The Crown Refs Podcast

In this episode, we sit down with Brian Wallace, a basketball referee with over 15 years of experience who has worked both Division 1 Men's and Division 1 Women's. Brian shares his journey going from almost quitting Division 1 Men's before transitioning into a Division 1 Women's official.  ⁣ ⁣ Brian talks about bouncing back from that experience and the challenges he has faced along the way. He ta...

In the 11th installment of Rapid Responses, we give you the whole toolbox of tips and best practices in this 2-hour webinar to help you become a high-level communicator with coaches.  If you can start to implement and polish these tactics you will start to experience new powers on the court that you never had.  The tools are all here...IT'S TIME TO GO EXECUTE.⁣ ⁣ In this webinar, we deep dive into...

We are excited to welcome 2 NBA Finals officials and the creators of Ref Masters, James Williams, and Kane Fitzgerald. James is in his 13th season as Kane recently stepped away to be Vice President of Referee Operations. These gentlemen bring a wealth of experience and knowledge that they shared with us throughout this 98-minute session. ⁣ ⁣ In this episode, we spoke about their journey to the NBA...

The episode features our best content from the year including clips from our Mentor Community, Gene Steratore, Jose Carrion, Jarell Christian, JB Caldwell, Roger Ayers and much of our mic'd up camp content. Thank you for your unwavering support and have the best year of your life.⁣ ⁣ 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆⁣ Patreon.com/crownrefs⁣ ⁣ 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗽 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲⁣ https://sideline.bsnsports.com/schools/new_york/h...

Welcome back to the 10th installment of Rapid Responses, our cutting edge series devoted to helping you become a tactical communicator under pressure. We teach you the skills to be able to respond professioinally to ANYTHING a coach will ever say to you. ⁣ ⁣ In this episode, the main topicss include overcoming the fear in officiating and not being scared to firmly manage the coaches.  We cover the...

Welcome to the 300th episode of the Crown Refs Podcast. We can’t thank you enough for your continued support as it’s been a driving force behind us being able to hit this small milestone.⁣ ⁣ Gene Steratore is a flat-out officiating legend who’s worked in the Super Bowl, and the NCAA tournament, and is currently the CBS Rules Analyst for the NFL & College Basketball. For an official to have this ty...

In the 5th installment of our Live from the Locker Room series, the crew meets at halftime to discuss the plays that stood out from the first half. ⁣ ⁣ We recall a block/charge play that we rarely see as the defender turns and braces for impact. We also discuss bench decorum with regard to assistant coaches and share some helpful reminders about sticking to our fundamentals. ⁣ ⁣ We hope you enjoy!...

Brett Coleman is a passionate 7-year official from Livingston, New Jersey who's been a part of Crown Refs Mentor since March 2021. His goal is to make Division 1 and possibly beyond. He joined Crown Refs because of the valuable content and engaging community that we have!⁣ ⁣ In this episode, we cover a lot of different topics including late game "take fouls' and intentional foul scenarios and how...

Alexandre is a 7-year official working the top league in Switzerland with aspirations to continue to move up and build relationships through officiating. ⁣ In this episode, we covered plays that involved protecting the shooter, the ball before body-body before ball concept, and having more patience on plays where there is no advantage/disadvantage. ⁣ ⁣ We also discussed court coverage and the impo...

Game Notes is the longest-running series on Crown Refs as we welcome back Carmela Garcia for the 2nd time in episode 036. Carmela has shown steady growth since she's been a part of the community and continues grow as an official and mentor to others.⁣ ⁣ In this episode, we emphasize being mechanically thorough, eliminaing unnecessary signals, and always having a big-picture awareness. We talk abou...

In one of the most productive signal schools yet, the Crown Refs Mentor Community puts in a ton of great mirror work practicing a whole list of common signals. We had over 10 officials working in unison so we hope you can pick up a lot of pointers both from their presentations and from the coaching that's being provided. There was a lot of individualized instruction for each official as well as bi...

The 10th installment of our Camp Clips series, gives an introduction to our signal school session, a referee workout designed to help officials improve their presentation of signals. The process of trying to master all aspects of the craft including all of the small things will make the biggest difference for you over the span of your career. ⁣ ⁣ We talk about why it's important to use multiple tw...

In the 9th installment of our Camp Clips series, we explain the "ball before body/body before ball" concept and the benefits of utilizing the "hit to the head" signal. We cover a very useful strategy using the feet/foul/floor/flop concept which acts as a checklist for officials to more thoroughly officiate jump shot plays. ⁣ ⁣ We discuss the use of unapproved "hit to the head" signal for NFHS game...

