When you think of Refereeing at Diamond Valley, one name that stands out is Trish McKinnon. Trish has held many roles during her time at the Diamond Valley Basketball Referee Association which has included being our Referee’s Branch President and more recently, DVBA Referees Advisor. Trish has been a referee for more than 30 years.

Trish began her time at Diamond Valley as a player in the junior domestic and representative programs, where she gained the knowledge of the game which shows in her ability as an official. Along with playing she has been an active referee resulting in her children following in her footsteps, playing and being involved in various aspect of the DVBA’s referee pathway. For more than 5 years, Trish was the Association’s Referee President where she continued to provide support to all the referees at Diamond Valley and beyond. In 2016, Trish’s replaced Josh Hughes in the role of DVBA’s Referee Advisor and did an excellent job. Trish had the responsibility of looking after all referee education and development through informal and formal evaluating. She played a major role bringing our junior panel referee numbers to the required amount, all Referee schools and the development of our new referees through the C Grade schools and thereafter.

We were able to reach out to Trish’s predecessor, Josh Hughes who had this to say, “Trish came back to refereeing at Diamond Valley when I was on the Committee and Assistant Advisor.  It was great to get a former referee to return with maturity to help out not just with on court, but also the off court side of refereeing with the majority of our referees who are under the age of 18.  She quickly became a “mother figure” to a lot of our newer and less experienced referees and played an important role in their progression as referees as well as becoming young adults. Trish took on the role of Saturday Supervisor at Diamond Valley, as well as President of the Referees Association and Saturday Referees Roster Co-Ordinator in the years that followed.  Trish was a great help to me in my role as Referee Advisor at Diamond Valley and I can’t thank her enough for her help and support.  Trish went on to take over my role of Referee Advisor at DV in a position that she really enjoyed.  Enjoy your break from basketball Trish and I’m sure we will see you around the courts wearing the stripes again one day at DV!”

Thank you Trish for all of your time, effort and commitment. You will be missed but hopefully not for too long. Your impact at our club goes far beyond the basketball court!