Our commitment to safety and fairness through our officials.
YYB's referee training program began more than 20 years ago. Before the program, officials were given the CIF rule book and that was that. Now, we create classes for our referees not just using the CIF rule book; but also through drills, live scrimmages, and one on one practice with veteran referees for our newer ones. Most of our referees are kids who have played in YYB and have aged out of the program.
Being an official is not the easiest job in the world. As the founder of the Referee Clinics Vic Gamez once said, "50% of the people will hate you, and 50% will love you." However, most of the referees that we train genuinely want to learn the rules and mechanics of officiating to either make them a better basketball player or get some real world experience with a first job since we start with thirteen year olds.
A handful of the referees that go through our program go on to become CIF Officials or even College-level officials. Some also stay in the program to help train new kids that are starting out.
Being a referee for YYB is a great way to give to the community by helping us providing a safe and fair game for all of our players and it comes with free training from our Chief of Officials Bruce Shink. Not only is the training free, but we pay all of our officials as independent contractors per game no matter how old they are or how many years experience they have.
Our referees need to be at least 13 years old, although we have in the past let 12 year olds start in the program.
Referees need to be equipped with a Fox 40 whistle, referee uniform shirt, black athletic pants or shorts, and athletic shoes (which all can be found at your local sporting goods store or online!)
The willingness to be fair to all of our teams and a desire to help our kids learn basketball!
Our Referee Clinics are on Saturday mornings on October 7th - December 16th at The Yucaipa Community Center on Oak Glenn Road. If you have any questions about the program, feel free to contact us through our email on the Contact Us page, or call our Chief of Officials Bruce at 909-705-6575. And if you do decide to become a referee with us, please sign up for our Officials Self Registration to receive emails and to get scheduling information.
Also make sure to follow Yucaipa Youth Basketball on Facebook for updates too!
Officials Code of Conduct
Very Cheesy (but helpful) Video on Hand Mechanics
Team Sideline: How to guide to view your assigned games