Sports Resources > Latest sports news > February 2009 > 20/02/2009 - Australia's Got Officiating Talent

20/02/2009 - Australia's got officiating talent

The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) will bring together some of Australia’s leading sports officials this weekend on the Gold Coast to provide training to officials who will be part of the 2009 National Officiating Scholarship Program (NOSP).

The program, now in its seventh year, aims to fast-track and develop Australia’s most talented high performance officials through a dedicated program of professional development for the individual that draws on the resources and expertise of both the Australian Sports Commission and the national sporting organisations.

At the end of 2008, 20 new scholarship holders were named for the current calendar year and they will be joined by a range of mentors and program directors for the three day professional development workshop. Sessions will be conducted in areas including psychology, recovery, nutrition, vision, media relations communication skills, mentoring and skill acquisition.

'The National Officiating Scholarship Program provides scholarship officials with professional and highly specialised support, combined with expert mentors from their sport,' said Greg Nance, Director of Sport Performance and Development at the Australian Sports Commission.

'The ASC remains committed to the development of officials in Australia and the 20 scholarship holders in 2009 have a great deal of expertise to offer their chosen sports.'

The twelve month program also involves valuable experience in officiating at national and international events backed by sport science support services.

One of the notable scholarship holders in 2009 includes former Australian cricketer and current international cricket umpire Paul Reiffel.
Reiffel made his first class umpiring debut in the 2004-05 season and was selected on the national panel of umpires the following season.

Recently he joined the ICC umpires panel as a third umpire, and stood in his first ICC One Day International match during the 2009 Australia versus New Zealand series.

The program this year will also include Shannon Walding, who recently umpired the Mixed Doubles final at the 2009 Australian Open Tennis tournament.

Other Scholarship recipients for 2009 are: Brett Kronk, Paul Barron, Matthew Brown, Shaun Gleeson, Toby Medlin, Scott McPhee and Simon Walker (AFL), Camron Jones (Basketball), Paul Reiffel and Steven John (Cricket), Stephen Toth (Football), Joshua Bowring, Jemma Carlton, Tara Gregory, Marc Henning and Peta Quinn (Netball), Timothy Wills (Rugby Union), David Gregory (Swimming), Shannon Walding (Tennis) and Robert Szydlowski (Volleyball).

The workshop, which is being held at the Holiday Inn in Surfers Paradise, commences tomorrow morning (Friday, 20 February) and will run through until Sunday afternoon.