Ivy Refereeing-Community Service
For the past two terms I have been going down to the Westland Recreation Centre to referee year 3-4 (first term) and 5-6 (second term) basketball. I referee two games a day!
I don’t really know how I got into reffing in the first place. Last year I refereed year 3-4 which was insanely easy because you don’t really have to do much. In mini-ball it’s half the court and you have to be quite loose with the rules because they’re only just starting.
When you referee year 5-6 you play to the normal rules… but you loosen up a bit. The most popular mistakes are travel, double dribbling and one that even I do quite a bit… fouls. Depending on the skill level of the teams I am reffing and the point deficit I called over half-way. This can happen on two occasions, when a team dribbles back over half way when they already have or when someone is throwing the ball in on one side of the half-way mark and they throw it the opposite way.
I have learnt many skills such as how to stick up for myself and how to tell if people are lying… because that happens quite often. If you are under the age of 19 on the West Coast you have to wear a mouthguard… and these kids are real rough. There’s elbowing, pushing and sometimes even kicking and punching! I may be someone who gets fouled off but these kids are on a different level!
I personally believe that refing with a variety of different people has exploded my skill level and respect for referees. Even when one team is up by 30 if the winning team gets a call that they don’t agree with… there will be some complaining. I am insanely grateful for referees now and can now relate to them on a level that I wouldn’t have been able to before.
Overall I really enjoyed my time refereeing and believe that I will be back next year… maybe to even ref year 7-8!
