Peter Marshall has been a stalwart of refereeing for Northland Basketball for well over 40 years after being encouraged to take up refereeing by BBNZ Life member Peter Christian in the early 80’s. He refereed in the early days of the second division league and also refereed 27 games in the NBL 1st Division from 1995-99 when there was a Whangarei team in the competition. Peter refereed at both a World Masters Games in Australia and the 2017 Games in Auckland.
Peter has always been keen and regular support of BBNZ National Tournaments especially the old 3rd Divisional Tournament for small regional associations. He attends a couple of tournaments a year and has also been an excellent supporter of the National Secondary School’s National Championship over the last 30 years. Peter is the first referee to put his hand up to referee the last place game at a tournament as he sees the significance of the contest. It’s usually played in a chilly empty gym in the early morning of the last day when most other referee would prefer a sleep in!
Peter has built up a good reputation and has respect around the basketball community and, given his longevity as an official, he is able to manage the game so that all involved get the best out of the game. Peter has taken up referee coaching as part of the BBNZ Educators/Trainers programme at the National Age Group Championships. He has been the lead referee trainer and evaluator for Northland Basketball for the past 10 years, developing and training many young officials at regional and at national age group tournaments.
Last year, he attended the U15 National Championships as a referee trainer and followed up by attending the National Secondary Schools Championship in October.
Peter still travels around Northland bi-weekly doing community level refereeing clinics, refereeing multiple games per week, and helping to develop and evaluate the referees who have gone through BBNZ level one courses.
