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Referees

How to become a Referee

To become a basketball referee, just like players do, you need to start at the domestic level and learn the basics. From here, the pathway is quite extensive, after progressing through the domestic grades you may get the opportunity to referee representative games (Sabres), from here the top performers are invited to referee the Victorian Championship games which sends them all over metro Melbourne refereeing the best junior talent. Keen referees can then progress to Big V, NBL1, WNBL, NBL and even international FIBA games.

While the opportunities are great, some people just want to referee at their local association at a domestic or rep capacity which is completely fine. We are seeking committed individuals that want to be involved in the sport, earn a bit of money and keep fit all at the same time.

The process at Sandringham of becoming a referee is as follows:

  • Sign up to the next referee school using the button below
  • When a school is being run, applicants will be contacted and invited to a group interview
  • We hold a group interview due to the limited amount of mentors we have and can only take on so many rookies at any given time. We encourage people to come back to the next group interview if they are not successful in passing this stage the first time around.
  • Applicants that make it through the interview phase are invited to 2 theory sessions where referee coaches will go through the basic rule knowledge, signals and what we expect of our referees.
  • Next, rookies (green shirts) are paired up with mentors who they will shadow until they are ready to take the next step
  • Still with their assigned mentors, rookies will now referee on the other side of the court rather than standing next to their mentor
  • Finally, when the supervisors and referee coaches are satisfied with the progression, rookies will be upgraded to a C grade referee and get their black and white top.
  • The timing of this process is completely dependent on the progression of the individual, everyone learns at different speeds but generally it is a month or two.
  • If this sounds like something you would like to do, please click the button below to fill out the registration form for the next school.

Register your interest here.