The President of the NCCUA, Darrel Luck announced at a General meeting of the Association held on Wednesday 5 December 2007 the acquisition of a new training venue for 2008.
"It is with great pleasure and with much anticipation that I announce the NCCUA has signed a new lease for the use of Baxter field at Marks Point for umpire training purposes in 2008." Luck said as he handed the keys to Baxter field over to Umpires Coach Roger Crowhurst at the General meeting.
After the meeting President Luck was ecstatic about the new training facility. "This has been in the pipeline since the inception of the BDAFL competition in 2000. A new training venue had been discussed in February of this year and plans had been put in place to make enquiries with Lake Macquarie City Council about a suitable ground that would meet the Umpiring groups' needs for training."
"Questions have been asked why Baxter Field and why not go back to Hawkins Oval? Hawkins Oval had served the umpires Association well up until the 2007 season. Continuing to use Hawkins Oval had associated risks with poor lighting. Also the Association needed a venue that could facilitate change rooms for our female umpires and Hawkins could not offer that." Luck explained.
"So we had a number of venues around the Swansea and Marks Point area and Baxter Field was the most suitable for our needs. It is approximately midpoint between Newcastle and the Central Coast and therefore is the fairest place to have a training venue." In addition "with a stronger focus on training as part of the new accreditation structure, the geographic issue was important."
"The emphasis is now on all the umpiring bodies (the BDAFL umpiring group and the AFLGSJ Central and Newcastle junior umpiring groups) to co-operate and make this a successful move to our new training venue. There has been speculation about satellite training venues for junior umpires evolving in 2008. This would certainly be very sad and destructive to the development of skills and fitness for junior umpires if this came to fruition and was employed by either junior group in 2008." Luck said.
"There will be some initial reservation from some umpires to this change, but we must remember `change in inevitable but growth is a choice'. So far the only responses the Association has had from its members have been negative responses. I would encourage umpires to give the new training venue a fair go before making judgements about whether it will work or not."
Last Modified on 10/12/2007 12:06