successful for a lot of Canterbury teams including the referee group.
Congratulations to the following referees who attended:
At our local Referee awards, the following were recognised for their dedication, achievement, and commitment to Canterbury Basketball.
Most Improved Junior Referee – Jack Studholme
Junior Referee of the Year – Ben McLauchlan
Most Improved Senior Referee – Kirsty Howatson
Senior Referee of the Year – Raewyn Willocks
In 2022 we started a new initiative, called the Junior Referee Developer Programme, which is aimed to recruit and develop new referees into the Year 7 and 8 competitions to train and prepare them for entry into our weekend club competitions. Out of this programme we have identified 26 juniors ready to referee at the entry level of U13’s next season. This programme was run in conjunction with some of our clubs who run their own competitions at this level and was supported by Lori McDaniel (BBNZ Community Lead). The clubs we would like to acknowledge are Checkers, Cowles, Pioneer and Selwyn.
We have had immense support of our referees this season from our Referee Trainers who have attended an inordinate number of games through the season to help with the development of our referees and I would like to thank and acknowledge them all: John Bartlett, Lauren Cahill, Hamish Dale, Bill Eldred, Steph Eldred, Darrel Flynn-Thompson, Seddon Smith, Gavin Zimmerman, Raewyn Willocks, Paula Wilkinson, Carol Bathurst, Oscar Hooper, Shane Varga, Tui Zimmerman, Jayden Rosanowski, Sandra French and Sophie Currie.
We would also like to acknowledge the tireless work of the floor controllers this season, helping everything run smoothly at the venues. Including but not limited to the following people: Cathy Hyland, Dayton Rapana, Sinta Osooso, Cynthia Patea, Nick Smith, Jamie Graham, Amelia Turner, Katrina Studholme, Mel McNabb, Darrel Flynn-Thompson, Kelvin Fisher, Anise Armstrong, Daniel Sefo, Hallie Wheeler, Holly Parish, Jamel Osooso, Joshua Profit, Oki Tilaia, Liz Righton, Molly Cockburn, Korban Turnbull, Ella and Ava Costley.
Toni Smith-Hunwick
