On Wednesday, November 6th, some Alma and Pepin basketball athletes traveled to Whitehall to attend a reffing clinic. The need for referees in the WIAA is very high, and elders are trying to encourage young students to be more involved. Trying to help with this, some Dairyland athletic directors including Troy Ingli, Tim Nelson, and Mikayla Everson, taught these young athletes the basics of reffing the game of basketball.
To start the day, students learned the do’s and don't’s of reffing basketball games, and were instructed on the specific rules of basketball. As an icebreaker, the students then split into groups with kids from different schools to learn about their previous experiences with basketball. The future refs then learned how to make confident calls properly. When the students felt ready, some could volunteer to referee while their peers played a quick basketball game, while the adults coached the student refs.
Student, Tori Creighton, said, “The reffing clinic was a good learning experience”. Tori plans to take all that she learned and hopes to ref some junior high games in the near future.