I attended my very first professional development camp!!! Surprisingly, it was not even for my primary earning job, but my side hustle as a Basketball Official in Winnipeg. I heard about this camp before, but never thought I would be attending this one day – it screamed big serious commitment and honestly, was quite scary in my head! Reid reached out and encouraged me to participate, as I was “very engaged in becoming a better official and pursuing the next level of officiating” (WOA!). I registered for the 2PO camp, but was too late, the camp was already full. I literally got in just a week before the camp because there was an open spot, and I was quite high on the waitlist!!! *DESTINY*.
The camp format is a mix of Friday on and off-court classroom sessions, along with a number of games over Saturday and Sunday, observed by Referee Coaches. During timeout, half-time, or end of game, Referee Coaches will provide us feedbacks to work on our game.
Such an overwhelming experience! I have very limited to zero experience in networking, officiating professional development, big career talk, or even about the game itself! But I showed up anyway, and I did absorbed everything thrown at me. I stepped out of my comfort zone, asked for help and supported, seek out guidance, small talked with other out-of-province professionals and got to know more about my awesome local officiating community! Heck, I even joined the social evening event on Saturday and ended up having quite elaborated conversations with multiple campers/staffs.
My most memorable experience that I still think about now would be the 2hrs game we had on Sunday. 17U athletic boys, small gym, improper game clock, vocal and aggressive team coaches, highly regarded and respected referee coach… of course we had to go into double OT and it was not my best effort out there 😭😭😭 I tried so hard to hold my head up high but couldn’t shake off the feeling of disappointments, even embarrassment afterwards. It did not help that the schedule got mixed up and I was not where I supposed to be at the right time for another game at another venue. But also thanks to this opportunity that I got to talk and connect with my referee coaches, I feel confident taking a step closer into the community now!
I worked with Ricardo from Montreal, and Danielle from BC. Ricardo shared so much food with me and showed me how a proper professional pre-game meeting look like. I appreciated that he is such an amazing supportive partner! Danielle showed me so much resilience and curiosities, as this is only her 2nd year of officiating!!! My local official friends Maya and Liam jumped in 1 of my game to help out, as half way through the first quarter I got a nosebleed out of nowhere!!! It took forever to stop… But eventually I was able to come back and we worked together rotating through the rest of the game. I feel so proud working alongside with them, as they carried themselves in such professional and respectful manner!!!
Me and Danielle 😀
Funny how the only game we worked together, 2 Technicals were called, and 3 minutes till end of game, the lights at Sport MB were all turned off abruptly…. They did not let us turn the light back on to finish our game, because the facility closes at 11pm, and everyone has to get out of the gym at 10:45pm LOL. Also lucky that it was a 15pts 16U girls game so both teams were, not happy, but ok in ending the game early. I heard the court next to us it was a close 1pt game, and they literally had 1 minute left…
All in all, at the end of day, I came home feeling very proud of myself, and happy that I was so uncomfortable that I take everything as learning opportunities and lessons. I got feedbacks to improve myself, I got to make friends with folks from outside of Winnipeg, I connected with my local officiating community and made myself seen, and most importantly, I had so much fun! Big W for me this year 🙂
Bye for now, I have lots of video to watch and take notes of to discuss with my official folks 😉
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