Basketball NSW is proud to announce the selected officials for the 2024/25 National Basketball League (NBL) Referee Mentoring Program. This tailored initiative aims to provide professional development, support, and growth opportunities by immersing participants in top-tier officiating techniques and expertise through the NBL’s referee department.
The scholarship program will offer personalised guidance to referees aspiring to reach elite status. Participants will benefit from customised individual and group sessions, development plans, and regular assessments. This program will be a vital component of Basketball NSW’s High Performance and Elite Referee Pathway, helping officials advance in their careers.
Basketball NSW, Head of Technical Officials, Steve Clark expressed his excitement for the program to return.
“We are now entering the second year of this program and I thank the NBL for their initiative in making available their expertise to assist with an accelerated development and learning opportunity for our officials,” said Clark.
“The first year has proved to be very successful and I have no doubt that the second year will prove to be highly beneficial to not only the selected officials but to all those that they officiate with in the 2025 season. I extend my congratulations to the nine officials selected and look forward to watching their growth over the next 12 months.”
Individuals that participate in the Scholarship Program will be mentored by an existing NBL Referee, which will provide coaching targeted towards elite performance. This will ensure the individual is up-skilled with current play calling trends for elite competitions via this direct access to the full-time referees, under the leadership of the NBL Head of Referees.
Referees will be deemed as eligible for the Scholarship Program by a set of criteria, including displaying their potential and demonstrating the attributes and qualities of an elite official, hold a minimum State Grade referee qualification, and be officiating in the NBL1 East league (Men or Women). Each recipient’s scholarship will be a minimum duration of one year, and a maximum of two.
The Scholarship Program has a set curriculum consisting of two parts; ‘Make Your Officiating Elite’ and ‘Experience NBL Referee’.
Part A, ‘Make Your Officiating Elite’ covers the NBL1 season, running from April to August, and will use examples of footage from the league for engagement and education. This will include:
- Initial Goal Setting – documenting short-term and long-term goals.
- Preseason Group Education – via face-to-face attendance.
- Monthly 1v1 Meeting – direct with recipient’s mentors.
- Individual Development Plan – to identify each participant’s strengths and weaknesses.
- Weekly Group Meeting – for play calling review together as a group.
- Group In-season Face to Face Visit – for education and review of in-venue performance.
- Game Review Analysis – via HUDL game tape footage.
Part B, ‘Experience NBL Referee’ will run alongside the NBL season from September to March, which will be used for the execution of this part of the scholarship. This will include NBL experiences, training, development and material such as the following:
- Post Season 1v1 Meeting.
- Group Revision and Review via Face-to-Face Attendance.
- Game Preparation of the Mentor – experience the build-up to gameday.
- Game Day Experience – listen in to the conversation.
- Revision of NBL Game Footage of Playing, Calling and Decision Making.
- Invitation for Game Day Attendance next to the Emergency Referee in-venue.
- Membership of the BNSW Elite Referee Scholarship Mentoring Program Page.
Congratulations on the below officials:
Marcus Hayden
Zara Baldwin
Marko Nikolic
Caitlin Grove
Logan Bilby
Sarah Fahey
Oliver Toon
Jayden Krieg
Jakson Peach
The BNSW Elite Referee Scholarship will tip-off in November and encompasses the 2025 NBL1 East and 2024/25 NBL seasons. BNSW looks forward to the launch of this game-changing program, which will level up the talented officials we have in the state!
To learn more about the scope of BNSW’s Technical Officials, and to start your journey as an Official (whether it be referee, scoretable or statistician), click HERE.