This year a young local football umpire has been given the opportunity of a lifetime as he heads to Adelaide to be a part of the SANFL’s Umpire Academy
Teenager Reece Barrett will be joining the umpiring academy this year run by umpires from the SANFL.
The academy’s members train with the goal of officiating AFLW games as well as taking the field for the U16s and U18s matches in Adelaide.
Barrett was offered the opportunity to join the academy after officiating a girls’ Crows academy game.
This prompted the SANFL to invite him to umpire a few more games and to be coached. Several weeks later Barrett was offered to become a member of the academy.
The youngster is delighted with the opportunity to be selected for the academy and believes it’s a big deal considering he has not been umpiring for that long.
“It feels pretty good, it’s pretty big actually, coming from only umpiring for one and a half to two years and to have only done A grade very recently, to be going up to Adelaide is a pretty big event,” he said.
Barrett never thought he would be given an opportunity like this after he first started umpiring.
“I did not to be honest, when I got asked to umpire down here locally I thought ‘why not’ and gave it a shot,” he said.
“I never thought I would actually be ending up going to Adelaide for it.
“When I first started umpiring I really enjoyed it and I thought it would be really fun to take it further.”
Barrett hopes his time in the academy will help achieve his goal of becoming a professional umpire, with his main goal to officiate in the AFL.
Barrett said he was very grateful for the support and help he has received locally in his umpiring journey.
“I have only been able to get here from the help I have locally,” he said.
“SEFUL that has only folded this year they have helped me with everything, the people there, the umpires, presidents, they’re the people that push me to go further and all I can really do is just thank them for leading me to where I am,” he said.
Barrett will head to Adelaide to join the academy on the Australia Day long weekend.