Sunshine Coast Netball Association launches RESPECT 4 UMPIRES initiative

A teenage netball umpire was brought to tears after abuse from a coach while a parent has been slapped with a ban for a foul spray. Here’s how the Sunshine Coast association plans to put an end to abuse.

The Sunshine Coast’s largest sporting association has launched a program to curb verbal abuse at umpires, after a young girl left a court in tears following scrutiny from an opposing adult coach.

Sunshine Coast Netball Association’s RESPECT 4 UMPIRES (R4U) program was rolled out on March 4.

It is aimed at curbing incidents of verbal abuse towards umpires who can be as young as 10 years old.

The idea behind the program was sparked by an incident in May 2023 when a teenage umpire was verbally scrutinised by an opposing team’s coach, an adult, over the girl missing one thing on the court.

Umpire convener Gabrielle Parker said the girl had joined the association that year and described her as a “brilliant” umpire who had “great knowledge of the game” and was invested in taking on an umpire role.

A clip from a short video about the R4U initiative. Photo: Supplied

But after the incident, which Ms Parker said snowballed into the coach yelling out at the young umpire and disagreeing with her calls and decisions, the girl came off the court in tears feeling intimidated and discouraged.

Ms Parker said this was not an isolated event, with an earlier incident at the end of 2022 when an umpire was sworn at by a parent who felt their child was being “picked on”.

This ended with the parent being banned from watching their child’s game for more than three weeks.

Ms Parker said the teenage girl involved in the 2023 incident was still umpiring, but her confidence in her abilities took a significant hit in the first two weeks of her returning to the court.

“These girls love netball … they’re wanting to give back to the sport they love and that’s through umpiring,” she said.

“We try and teach our umpires resilience, (but) we shouldn’t need to be teaching our umpires (to deal with) this.”

Operations manager Debbie Battaglini, who along with Ms Parker were some of the driving forces behind the initiative, said the program was aimed at making sure umpires, staff, parents and players felt safe and respected at their games.

The white hi-vis welfare officers at the SCNA will wear on the courts. Photo: Supplied

It is a combination of awareness, education and on-the-ground support with welfare officers in white hi-vis vests observing games.

Umpires will be given white flags, which they can raise if they are feeling disrespected or intimidated, and a welfare officer will come to their aid and diffuse the situation and take it further if needed.

Ms Battaglini said she felt the program could be implemented in any sport and the association was looking at licensing it themselves to allow this to happen.

The association has more than 190 umpires and hosts more than 10,000 netball games a year, which draws more than 60,000 spectators.

The R4U initiative will continue throughout the 2024 netball season.