Dear Referees, Coaches, Instructors, and Tournament
Directors:
Well, for most of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, I
believe that summer is now officially over. With the
changing leaves, cooler weather, rain, and snow (up
north), the changing of the season marks the beginning
of another judo tournament season.
While I don't have a whole of new information to
share, I did want to announce that we have a new
International referee in our area. Mark Hirota,
Obukan Dojo, and new Pan American Judo Union (PJU)
Regional or "C" level referee, took his examination at
the US Open in Las Vegas, last weekend. It's my
understanding that five individuals took the
examination (three from the US and two from Canada)
and all five passed, including Mark.
This is a really wonderful milestone for him and
another huge gain for the judo community in the Pacifc
Northwest and Alaska. We now have four active
International referees in Oregon and three in
Washington. From the national perspective, we really
have a solid foundation of judo refereeing in our area
and Mark's achievement really keeps reinforcing our
efforts and training program.
It's my hope that all of the new National referees
gain experience and keep testing to achieve higher and
higher levels of certification. It's takes a lot of
time, effort, and funding to achieve these levels and
so please do your best to support the referees in your
local area. The more higher level National and
International referees we have in our area, the entire
judo community benefits because of their expertise and
experience on and off the mat.
In addition, many of the international referees just
received a new DVD that was distributed by the
International Judo Federation (IJF). The DVD contains
new situational analysis and other types of training
aids for referees. We will be hosting a few judo
rules and referee seminars over the year and so we
will be sharing this DVD with those that attend these
clincs. Please keep your eye out for an annoucement.
Finally, I am pleased to annouce a new initiative for
judo refereeing in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.
We are starting to see a drastic shortage of referees
attending many of the local and Regional tournaments.
Due to resource, time, monetary, and national and
international referee certification requirements,
referees are having to pick and choose which
tournaments they can attend.
Due to the shortage of referees, I would like to
announce that we now planning a program which will
develop and mentor Junior Regional Referees. The
Junior Regional Referee program will be recruiting
boys or girls between the ages of 13 to 17 years old.
By attending a half-day referee clinic and passing a
short standardized examination, the Junior Regional
Referee will be allowed to gain valuable experience by
refereeing with experienced referees. Upon completion
of the clinic, each of the new Junior Regional
Referees will receive a polo-shirt with the Junior
Regional Referee logo.
This is a huge, but much needed effort to sustain the
high level of judo refereeing and competition in our
area. We need younger referees to begin filling the
voids left by those experienced referees that have
retired or have moved away. More details regarding
this new program will be coming over the next few
months.
That's it for this month's referee news.
Congratulations again to Mark Hirota for passing his
PJU-C examination!!
Calvin Terada, Chair, IJF-B
NW Referee Committee
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