Cecil Chin“The joy that I garnered during my period of officiating was that I have played a significant role in establishing the ethics and norms of officiating in the Caribbean. More so,Cheap Wholesale NFL Jerseys, I was happy to have placed Guyana at the forefront in refereeing in those days.”By Edison JeffordYou don’t often run into pioneers; in fact, history-makers are as rare as a West Indies Test Match victory these days. However, having the distinction of leaving an indelible mark on the local landscape in basketball officiating is the life’s work of Cecil Chin.It is easy to sometimes forget the men behind the scenes; the men, who, through their dedication to a specific purpose, work feverishly to ensure that systems are upheld, rules are kept and the standing orders in various phenomena of sport are maintained.Sometimes, the men in black and white, on a basketball court, go unnoticed when ultimately they are the ones who are responsible for the fair outcome of the game. The role and responsibility of an on-court official supersede policing the game,NFL Jerseys Authentic China, but the point is, referees are as important to the game as the competing teams and sometimes their many superstars.Guyana has had the distinction of having the first F?d?ration Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) (English: International Basketball Federation) referee in the English-speaking Caribbean when in 1978,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, Chin succeeded with the prestigious accreditation along with John Yates.Today, we feature 62-year-old Cecil Chin, a man regarded as the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC)’s most experienced referee and Guyana’s finest to-date, in our Special Person column. He sat down with Kaieteur News last week to highlight what has been a fascinating career.“I had personally developed a love for officiating. My desire for basketball and officiating took a different plane after I was exposed to higher levels of competition; having travelled the length of the Caribbean and beyond, I felt compelled to make a lasting impression toward the development of the sport in Guyana and in the region,wholesale jerseys china,” Chin indicated.Cecil Chin was born on March 1, 1949, and raised on South Road, Central Georgetown. He has spent a lifetime in basketball. His orientation came in 1964 when he started playing the game. In 1969 he made the Junior national team and was appointed captain.Chin played on the first Guyana team to compete at a Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games when they toured Venezuela in 1971. The team is still the only Guyanese team to have an overwhelming victory (71-52 against Trinidad and Tobago) at that level.As a student, Cecil attended the then Sacred Heart Secondary School. Following his tenure there, he went on to the Government Technical Institute, where he was an outstanding athlete. He had understood the importance of integrating academia and sport.His roots are deep in the sport of basketball. On a path to what looked like a promising career as a point guard, he was regarded as one of the best ball-handlers. However, his dreams of being a professional basketball player were dashed when he was omitted from the 1973 national team for the CAC Games. It did not stop him from exploring his secondary passion.“I had to make a decision. I loved playing the game and I never stopped playing, but I had to take a decision as to which one of my desires in the sport I would develop; whether I will continue to try to play at the highest level or whether I would become an official,” he said.Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira, Francis Knights and Yates are among the individuals Chin credits with channelling him in the direction of basketball officiating. Professionally, Chin had been a soldier in the Guyana Defence Force (GDF). He was enlisted as a soldier in 1969 and when he untied his playing sneakers, he was trained as a Physical Education Instructor in Trinidad and Tobago following his November 26, 1978 FIBA Carnet (licence) accreditation.However,http://www.soccerpro.us.com/FC-Bayern-Munich/, before his accreditation, Chin had already begun to carve a niche on the officiating front in the Caribbean. His first exposure as a referee in the region came in 1975 when the CBC suggested that the best referee from each participating country must accompany teams.Chin was chosen as Guyana’s referee at the CAC Games. He officiated in the tournament hosted in Santo Domingo. Central America’s best teams from countries such as Cuba, Colombia, Santo Domingo, Suriname, Mexico and Puerto Rico participated. It gave Chin his first real taste of what it would require to become an international referee.“In the initial stages, officials were accredit