In what is a rarity, Darrel has been involved solely in the Canterbury region for the entirety of his 50-year service to the game.
In 1973 – Darrel started helping run school basketball games at the old YMCA in Greers Road – soon after this he was looking after Burnside as well (both venues would be operating at the same time on Friday nights). Darrel was responsible for both refereeing and venue control.
At Ray Thomson’s invitation, Darrel became a formal member of the committee that would meet each Sunday to go through Friday’s results, and to set-up the following week’s schedule. The Canterbury Basketball Association asked Darrel to also Floor Control on Tuesdays (Premier Competitions), and Wednesdays (Midweek Competitions) following the 1974 Commonwealth Games.
Darrel was the club representative on the CBA Board for the Hot Shots Club and from 1980 – 1992 Darrel served as the president of the Club. In the early 1980s – Darrel became a member of the Canterbury Basketball Officials Association. He served as President of that Association for 12 years. Darrel was made a life member of the Officials Association in 2001, with Canterbury Basketball Association (CBA) Life Membership bestowed in 2004.
Darrel attended his first BBNZ Tournament in New Plymouth and has since been to approximately 50 of these events assisting Canterbury teams.
In total, Darrel served on the CBA Committee for 28 years. This stint includes two years as President, and eleven as the Vice-President.
Along with Bruce Martin, Darrel organised and ran the CBA Easter Tournaments, which were a mainstay of the Canterbury Basketball Calendar up until the late 1990s. Darrel still contributes to making CBA club competitions each weekend during the season effectively by taking on a number of roles throughout the day: Floor Controlling, Referee Training; and you can see him occasionally still refereeing the odd game too.
Darrel was a member of the inaugural committee for the Canterbury Rams and volunteered for fifteen years in total.
In the early 2000’s Darrel was invited to Ballarat as a referee trainer in the Australian Town and Country Basketball Tournament. This was partly due to his record of volunteering with the CBA and BBNZ. He had a group of eight referees to look after during this tournament. This is where Darrel received his formal qualification from Basketball Victoria as a referee trainer. Also in Australia he was one of only three Kiwis to referee at the 2009 World Masters Games in Sydney.
Serving as President of the CBA, and CBOA, and receiving life memberships from both organisations stand out amongst his achievements.
But arguably his greatest achievement is that since starting out in 1973, Darrel has never missed any year of helping run Canterbury High School Basketball – a remarkable fifty consecutive years of service!
Darrel, please come forward to accept your Long service award recognising 50 years’ service to basketball.
