Umpire coach on inspiring the next gen

By Stephanie Smarrelli

While the spotlight in netball is often on the athletes, the unsung heroes are the umpires on the sidelines

Selecting, mentoring and leading the way for Australian umpires is High Performance Umpire Coach Stacey Campton OAM.

A proud Gunggari woman Campton’s work in the netball space is only part of her contribution to community.

She’s also dedicates her time to improving outcomes and supporting her fellow First Nations people.

She was recognised in this year’s Australia Day Honours list, receiving one of the country’s highest honours the Medal of the Order of Australia for her service to netball and the Indigenous community.

A humble Campton was honoured to receive the recognition but confessed she had some mixed emotions about it.

"I was embarrassed,” Campton said.

“I don't do anything more or less than anybody else that works in the netball space, all of our people do more than what they get paid to do.

“I was gifted with the opportunity to work with wonderful, strong women and learn a lot from them, not only about the sport, but about myself.

"Sometimes as umpires, we fly under the radar and I'd like to see more people given the opportunity to want to be umpires and be challenged by it; to take up the whistle and think about it as an opportunity to represent the country.

"I was quite embarrassed to receive the award, but I was also quite grateful my netball community acknowledged what I've done and thought it was good enough to receive an honour but it's not the best day to receive it and I always say that, but I don't connect the two together.”

Campton was grateful to be able to openly discuss her concerns.

"I spoke to the Governor General's office about it and asked if there was any issue if I talk about the fact that it's not necessarily the best day to be receiving the honour, and they said it’s fine,” she said.

"It's not an award by the British Empire, it’s an award by the Governor General and that makes it a little bit easier.”

CAMPTON’S NETBALL JOURNEY

Campton’s love for netball started in the regional town of Woomera as a nine-year-old.

With her father in the army, her family moved around a lot while she was growing up but her love for netball continued to grow no matter where they were based.

She first picked up an umpire whistle as a 12-year-old, in Canberra, it was part of her club’s requirements to learn how to umpire and from there her true calling emerged.

Campton was talent identified, and her umpiring career flourished, umpiring as a national umpire, All Australian umpire and international umpire.

The highlight of her umpiring career, not dissimilar from athletes.

“The Netball World Cup in Jamaica in 2003,” Campton said.

“It was my first World Cup, I got to umpire the final between Jamaica and England and I can't tell you the amount of noise that was in that stadium, it was unbelievable.

“20-odd thousand people in there cheering for Jamaica and you've got to be there to experience it, those horns they blow, the chanting, the singing.

“All I can say is thank God, Jamaica won, we probably would have needed a police escort out of the stadium otherwise.”

Campton’s other career highlight is more recent.

"Last year, some of our umpires retired after many years of service to the game and it was just a privilege to be able to coach and be with them on some of their last games and to have them together,” she said.

“I’ve umpired with some of them and also coached them.

“Their excellence and commitment to the craft of umpiring and the sport was wonderful to see and it was nice they got an opportunity to retire at the top level, it was a privilege to work with them.”

In her role as Netball Australia’s High Performance Umpire Coach, Campton is responsible for selecting umpire squads and coaching them throughout their careers.

"It's not only about developing their umpiring techniques and rules knowledge but also about engaging with them as humans,” she said.

“It's a pretty tough gig, people don't like umpires, and a lot of our work is about having the faith in them and providing them with the confidence to be able to go out there and handle thousands of people telling you what the rule is even though they may not step up to the line and want to apply it themselves.”

She credits those who came before her for igniting her passion.

"I had really good teachers, strong shoulders to stand on when it came to going to the next level,” she said.

“I was an Aboriginal kid from nowhere who knew how to play sport but was never going to be able to play at a national level because I'm not tall enough, I'm only 5ft 5 but they gave me another option. 

“They supported me and said ‘you may not play for Australia, but you can represent Australia’ and we always say that to our umpires.”

She hopes to inspire more and more people to pick up the whistle around the nation.

"There's heaps of positions in our umpire squads,” she said.

"We need to fill positions not only at the elite level but at association level. 

"For example, one of the associations we work with start at 9:00am on a Saturday and finish at 5:00pm with games every hour, there’s two umpires every hour needed to manage the game, manage the supporters and manage the parents.

“Every Saturday it's a struggle to fill positions, lots of umpires do multiple games from under nines right through to Division One and it's the same with our Premier Leagues.”

There’s a few reasons, Campton believes umpires are hard to come by.

“Associations and clubs are where we start to build our base for our umpires, but it takes many years to get to the elite level,” she said.

“It's about building your resilience, building your knowledge, building your technique, building your confidence and it takes years.

“There is a struggle to find umpires because somebody’s always got an opinion on how the rule should be implemented or what the rule looks like but those people don't take up the whistle. It's about engaging people who are willing to do that and wanting to do that and find great pleasure in being able to do that. 

“It's not about being on a power trip, it's about enhancing the game and making sure our girls and boys play at the best level they can possibly play at.”

