REFEREEING/OFFICIATING
NZAFF Officials Development Program (ODP)
Like great Coaches, experienced and qualified Officials are critical to laying a foundation to grow our Sport. It can be at times a somewhat thankless job, but the positive impact a good officiating crew can have on player, Coach and viewer enjoyment of our game is massive.
Even at a Club level a minimum of 4-5 Officials is really the base line for a good Officiating crew, which carries a much greater burden than any other Sport. Add to this the fact that only a tiny amount of New Zealanders have watched, let along played a game of American Football (as opposed to something like Rugby) and the rules are arguably about as complex as any Sport gets, and you can see why a big effort is going to be needed to get us to where we need to get to.
NZAFF are committed to doing what we can to support the Development of American Football Officials in New Zealand, and to kick this off have again worked with our friends over the ditch in Australia to leverage their existing program. Australian Gridiron Officials Association (AGOA) have been hugely supportive of helping us put some building blocks in place, as they see a strong New Zealand as critical to making Oceania a region which is taken seriously when it comes to American Football.
At the end of the day, it will primarily still need to be NZAFF member Regions and Clubs who put forward the volunteers to Officiate games around the Country, but our commitment is to ensure these people have a basic infrastructure to support them to learn and grow as Officials. Whether this is simply to help out on a Saturday at a Club level to give back to the Sport they may have played, or as part of an aspiration to develop to a level where they can officiate internationally, we want to implement a multi-level development program that can cater for this growth.
The process and the documents are:
Program Documents
The following documents can be found through the ODP Documents link below.
2. Registration
3. Registration Information
Once Registration is accepted a Registration Information document will be sent out.
This will include links to the on-line courses and to register any existing qualifications or to register to become an officials mentor. The Mentor role will be a paid position similar to the other Officials that perform game day duties (see the section in the ODP Accreditation Level 0 and 1 document).
4. Help
The following documents can be found through the ODP Documents link below.
- The ODP Accreditation Level 0 and 1 document contains requirements and general information about the program, the registration process and the requirement to attend the Officials Workshop weekend. Please read this before registering.
- The ODP Qualifications Roadmap provides a view of the ongoing road map for qualifications at higher levels - this is still a work in progress.
- The ODP Updating Guidelines provides top-level details of how Officials qualifications will be maintained over time.
- All the documents can be found in the "ODP Documents" link below
2. Registration
- Participants can register on the Registration Form (link below) after having read the Level 0 and 1 Accreditation document.
3. Registration Information
Once Registration is accepted a Registration Information document will be sent out.
This will include links to the on-line courses and to register any existing qualifications or to register to become an officials mentor. The Mentor role will be a paid position similar to the other Officials that perform game day duties (see the section in the ODP Accreditation Level 0 and 1 document).
4. Help
- Support to all Officials Development program members will be given via the NZAFF General Manager.