This award goes to John Zimmerman – John began refereeing in New Plymouth and once he began to take officiating seriously, he was mentored by Ian Goodwin, Mary-Ellen Bezzant and Marcia Paurini. He learnt a lot from NBL referees Ian Goodwin and Colin Dowling.
He officiated at a number of National tournaments during the 1980’s and 1990’s. When second division basketball games were played prior to NBL games in New Plymouth, he refereed alongside his son Gavin and daughter Shelley. A highlight of his refereeing career was refereeing the bronze medal game at the Secondary Schools AA nationals.
In 2003 he became an NBL referee evaluator when games were evaluated using a bump sheet. In 2005 John became a referee trainer attending numerous national and regional tournaments.
He attended 4 or 5 premiership tournaments a year and a couple of national tournaments including all the age group and secondary school Nationals and Premierships. He continued doing this right through to 2021.
His proudest moment was when his son Gavin became a IWB Ref in 2006 and a FIBA ref in 2009.
Since 2021 he has continued as a Regional and National referee trainer getting involved wherever he can. He also spent some time on the New Plymouth Basketball Association as a Referee co-ordinator and was made a Life member in 2022.
John has made an amazing contribution to officiating in the Taranaki region over many, many years and many referees owe a lot to John for their development in the early stages of their refereeing careers.
John, please come forward to receive your award.
