The FAST program - "Forestville Apprentice Scheme for Trainees" (a great example of picking the acronym first) is a joint initiative of Forestville and the BASA Wayville UICs. The details of this program haven't made their way to the Forestville web site yet, but will in the next week. The gist of it is this:
All Forestville district players in Under 14s will participate in four weeks of referee training, as part of their development program. This will involve them shadowing referees at the Wayville miniball competition or City South domestic competition, once a week for four weeks. After this, they will have the option of undertaking a level 0 course, and continuing on to umpire miniball/district/social/domestic.
We are hoping that this basic introduction to refereeing will be enough to encourage players to become umpires, and that over time, the increase in numbers will result in an increase in standard.
We have also implemented a zero tolerance policy in the City South
Conference, and are considering introducing a similar policy for Forestville district teams. We believe that these policies will create an environment which is more conducive to recruiting and retaining umpiring talent.
(Incidentally, the FAST initiative will involve a similar program to get Under 18 players involved in coaching. I'll post details of both FAST programs and our zero tolerance policy next week.)
