Southern Alberta Sport Leadership Conference focuses on officiating

By Lethbridge Herald on September 15, 2023.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Guest speaker Jane O’Connor gave five reasons why student-athletes should referee during the Southern Alberta Sport Leadership Conference on Thursday at the Enmax Centre.

Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Lethbridge Herald

Lethbridge Sport Council hosted the inaugural Southern Alberta Sport Leadership Conference on Thursday at the Enmax Centre.

The conference gave high school student athletes an opportunity to learn about the diverse opportunities of becoming a leader in sport through inspiring speakers and to meet like-minded people who want to make a positive impact in sport.

The conference idea came about in response to the officials shortage.

“We wanted to create an event that would help support a more sustainable sport future in Lethbridge,” said Parker Allen, event organizer.

“And I figured instead of relying on an aging population for officials, it’s about time that we started getting our youth athletes involved, right. Getting them in the know, getting them in the system, so that  we can just build a more sustainable sport scene long term.”

Allen said it was about teaching them about all the roles that are available outside of the athlete.

“So Spencer Pommells, he’s the manager of Pronghorns Athletics,” said Allen.

“He was one of our speakers and he did a great session about how many different jobs  are available in sport. How it’s not just head coaches and officials. There’s the managerial aspect, there’s social media, there’s design and ticketing, and sales and all these different jobs to fit all these different types of people. But keeping in mind that the one common denominator is those people are all getting involved in sport, not just being athletes.”

Allen said a lot of the kids here today are already getting involved in coaching.

“I was talking to a lot of them afterwards and they’re dipping their toes into the water, but we’re really trying to get them to jump on in,” said Allen.

The probable cause, in Allen’s view, of younger kids not getting involved in officiating is because of the treatment from parents.

“I think that while it’s super important that we’re addressing a shortage in officials and these high school student-athletes who need to get involved, there’s another big issue in how we treat our officials,” said Allen.

“And that’s largely the crowds and the parents. It’s another issue that is eventually going to need to get tackled because it’s a big, big factor in people not wanting to be officials,”

Jane O’Connor shared her experiences of coaching, refereeing and playing rugby and gave five reasons why you should ref.

Keegan Brantner talked about the best leadership styles, the  understanding of  the role of informal versus informal leadership and what it is like being a leader outside the competition.

Dr. Rick Gilson spoke about coachability in terms of a general skill towards applications of how it serves someone in sport, school and in a professional life.