Officiating is a sisterhood & brotherhood that helps you form life-long relationships and leads to high-levels of self development and growth as a human being. Will Fried gives us some of the biggest things he's gained from becoming an official and how it has positively changed his life. Crown Refs is an all-inclusive community that supports one another to the fullest. ⁣ ⁣ We are so proud of the c...

In the 7th installment of our Camp Clips series, we jump in on a late game scenario where the officials discuss time, score, foul situation, and a proactive method to avoid an intentional foul. We discuss proper out-of-bounds mechanics, lowering your numbers to face-level, and not allowing any parts of the game to shock us or throw us off. ⁣ ⁣ For block/charge plays, we must certify the legality o...

Hey CR FAM! This episode features our mentor session from 10/28/22 about great partnering and always being the bigger person.  The goal of this  episode is to show you many of the steps needed to become the “Partner that everyone wants to work with.” ⁣ ⁣ We discuss some of our major mindset themes and virtues such as kindness, humility, patience, empathy and more.  We think you will instantly grow...

Nick Burton, is a former minor league basketball player in the ABA, and a 10-year official from Kansas City, Missouri with aspirations of one day working a state championship game.⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ In this episode of Game Notes, Nick exemplifies the most effective way to take accountability as his humility and aspirations to grow shine throughout the episode.  When you publicly highlight your weaknesses it...

This episode focuses on a singular technical foul from a recent AAU game, and the actions that occurred leading up to it, the steps we took to proactively manage the coach, and how we went about administering the technical foul.  ⁣ ⁣ This podcast will give you some communication and game management tactics for you to immediately apply to your games.  One of the themes we discussed is the art of sn...

Gary Vee is one of the most successful entrepreneur and public speakers in the world and he probably produces more content than any other creator or influencer on social.  4Ds is a one-day fully immersive digital education for ambitious businesses lead by Gary and his amazing team at the Sasha Group. ⁣ ⁣ This episode features the 10-min interaction that I had with Gary back in June 2022 where he g...

Being a great partner and always supporting one another is the most important skill set for sports officials to exhibit for a myriad of reasons. Especially, with so much division amongst referees within the industry and all of the outside negativity that is pushing referees out of the profession, being a great teammate is more vital than ever.⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ In this episode, we meet with Collin Nelson, Et...

𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝟬𝟮𝟭 | 𝗟𝘂𝗸𝗲 𝗪𝗲𝗿𝗮 ⁣ ⁣ Luke, is a Canadian basketball referee from Vancouver, BC who’s been official since 2016. He aspires to become FIBA certified, get hired into a college conference, and ultimately make officiating a full-time gig. ⁣ ⁣ In this episode of Game Notes, we reverse the format as Luke breaks down one of my block/charge plays from a previous season. We also discuss the fact t...

𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝟬𝟮𝟬 | 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗚𝗶𝗯𝘀𝗼𝗻⁣ ⁣ Branden Gibson, Beacon, NY, is a former division 2 basketball player at Dominican College who’s been official since 2016 on IAABO’s board 114. He’s currently working at the varsity/Juco level and is looking to be in a regular rotation in the various d2/d3 conferences in the area.⁣ ⁣ On this episode of Game Notes, Branden had numerous interactions with the coach o...

Welcome back to the Crown Refs podcast for episode 281. This episode features Jarell Christian, who's a former coach and the current general manager of the Boston Celtics G-League affiliate the Maine Celtics. Before being hired by Brad Stevens to take over as Gm he spent 1 season as head coach where they broke the franchise record for most NBA call-ups. ⁣ ⁣ Jarell has also spent 2 seasons as the W...

The NFHS just the released the Points of Emphasis for the 2022-23 basketball season with the main focus centered around Sportsmanship and respect for the game.  Now more than ever officials have the leverage and support to call the rules as written and not allow verbal abuse towards officials or disrespectful behavior amongst opponents. We just need to have the communication and game management sk...

Greg is the founder of creator for the YouTube channel A Better Official which creates content to help basketball officials get better and take control of their officiating career.⁣ ⁣ He produces such notable series as 5 Play Friday, Basketball Rules Expert, and 5 Minutes on Officiating.⁣ ⁣ Greg has been officiating high school and Collegiate basketball for over a decade in the beautiful San Franc...