Creating a supportive environment for squash referees

National Volunteer Week (NVW) is the largest annual celebration of volunteers in Australia with the 2021 theme ‘wave for a volunteer’ designed to recognise, reconnect and reimagine how we support our volunteers.

When it comes to volunteering, sports like squash rely on those people who give up their time, week in week out, to perform vital roles at clubs and competitions.

Referees are an integral part of competitions at all levels, with recruitment and retention of these roles pivotal to helping squash thrive across Australia. 

But often people are reluctant to take up the refereeing challenge for fear of being called out or harassed.

When it comes to refereeing, our sport relies on people from all ages and backgrounds to get involved especially as officials - which means how we treat our referees is crucial.

This National Volunteers Week we are encouraging all squash participants to thank a referee and support that NVW campaign #waveforvolunteers.

One person passionate about changing the way in which we interact and support referees is Michael Wilkinson, President of the Kooyong Squash Club.

Having witnessed some of the poor behaviour towards referees, Wilkinson believes the sport has the power to reimagine how the squash community can better support the volunteer referees. 

“Squash referees are rarely paid, they do it because they love the game. Every referee pays for their own training and to attend events in order to support the game and make a contribution to the sport.”

Some unfair behaviour towards referees is something Wilkinson admits he has been guilty of in the past, but that it is something he wants to change. 

“It is a set of attitudes and behaviours I believe permeates every level of our sport and whether it’s getting worse or not it’s a blight on the game,” Wilkinson said. 

Referees are often teammates doing their duty session on competition night, or a junior doing the right thing and taking care of the match. Wilkinson knows that no one is immune from either direct abuse during the match or a ruthless critique of their performance afterwards. 

“What I see too often are dismissive, rude and disrespectful comments directed at people who are simply trying to help out,” he said. 

For the sport to prosper, the community needs to create and foster an environment that will help grow the skills of our current and new referees. 

“Wouldn’t it be better if we all just supported and fostered a culture where refs decisions, whether agreed with or not, are final and respected?” Wilkinson said. 

For his part, Wilkinson wants to commit to supporting and accepting referee decisions. He said he wants to approach them in a collaborative way, discussing decisions after a match and making an effort to understand the reasoning behind them. He will advocate and support the use of the conduct warning process and will certainly not tolerate 'ref bashing' behaviour from his club, team and mates. 

“This will take some self-control as I can be emotional and competitive on the court and when I am watching matches where I care about the outcome,” Wilkinson said. 

Wilkinson believes that by changing his attitudes and behaviours he will be able to help create a supportive environment for referees of all levels.