As far back as 1941 - 42 this association of basketball officials began with only two officials, Lou Smith and Wayne Lohnes. Wayne was only in grade ten at the time and there were only four high schools serviced in the area; Kitchener Collegiate Institute, Galt C.I., Brantford C.I. and Guelph C.I. Early on in the 1950's, this group grew to 8 or 9 officials and became associated with the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials known as IAABO. This was when the Ontario Board #102 came into existence as the only board in Ontario and one with the largest geographical area. Many local individuals came and went until the Ministry of Education amalgamated the local boards of education into the Waterloo County Public Board of Education and the Waterloo Catholic Board of Education in 1969, resulting in the need for a stronger association to service the growing number of high schools in the area. This gave way to a more formal structure for our local association with an elected executive committee being established. In 1973 -74, we became our own known as Board 210 and have had fifteen presidents starting with Jim McKinley, Terry McLeod, Dave Lane, Fred Curren, Wayne Bucholtz, John Kaufman, Mick Kozlowski, Ian Dewar, Dave Potje, Allan Bush, Karen Mowbray, Tina Eden, Don Thorne and currently, Neil Swayze. With Wayne Lohnes being our first assignor for many years in the 50's and early 60's, there have been only seven individuals who have had this position over the years which included Jim Voisin, Larry Porter, Orv Getz, Jim Swartz, Dave Potje and presently, Don James.
The Kitchener-Waterloo Basketball Officials Association (KWBOA) is the official organization of basketball officials in Waterloo Region and is affiliated with Basketball Ontario (OABO), the Canadian Association of Basketball Officials (CABO) and the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials (IAABO), as well as, the Federation of International Basketball Association (FIBA). KWBOA's purpose is to train and educate basketball officials for our local area; to maintain the highest standard of basketball officiating and to promote the development of the sport locally with the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB), the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB), the Huron-Perth and Avon-Maitland School Boards. Our association services the above high school leagues, as well as, men's, women's and youth city recreational basketball and OBA club teams.
COPYRIGHT, 2002 Mark Stevens, Adam Zochowski, All Rights Reserved
