There's at least 400 basketball umpires in Adelaide... There are a huge number of different competitions. Be a little more specific.

Who'd ever wanna be an umpire?!

What if they're good enough to referee that age before they're that old? I was refereeing U20M1 before I was 16.

Slightly different thoughts on Refs/Umpires. Is there any-one out there that umpires more than one sport. I know of one Ref who Umpires Football as well as Basketball.
I haven't been a referee, but have Umpired Amateur League football.
What I am getting to, is that I am not sure that the abuse of referees in Basketball is any worse than in any other sport, its just the proximity of the ref's to the spectators and coaches.
In Football, you are at usually 30 metres from the spectators and/or coaching bench, while in Basketball you'd have to be on another Court to get that far away. I am pretty sure that soccer refs would also be further away from the abuse, not only that a similar number of spectators (say 40-50 max per Junior Game) would be far more spread out around a Football Oval or Soccer Pitch.
Not trying to make excuses for Basketball crowd behaviour, just trying to find out whether anyone else feels the size of the playing arena is a valid issue.

When I got to a football match I'm appalled at the type of abuse umpires recieve. I for one am grateful that in basketball referees are given a direct way to deal with it.

The umpire in charge at Marion on a friday night referee's basketball as well as football. Someone loves their reffing :P Good work.

Although in football and soccer the referee is further away from spectators, there is far more abuse directed towards referee's in those sports compared to basketball.

I dont mind people my age reffing my games as long as they know what they're doing and umpire fairly what more can you ask for? Why should age matter? Refereeing higher games is based on the skill level of the referee. Would you like people your parents age reffing your games and having no clue, along with not being fit or quick enough to run out a whole game? As long as the 'younger' referee does not get intimidated easily by all means come out and ref as high as you can.

last time i noticed referee's were human.

they laugh, they burb, they sweat and i'm sure they even fart.

on occassions they sometimes make mistakes.

players and coaches must all be perfect. they can critise umpires for being too old, not old enough, too fat, not fat enough, too slow, too quick, too short, too tall.

are they holding the whistle correctly, have they got their hair parted on the right side, have they got new shoes!!

point is, umpires are human, there are only two (three in nbl) on any given game. sometimes due to lack of numbers because of belittling, bemoaning and in some cases totally abusive parents/players/coaches/administators there is only one.

if a referee is only 12 when they start just where do they begin to learn to ref, u10s parents will feel they are too inexperienced.

this thread could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on

and for one i think it has in various shapes and forms in different threads.

give it a bloody break!

I have reffed both basketball and cricket, both haven't had the time to pursue either (ie work taking over from cricket, same for reffing) - although I'm hoping to restart reffing bball before Christmas locally.

hi

TOtally different sport but I don't think there is much abuse of officials in volleyball and they are even closer to the spectators and players. Plus they can't move around like basketbal officials can. How do they manage that?

True or maybe dodge a few playing kids on the baseline. But atleast you can move around the court and not have to stand in the same spot all game so that one d*#k of a spectator can constantly get in your ear.