Over the years Campton has seen the development continue to grow in the umpiring space.

"The way we teach our umpires to umpire hasn’t changed much but the biggest thing has been the pace and speed of the game. Our athletes have gotten fitter to play, so have our umpires they must be as fit, if not fitter, than the players,” she said.

“Of course we don't have to catch balls and jump at great heights but we have to be able to have the strength and core stability, resistance and interval training for speed as well as the ability to be able to hold on the sideline when the ball is moving backwards and forwards, rather than running to a base line every time.

While physical fitness is important, there’s another aspect just as important for umpires to master.

“There's also a mental resilience around being able to maintain your mental abilities for more than 60 minutes of a game,” she said.

“Those sorts of skills have increased and enhanced over time but the basics of the sport, the techniques of the sport and the team building of our high-performance team hasn't changed much.”

Campton explained how umpires are much more than their individual selves.

“How they treat players and speak to players and have a relationship with players is as important as how they treat each other,” she said.

"We talk about umpires being singular individuals and not necessarily part of a team but they're part of a team on court, a team of two and sometimes three with the reserve.

“But they're also part of a bigger culture and a bigger team when they're part of our squads as well, that's something we have worked on significantly over the last few years.”

Campton fondly reflected on the people she’s connected with through umpiring.

“I know all the girls and boys I’ve umpired with,” she said.

“Over time we’ve grown up together, I know all their kids and we’ve shared significant moments together.

“It’s important for umpires to get to know each other and you be part of a team.”

SUPPORTING FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE 

Campton’s mother is of Gunggari descent in southwest Queensland while her father is Tasmanian.  

Reflecting on her family history, Campton recalled her family’s experiences as First Nations people.

“My parents got together and married before the 1967 referendum,” she said.

“That was a pretty difficult time for them to be in what you would now call a ‘mixed marriage’ but they grew up through that era and dealt with a lot of racism.

“We call it racism now but at the time it was just cruel, some of the things people did and said to my mother, father and to my family.”

Passionate about making a difference, Campton has dedicated her time to helping other First Nations people and ensuring their culture is preserved.

“I've worked in the Department of Education for Indigenous education over the years, but also in areas such as Indigenous language, culture, visual arts and repatriation,” she said.

“I have always worked in an Indigenous focused environment; it's about being a well-educated Black Woman and how I can give back to communities and my own community.

“I’m currently a member of the Gunggari Language Subcommittee, I'm involved with reviving our language and making sure the next generation of our people get to learn their language.”

She also works hand in hand with two key figures in Netball Australia’s First Nations space.

"I keep an eye on things with Beryl Friday and Ali Tucker-Munro, cause I’ve been around the block a bit,” she said.

“We're constantly having conversations around First Nations engagement and the foundations of what an organisation could and should look like to embrace that.

“And how organisations need to be able to educate themselves in our truth, our history, our strengths and what we're capable of doing so we can improve opportunities and accessibility for the next generation.” 

Campton’s reason behind wanting to drive change is quite clear.

"There’s no use doing it for yourself all the time, it's got to be about something bigger and that bigger is always going to be about community, country, culture, all of those things we're strong in,” she said.

“We have an inner strength that drives us, we want to make it better so no other kid has to put up with the blatant racist comments they may receive in a sporting event or as part of a sporting team. 

“But also the fact they can have better outcomes whether it's living on country and learning a language and being true to yourself or being whatever you want to be.

“At the end of the day being Aboriginal is a really big driver for us doing the best we can to make it better for the next generation.” 

Campton also stressed the importance of people doing their own work to better understand how they can be better allies to First Nations people.

"It's very much about learning the truth about our country, it's not a pretty history but if we don't hear it, we don't research it, we don't look into it then we don't understand what's happened and we can't move forward,” she said.

“We're constantly hearing, 'we did this for you, we did that for you, we found this and we did that’ but it's not about that. 

“It's about understanding the history was bloodied and genocidal and there was lots of resistance to it and there still is resistance but people need to understand and embrace it for what it is rather than feeling guilt, blame or the sadness that comes with destruction.”

She further explained what it takes to be a true ally.

"You need to ensure you share power,” she said.

“You have privilege in that you have a good education, you have a job, you live in a nice house, you live in a place where you have running water and electricity. 

“I work with people who don't have that in this country, and you'd think it was a third world country we live in some cases and it's about the power you have and the privilege you have that you can share. 

“What I mean by sharing is you actually give some of it up, you have to think about how you transfer power and embrace others not just in a tokenistic way or in a saviour way but in a true way of learning history, learning the truth and then thinking about ways of how you share that power and then sharing it.”

Campton expressed why sharing power is difficult.

“It's a really insightful and challenging thing for people to do,” she said.

“You'll hear all the time about the Indigenous deficit and Indigenous disadvantage and the Indigenous problem but it isn't a problem to us, it’s just a challenge of how we ensure there's equity in everything we do.

“Equity is also a challenging word because equity means you have to give up something and a lot of the times it’s actual power.”