Retired International Referee and OVA Provincial Officials Committee member Guy Bradbury has been named the President of the NORCECA Refereeing Commission. Bradbury replaces Jose Ramon Perez Vento, who has been the Chair of the Commission for over a decade and will remain with the group as an Advisor. Prior to his appointment as President, Bradbury was a Member/Secretary of the Commission.

“He (Perez Vento) provided strong guidance, leadership and was passionate about referee development,” Bradbury says of his predecessor. “There are five federations within the FIVB structure and to be selected to be President of the NORCECA Refereeing Commission is certainly an honour.”

Bradbury praises NORCECA’s strong history of high performance refereeing. “In 2019, 14 NORCECA Volleyball and Beach Volleyball referees participated in the either the Gold or Bronze matches for FIVB world championships - a testament to the work and quality of our referees and volleyball/beach volleyball within our zone.”

Similar to the challenges that currently experienced in Canada, the focus for Bradbury with the multiple jurisdictions and sport organizations in general is referee recruitment, retention and succession. NORCECA is a diverse confederation with a wide variance of federation population, level of play and infrastructure for referee development. While the goal is to build upon what currently exists, Bradbury points out that what must be understood that a one size fits all approach will not work. An initial ask for a Commission is to review the needs of NORCECA's 41 member Federations and develop a longer-term strategy to support development at the community level while continuing to support high performance.

With a wealth of knowledge in volleyball at the provincial, national and international level, Bradbury brings the following experience to the role of President: National Referee Chair and Member of the National Referee Committee for Volleyball Canada, Regional Officials Chair of the Newfoundland & Labrador Volleyball Association, Member of the FIVB Refereeing and Rules of the Games Commission, FIVB Course Instructor and Referee Coach.

Congratulations Guy!