Amelia Beahan, 13, loves the challenge of umpiring netball – and says it has given her a new appreciation for the difficult role officials have.
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Amelia, who plays for Gerringong in the Kiama Netball Association competition was recently awarded her C Badge accreditation.
“It helps me understand the game better, and when I play I don’t take it out on the umpires (because) I know that it’s really hard to umpire and see everything,” she said.
“I find the hardest part is running, and keeping up with fast games.”
Netball Australia has an accreditation system.
The culmination of this system leads to practical assessment in a four-tiered system of badges, namely C, B, A and the highest national award, the AA (All Australian). C Badge is the entry level badge.
Kiama Netball Association president Rhonda Beedles said 11 new people within the Kiama association had received C Badges this year.
Mrs Beedles said all four members of the Beedles family (herself, husband Ted and their children Annette and Helen) have now attained a C Badge.
“You have to have passed your theory, and then you have to do a Level 1 accreditation from Netball Australia and Netball NSW,” she said.
“Then it’s an on-court badging process, so they actually watch you umpire a game to a certain level.”
Rhonda Beedles said it was encouraging to see young people wanting to become officials, despite well-publicised incidents of young officials at various sports being abused by parents.
“Its great to see them take on the role of being an umpire,” she said.
“It’s a little daunting when they first go out there, but we never send a girl out there before badging without having someone mentor her.
“We still keep an eye on the parents of course… We have to be careful that they don’t get turned off by bad behaviour from parents, but most of the parents are pretty good. Some girls like to play, that’s fine. They don’t excel that way, but they really like to umpire as well and can excel that way.
“They find themselves enjoying that just as much as playing, and they do go further in their umpiring.
“We’d also like to see some boys out there pick up the whistle as well.”