Six of the Territory’s top sporting officials together with their mentors, earlier this month, commenced their 12 month journey in the 2021 High Performance Officiating Program (HPOP).

The only program of its kind operating in Australia, HPOP enhances the quality of Territory sports by supporting officials from the NT to aspire to and achieve high level national and international standards of officiating.

The program enables officials to pursue development opportunities with the support of a mentor. Participants attend high level competitions, participate in professional development workshops, and undertake a ‘give back’ project within their sport to assist the development of officiating in the NT.

It was a full weekend for the participants with sessions on Behaviour Profiling, Effective Communication, Goal Setting, Recovery, Nutrition, Reflecting on Performance and Resilience.

The 2021 HPOP officials are:

BMX – Sue Sinclair (Katherine)
Golf – Amy Griesbach
Hockey – Ayla Carne
Netball – Carly Ross (Alice Springs)
Touch Football – Wayne Lo
Sailing – Kelly Wilson

Ruth Kirk, a 2020 Official said "Having the opportunity to do the 2020 HPOP gave me the much needed guidance, strategies and abilities to assist me in umpiring netball to my fullest potential. I was given the chance to change my outlooks and habits to be more beneficial for my progress. I strongly recommend this program to absolutely all sports, as I saw all participants getting something different from it. The staff at the NTIS and the extra assistance they pull in from external sources was beyond measurable.”