Students interested in officiating junior high and high school basketball games now have an opportunity, as the Commerce Basketball Officials Association is beginning its referee training program for potential officials.
Mitch Leathers, a Texas A&M University-Commerce graduate and former sports writer for The East Texan, is helping train the referees.
“The training that we put on is just for high schools and junior high,” Leathers, assignment secretary for the CBOA, said. “We’re a chapter of the Texas Association of Sports Officials and our chapter has agreements with local schools and their junior high schools to referee their basketball games.”
Referees for the CBOA cover games ranging from junior high to varsity high school games in area schools. According to Leathers, the association works with about 30 different area schools.
“We have an agreement with several different schools – the schools are pretty close to the Commerce/Greenville area, but there’s really not a certain zone that we cover,” said Leathers, who is in his 11th year of officiating for the CBOA. “Some of the schools we cover are Commerce, Greenville, Wills Point, as far north as Paris, and probably as far south as Wills Point.”
Potential referees don’t need any experience, and everyone over the age of 16 is welcome.
“This year we have an official training that was born in 1990,” Leathers, who joined the CBOA during his senior year of high school, said. “This person would probably work junior high exclusively for the first year or so. Occasionally [he or she] may work some high school games, but mainly on the sub-varsity level, such as freshman and junior varsity games.”
Leathers has also officiated collegiate games, including the Lone Star Conference, which A&M-C is a part of (although he does not referee A&M-C games), he just referees for fun.
“It’s really just a hobby. There’s obviously pay involved, but I do it because I love it,” Leathers, a Commerce High School alumnus, said. “But it’s certainly a supplemental job. That’s one of the things that we tell people – that it’s great for supplemental income.”
“If you like basketball it would probably be a great job, but if you don’t like it then it may not be as fun,” Anthony Valle, undergraduate kinesiology student at A&M-C said. “I umpire at little league baseball games and it’s pretty fun, so it just depends on what you enjoy.”
Taylor Smith, also an A&M-C undergraduate, agreed.
“I think it’d be fun to do if you need a little money on the side. It doesn’t sound like it would take too much time, so it would be perfect,” Smith said.
According to Leathers, the CBOA is always looking for those who want to referee, no matter how little experience they have.
“This year we have brand new officials who have never worked basketball before, and we do a complete training program for people who are interested,” Leathers said. “We’re in the same boat as many other [Texas Association of Sports Officials] chapters in the state – we need officials, and we’ll give anyone a shot.”
Anyone interested in joining the Commerce Basketball Officials Association should contact its president, Jeff Hooten, via e-mail at jlh172862@yahoo.com. The CBOA’s Web site is located at http://commercerefs.com.