00:00 Hannah Crichton began refereeing basketball when she was 13 years old.
00:07 It didn't take long for her to find out why so many young referees walk away from the game.
00:13 My second year of refereeing I had a coach actually step onto the court and start yelling at me
00:17 and I didn't actually know what to do so I just left the court crying and couldn't continue with the game.
00:24 It's an all too common occurrence with increasing reports of spectators lashing out at referees.
00:30 For young game officials sometimes it's a question of whether it is all really worth it.
00:35 I thought that if more spectators and coaches were yelling at me I would lose my love for the sport and refereeing
00:42 and that I would just quit altogether.
00:45 Kids under 18 make up around 80% of basketball referees in the ACT
00:51 so to try and limit the on-court abuse they're introducing the green whistle.
00:56 What we're trying to do is support our referees by getting them to be basically out in front with this green whistle
01:04 so that spectators especially can identify that our young referees are actually under the age of 18.
01:10 For Hannah it's a program she wishes she had.
01:13 It definitely would have helped me especially with my confidence because I definitely got quite scared in some situations.
01:19 But something the next generation are hopeful will create change.
01:23 I reckon it would just let people know that we're not just the ref, we sort of have feelings ourselves
01:28 and that we deserve to be treated better.
01:30 Well treat us how your kid wants to be treated.
01:35 Time will tell whether the green whistle is enough to reduce the abuse.
01:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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