Pickleball Magazine 2-3 | Page 25

FROM THE USAPA The Certified Referee Program is growing! A s of May, we have 82 certified referees across the United States. This is a great start to a new program for the USAPA but we are working hard to make the program even more open and available. Over the past year since the program was initiated, the certification process has evolved and continues to grow and improve. This year we have many goals with the program: • Develop additional tiers of referee certification • Work with Pickleball Channel to produce instructional videos • Conduct free referee training webinars for all USAPA members across the country • Introduce more evaluators in every region • Expand the evaluation schedule in all states Our goal is to help everyone feel comfortable stepping out on the court to referee a match. Expanding the number of skilled referees is the second phase in growing the number of sanctioned events across the United States (the first was to add a new sanctioning option, for new tournaments, requiring that only the match leading to the medals and the medal rounds have referees). To aid in the USAPA’s dedication to this program, we have the following team of Certified Referee Evaluators: Ramona Boone, Marsha Freso, John Grasso, Paula Handrup, Linda Hoggatt, Lynn Laymon, Linda Laymon and George McCulley. We are also working with our Regional Directors to identify approved trainers and to a have a minimum of one Referee Evaluator in each USAPA region. Following is a list of upcoming tournaments where certification evaluations will take place. The list is growing and more dates will be added soon. • USAPA Great Lakes Regional: July 20-23 (Kalamazoo, MI) • State Games of America: Aug. 3-6 (Grand Rapids, MI) • USAPA Pacific NW Regional: Aug. 8-13 (Bend, OR) • Heber Fever: Aug. 17-19 (Heber Springs, AR) • USAPA Great Plains Regional: Sep. 7-10 (Colorado Springs, CO) • Beat the Heat: Sep. 15-17 (Angel Fire, NM) • Branson Classic Pickleball Tournament: Sep. 28-30 (Branson, MO) • Fall Brawl: Oct. 10-14 (St. George, UT) • Huntsman: Oct. 15-21 (St. George, UT) • USAPA Atlantic South Regional: Oct. 19-22 (Griffin, GA) • USAPA Atlantic Regional: Oct. 26-29 (Hartford, CT) If you have a tournament in your area and have at least two candidates per day seeking certification, please send an email to: [email protected]. We will make every effort to have an Evaluator attend. If you are interested in becoming a certified referee, please go to the USAPA website – Rules & Referees – Referee Materials. There you will find training information, quizzes to test your rules knowledge, certified referee requirements and the application. If you just have questions or would like more general information, e-mail: [email protected].  • MAY/JUNE 2017 | MAGAZINE 23