I came to officiating after a professional playing career, thinking I understood the game.
I didn’t.
After just a season and a half, I walked away.
I found the environment intimidating. I struggled with the criticism, the pressure, and the way officials were sometimes treated.
Like many others, I decided it wasn’t worth it.
Years later, during a shortage of officials, I stepped back onto the court.
But this time, I wasn’t just a former player.
I was also a parent. A coach. And someone who had spent years seeing sport from the other side of the whistle.
I started to see the game differently.
And eventually, I had to confront something uncomfortable:
I had been part of the problem too.
As a coach and parent, there had been moments when I reacted to calls, carried frustration forward, or contributed to the same kind of environment that had once pushed me away from officiating.
That realization became the beginning of Next Play.
What I Started to See
The more time I spent around youth sport, the more I noticed the same pattern.
Something happens that people don’t like.
A call gets missed.
A player makes a mistake.
A coach gets frustrated.
A parent disagrees.
An official has a difficult moment.
Emotion rises.
And what happens next can change everything.
Sometimes frustration carries into the next possession. Sometimes an adult reaction changes the energy in the gym. Sometimes a young athlete gets stuck on a mistake instead of returning to the game.
But I also started to realize something important:
The difficult moment itself isn’t always the problem.
Adversity is part of sport.
Mistakes happen. Calls get missed. People disagree. Athletes struggle. Coaches get frustrated. Officials face pressure.
We aren't going to remove those moments from sport.
And maybe we shouldn't try to.
Because sport can be one of the places where young people learn what to do when things don't go their way.
The Connection
As a university and professional athlete, I had been taught skills for exactly those moments.
Reset after the mistake.
Bring your attention back to the present.
Control what you can control.
Get ready for the next play.
Those skills helped me perform under pressure.
But years later, standing behind the whistle and watching games as a parent and coach, I began to see them differently.
They weren't just performance skills.
They were life skills being practiced through sport.
And they weren't only relevant to athletes.
Parents need them.
Coaches need them.
Officials need them.
We all experience moments when emotion takes over and our first reaction isn't necessarily our best response.
That became the bigger idea behind Next Play.
Why Next Play Exists
Next Play exists to help people develop a more constructive response to adversity through sport.
Not to eliminate emotion.
Not to pretend difficult things don't happen.
And not to teach people to simply accept behaviour that crosses a line.
The goal is to build the skills to recognize what is happening, regain control of the moment, and deliberately choose what comes next.
We call that:
Pause. Reset. Respond.
Pause — Notice the reaction and create space before acting.
Reset — Acknowledge what happened, release what you cannot change, and return your attention to the present.
Respond — Choose what the next moment requires instead of reacting automatically.
It's simple enough to use during a game, but the lesson is much bigger than sport.
Because every difficult call, mistake, loss, disagreement, or frustrating moment gives us another opportunity to practice how we respond.
Sport Is the Classroom
For a long time, conversations about improving sport culture have understandably focused on reducing negative behaviour.
That matters.
But Next Play is trying to go one step further.
Instead of asking only:
"How do we stop bad behaviour?"
We're also asking:
"What can sport teach people to do when adversity happens?"
A missed call can become an opportunity to practise emotional regulation.
A mistake can become an opportunity to reset.
A disagreement can become an opportunity to model perspective and self-control.
A difficult game can become an opportunity to learn how to recover.
That doesn't mean accepting abuse, ignoring legitimate concerns, or pretending everything is okay.
It means recognizing that adversity is inevitable.
Our response to it is trainable.
And adults have an important role in modelling that response for young athletes.
Education Comes First
That is why Next Play is becoming more than a message.
It is an education initiative.
Through practical training and tools, Next Play helps athletes, parents, coaches, officials, and sport organizations develop skills around resilience, emotional regulation, behaviour, accountability, recovery, and responding under pressure.
The goal isn't perfection.
It's giving people something they can actually use when the game gets difficult.
Because knowing we should "stay positive" or "calm down" isn't enough.
People need a practical way to do it.
Where Fundraising Fits
Teams also have a very real need to raise money.
That created another opportunity.
Next Play fundraising gives teams a way to generate funds while introducing the Next Play message to more families and communities.
The products and Starter Kits aren't the education themselves.
They help carry the education beyond the room.
They create conversations. They provide visible reminders of Pause. Reset. Respond. And every supporter who encounters the message becomes another opportunity to spread a more constructive approach to adversity in sport.
So fundraising isn't the purpose of Next Play.
It's one of the ways the message travels.
The Bigger Goal
Next Play started with something I experienced personally as an official.
But it has grown into something much broader.
This isn't only about officials.
It isn't only about parents.
And it isn't only about what happens on the sidelines.
It's about what we want people—especially young athletes—to learn from sport.
They are going to face bad calls.
They are going to make mistakes.
They are going to lose.
They are going to encounter pressure, disappointment, frustration, and things they cannot control.
We can't prepare them for life by removing every difficult moment.
We can help prepare them by teaching them what to do next.
Pause.
Reset.
Respond.
Because adversity is inevitable.
Response is trainable.
And what happens next matters.
