A year of growth for the Sutherland District Basketball Associations Referee Program has seen over 140 officials come together to deliver over 145 domestic competition games per week, countless representative games and school gala days.
Referee Program Manager Tom Marsh said “2024 was all about working on the foundations as a referee program. We worked hard on professionalism, the basics of refereeing and approaching the game with a service attitude. We feel we’ve set a good standard for ourselves, and the quality of the games have been great at the club recently. The domestic leagues have been heating up and the Herbs of Gold Super League with the introduction of 3-person refereeing has been great for the players and the referees. 2024 has seen another 35 new referees join the program, which is fantastic! I feel good about the future of refereeing here at Sutherland Basketball”.
The 2024 program has seen many highlights including
- 126 home games covered during the 2024 MJL and JPL season with 32 active officials combining to deliver this record number of games.
- Four of our best junior officials attended the MJL finals series with, William Moran, Joel Fox, Ryan Truong and Kale Armstrong all officiating the most important games of the MJL season. Congratulations also to Kale Armstrong who has been selected for his second Junior National Referee appointment at the Footlocker National Schools Participation Division which will be held at the Gold Coast in December.
- 2024 has seen the introduction of 5 new referee coaches, allowing our young referees to be actively coached and supported throughout their early stages of participation as referees.
- Four introductory referee courses were conducted with 35 participants registered across the four courses making it one of our biggest years for referee recruitment.
Looking ahead to 2025 the ERP (Elite Referee Program) and ARP (Accelerated Referee Program) members are reviewed, and new talent is identified for inclusion and induction into these programs. These elite programs will be focusing on the development of our high-performance referees who are looking to gain exposure on the state and national stage. There will also be a big focus on education and communication across our entire program as we look to enhance our technical knowledge and game management skills as referees.
Sharks General Manager Adrian Dark Said “I have been incredibly impressed with the development and growth of our referee programs. The work Tom and his team have done this year has allowed the association to submit extra representative teams at a junior and senior level and most importantly it has allowed our domestic competition to grow and flourish. I look forward to continually supporting Tom and the referee program and I encourage our members if you are interested in refereeing, it’s a great way to keep fit have fun and also earn some extra $$ along the way. We are aiming for 200 active officials in 2025 ”.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN REFEREEING FOR THE SHARKS IN 2025 EMAIL: referees@sutherlandbasketball.net.au
GO SHARKS!!
