The commissioner of the Maritime Women’s Basketball Association is preparing to enter the national stage.
She’ll have company.
Six officials, three from Nova Scotia and three from New Brunswick, will pack their whistles in March to officiate at the USPORTS and Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association championships.
Jen Lloyd, entering her third year at the helm of the MWBA in the commissioner’s role, will officiate the CCAA men’s title tournament in Nanaimo, BC.
‘I can’t speak for the other officials, but it’s always a special privilege to be selected to officiate at the national level of any tournament,’ she said. ‘We do almost all of our work in our own provinces, but to earn the chance to move on to the next level is truly exciting. I am sure the others would agree with that.’
Nova Scotia’s Steve Clow will officiate at the USPORTS women’s championship in Quebec City at Universite de Laval.
The Atlantic University Sport champion University of New Brunswick Reds will be attending that Final 8 championship.
Matt Boyle of the Bluenose Province earned his stripes and will call games at USPORTS men’s Final 8 in Calgary.
On the New Brunswick side, two officials will be calling games and another in supervisor category.
Ryan Langdon will join Boyle in Calgary to officiate in the USPORTS men’s tournament.
Dave Gallagher is off to the CCAA women’s final, hosted by Dawson College Blues out Montreal.
Veteran Todd Messer will be winging his way west to Nanaimo as an official’s supervisor for the CCAA men’s draw.
Interesting to note that Gallagher was one of the officials when the MWBA played its first game back in 2022 in Fredericton. He was part of the crew that called a game between the Moncton Mystics and Halifax Thunder at Leo Hayes High School.
Messer worked the first two years of the MWBA. He worked games during the league’s opening tournament in 2022. The last game he ever officiated before retiring was in May, 2023, during an in-house MWBA’s tournament in Fredericton, featuring a matchup between Saint John’s Port City Fog and Thunder.
He’s also been in to evaluate at a handful of MWBA games over the last two seasons.
Both USPORTS championships are March 6 to 8.
The CCAA tournaments are March 18 to 21.
– MWBA commissioner, Jen Lloyd, is one of six officials from NS and NB handling national assignments this month.
