Tyler’s not the usual netball umpire
By day Tyler Goldsworthy works in the male-dominated occupation of tyre fitting; by night he’s an umpire for a women-only netball league.
On a Monday night he can be found blowing his whistle at the Inglewood High School netball courts in Taranaki, where he doesn’t miss a beat. You stepped? He saw it. Too close? He’s called it. Contact? He’ll make you stand down. Nothing goes unnoticed.
The International Netball Federation recently rejected the concept of a professional men’s netball league but Goldsworthy can still participate from the sidelines.
He started umpiring when he was 14 and just hasn’t been able to kick his love of the sport.
‘‘My family all played it, little sisters played intermediate netball, Dad played outdoor social and Mum did the same thing and coaching, so thought I’d get involved in the family sport,’’ the 20-year-old New Plymouth man said.
‘‘I’m quite well known around here for it. I stopped for a year to go into work and then came back because I just missed the sport.’’
Goldsworthy’s school didn’t allow boys to play so umpiring was his way of getting involved.
He’d tried other sports like hockey and motocross, but netball just stuck.
‘‘I’ve just always liked it, I don’t know why, I just like being involved.
‘‘Even when the family were training, just practising, I was jumping in and then started doing Saturday netball umpiring and just worked my way up from there.’’
He learned the rules from his family, got coached, and eventually went for his centre badge, the first step towards becoming an accredited umpire. He will sit his zone badge, the next progression, in the next couple of months.
Becoming an accredited umpire involved being assessed and sitting theory tests.
Goldsworthy’s goal is to make it to the ANZ Premiership, which he said required ‘‘more assessments and paperwork’’.
‘‘That’s the plan. You can go anywhere with it.’’
When Goldsworthy started his training it was all women apart from him and one other guy. But the number of male umpires is increasing, he said.
Out of the 2410 accredited umpires in New Zealand, 127 are men.
In 2018, 20 male umpires attended the Netball New Zealand U19, Secondary Schools and U17 Champs and six were included in the 2018 National Umpire Squad, which umpires in the ANZ Premiership and Beko Netball Leagues.
Over the years Goldsworthy said he had copped a bit of flack over being involved in an allfemale sport but it didn’t worry him. ‘‘I enjoy it so I’m not gonna let them bring me down.’’