Robyn Boyd - Basketball
Australian Sports Commission
For Melbourne’s Robyn Boyd, family dinner conversations inevitably turn to basketball. The 27-year-old’s parents met while playing basketball and her father became a referee and later a referee evaluator for the sport. Boyd followed their example and met her husband through a basketball match. Both she and her husband Clinton are now referees. While she loved playing, at 169cm, Boyd says she was too small and lacked the confidence to continue to higher levels. Ironically, she now finds herself controlling games featuring male players over 200cm tall. “I feel like I grow on court,” she says. As a primary school teacher, Boyd says her refereeing skills help her in the classroom. “You need strength and leadership in dealing with the children. I was a very shy person growing up and basketball brought out a different side of me that’s helped with my teaching.” Boyd has already refereed a number of South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) games and two Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) games and hopes to long-term consistently referee in the WNBL and the National Basketball League (NBL) “and at least one Olympics”. She hopes her National Officiating Scholarship will increase her skills and help her referee to a better standard.
