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ABA to expand referee recruitment

May 9, 2005 - American Basketball Association (ABA) News Release


Rochester, NY. Tom Chichester, Director of Officials for the American Basketball Association (ABA) will be conducting an extended two and a half day recruitment/tryout session at Lander University June 17th thru the 19th. Lander University is located in Greenwood, South Carolina (www.lander.edu).

At this particular session, Chichester will be looking to hire officials from within the various regions of the many ABA teams located throughout the Southeast. However, Chichester stated, "If this date fits for others outside of the region that are neary a new ABA team location, they too may also attend. In particular, however, during this session, we will be searching for officials from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Louisiana."

The ABA expanded last season from 7 to over 30 teams and 150 new officials were hired. This season, the expansion continues and the ABA anticipates as many as 60 teams in the league which means an additional 30 teams. Chichester continued, "Of course, with this growth, there will also be the need for continued growth within the ABA officiating staff. I will be looking to hire about 100 new officials for this season."

During the past four seasons, the ABA has become a league of opportunity for many players, coaches and officials. "With this continued growth," Chichester added, "this is a great time for those of you that may be interested in trying to obtain this level of officiating to take hold of this given opportunity for a chance to earn a spot on staff as an ABA official for the 05-06 season."

In closing, Chichester has been able to mold the ABA officiating program from day one into a very user friendly league to work in for NCAA officials. He has many officials that work for him from Division I conferences and just about all on the staff are NCAA D2 or D3 officials. He wants to keep officials that work within the ABA to be able to stay on page with things so that when they work one ABA game one day, that the next day wen they have their NCAA assignment, they are able to be right on page with things mentally and mechanically. Being a Division I official himself, Chichester also understands how hard NCAA officials have worked in attaining their current status with their supervisors throughout the country and requests and wants potential officials to keep those loyalties and priorities with their current college supervisors. If hired into the ABA, they should just be able to fit their schedule when feasible to do so.

Those interested in attending the Recruitment Seminar or being an ABA Ref should contact Tom Chichester at tcrefaba@frontiernet.net or visit www.abalive.com.

Note: OurSports Central no longer actively covers the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a professional league due in part to its inability to publish and play a schedule and the transitory nature of many of its teams. For information on professional minor leagues, please see OSC's basketball section.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


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