Our referees are in extremely high demand, with six heading away to various parts of the world!
Our referees are in extremely high demand, with six heading away to various parts of the world!
Most notably, Matt Bathurst (winner of the Official of the Year Award at the 2018 Canterbury Sports Awards) will be heading across the Tasman Sea to officiate at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. This is only the second time basketball has been a Commonwealth Games Sport (it was a trial sport in 2006) and affords a great chance to see the different style of plays from around the globe.
From the CBA office, our newly appointed Senior Referee Manager, Marty Davison, has just started a much longer trip to Foshan (China) to referee at the FIBA U16 Asian Championship. With the combining of the Asian and Oceania regions, to decide who qualifies for the World Championships, it is not only our players and coaches who have significantly more options to test themselves, but referees too. Marty has said there will be some referee development courses he will attend while in Foshan, so is looking forward to incorporating what he learns there into the courses he is running as soon as he is back in Christchurch in Mid April.
Lastly, Harbour Basketball is running their annual Easter Tournament, with teams from around the country, as well as Australia competing (including some teams from Canterbury). Unfortunately for Harbour, they faced a severe referee shortage the day before games tipped off, and sent an urgent S.O.S. message to us, to help them get enough experienced referees to support making the tournament a success. Mikey Graham, Hamish Dale, Brad Clive and Harry Apes were given the rock star treatment – flights, food and accommodation all paid for, and a whole lot of gratitude from the North Harbour Basketball Association for helping at such short notice.
If you want to keep up to date with all basketball refereeing news in Canterbury, or want to start getting involved, make sure you join their dedicated facebook page to hear first hand about opportunities and stories like this.
