PRESS RELEASE - 2008 Ref Improvements
8th November 2007
The NSPL understands that the standard and style of reffing at our events directly relates to the level of enjoyment players receive from participating in the series. Year on year, we have strived to make improvements in this area, but it is never an easy task as the number of individuals willing to commit to the job of refereeing an entire season is always low and this makes it difficult to train refs and keep them long enough to make a lasting impact upon the overall standard of refereeing.
Having had a closer relationship with the Millennium series and having had first hand experience of how the Euro Ref system works over the last couple of seasons, the NSPL administration has had the opportunity to use their techniques as best practice for the NSPL. In 2007, we changed over to Millennium Rules, we changed over to the Millennium scoring system, and we have started to encourage our referees to take Euro Ref training in order to bring valuable experience back to the NSPL Ref Team. We have also made many other minor, but significant improvements to our reffing system, including increased pay for those refs who committed to attending NSPL events regularly.
We appreciate that there is still a way to go yet and we are looking to 2008 being the year when all our work so far and renewed efforts during the off-season and the 2008 season itself, all come together to provide a consistent standard of refereeing that participants within the NSPL can enjoy at each and every event.
The ground work has already been done and the NSPL can announce that we are confident that we will have a significant core group of refs throughout the entire 2008 season who will be trained for the task and who will be continually striving for improvement and consistency.
We have appointed a Ref Manager to tackle all the day to day issues of running the NSPL Ref Team in the form of Darren Artus, Euro Ref and NSPL 2007 Ref. We would like to take this opportunity to welcome Darren on board and thank him for all his efforts so far and in to the future. Together with Darren, we have provisionaly arranged a training schedule for the NSPL Refs throughout the off-season and in to next year, and we are in the process of consolidating our core group of refs at this time, and have secured additional man-power to bring these numbers up to a satisfactory level. In addition, we are planning social events for our Refs in order to bring the team closer together and make the whole experience of being part of the NSPL Refs more enjoyable - a key factor to keeping referees long term. We will be carrying this across to the playing fields, encouraging "teams" of referees to form that stick together throughout the season, and have fun at the same time as doing a good job for you guys, the players.
NSPL Refs in 2008 will be assigned a rank and field job depending upon their experience and ability levels, and their pay will reflect their current rank, giving Refs the incentive to get better and move up the ranks to earn better pay. In addition to this higher ranked Referees will have a duty, as part of their job-role, to provide regular feedback and on-the-job training to Referees of a lower rank. Our field Head-Refs will oversee this process and in turn provide training for the higher ranked Referees. This gives us a system that actively encourages development and on-the-job training.
Other areas of improvement include more structured refs meetings at the start of each event, to include pop quizes on the rules and to go over emergency procedures should incidents occur on field. The NSPL will be investing in more Refereeing equipment for 2008 to ensure the Refs can do their jobs effectively. We will also be adding one additional Ref to each field next season in the form of a Chrono Ref who will chrono all teams in a dedicated chrono tent outside each field before the teams are due to play and ensure the schedule runs smoothly - these Chrono Refs will be in direct radio contact with the NSPL Administration Tent. In addition, we will continue our pilot project of using a Cleaning Crew to ensure fields are kept as clean as possible to make calling paint hits easier for our Referees.
Finally, the NSPL will working closely with the Ref Manager in between all NSPL events to continually monitor and strive to improve the standard of refereeing at our events. We do understand how important this issue is and are doing are upmost to provide the best possible service into 2008 and beyond.
For more information on the NSPL, visit
www.nspl.co.uk or contact Chris Pelling by emailing
info@nspl.co.uk
To express interest in joining the NSPL Ref crew for 2008, again please email Chris Pelling at
info@nspl.co.uk
