I've been busy looking at some tech solutions for next week to make it easier to view photos taken during the day - very easy to spend hours looking at forums / reviews and suddenly you still haven't moved on a purchase for the product your reviewing. Focus is the question here, and perhaps a good topic for today.
Someone with lots of focus in his refereeing career is Kanga Cup Academy alumni Chris "Pommy" Hope. Chris attended KC in 2006/2007, an era that has produced several elite officials (along with Nick Backo, FNSW / Aleague AR, Ashley Beecham, FB / Aleague & FIFA AR, Andrew Lindsay, FB / Aleague AR).
2007 was my first year at Kanga and I gave Chris and a young up and comer Ben Schepers (FFV, NYL) at lift from Shepparton up the Hume, having met Chris previously at various FFV regional tournaments. Ben had a great tournament, receiving the Junior Ref of the Tournament award for his efforts.
Chris was based in regional Victoria at the time and at Kanga has memories of very good referees from across Australia coming together and the U/16 Final.
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| 2007 U/16 Cup Officials |
The national-referee-development program in the UK is very different and somewhat complex (as you might expect in the home of Football). During some previous discussions, Chris has attempted to explain it and is paraphrased here.
There are levels from 9 - 5 that are run by the regional county football association, approximately 67,000 officials. Then levels 4 (1040 officials), 3, 2b, 2a and 1 run by the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd and the FA. So it works that once you jump from Level 5 to Level 4 (a large step up, perhaps similar to Level 3 - 2 in Australia), you don't just stay there. The bottom 20% of Level 4's are returned to Level 5 if they don't perform each year, and likewise along the levels.
The levels equate to the games you are appointed to, and what criteria is required to remain there. Performance is assessed against these criteria, including club reports.
It's interesting that it appears to remove any political / personal basis out of the promotion / development system and a big focus on mentoring / coaching.
Chris has told me that for level 4-3 upgrade to take place, you must be in the top 10 of your regional pool and 3 out of 80 will get promotion.
To make it real world, the U/19 EPL is a Level 4 league to referee which is where Chris has been last season (they are off season currently).
Chris indicated that the assessor / coaching system is very different to, with assessment marks being moderated based upon assessor's prior marking levels. Guaranteed to get three different assessors per season (wish we could do that at Kanga)
Chris is now officiating at the top 1% in England and looking to keep moving up. Having known Chris for a while I know his focus and professionalism will take him far. I appointed him to a FFV regional semi final back in 2009, knowing that his skills and attitude towards the game would ensure that what was normally a tricky appointment would be safe in his hands. And it was.
What are your goals / focus for KCRYA 2014? And where do you see yourself in 5 years or 7 years - NYL / Aleague / EPL perhaps? It's possible as Chris's experience and hard work has shown.
If you haven't thought about what you'll get out of the next 7 days, perhaps it's time to FOCUS
- 1 day to go...
Photo Quiz
2006 Flashback - Can you name this young lady from the 2006 Opening Ceremony, taking the officials oath?
Ok, time for a bit of sleep and final laundry / packing - may post Friday night if I get it all done. Thanks to Chris for his time in creating today's post.
Cheers
KangaCupRef
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