Basketball President Has Never Played The Game

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31316, 11 March 1967, Page 11

Basketball President Has Never Played The Game

A LMOST exactly a decade ago a young man accompanied a few friends from the local tax office to an annual meeting of the Canterbury Men’s Basketball Association. He had no real interest in the sport outside the fact that he occasionally watched his friends and colleagues play in one of the lower grades. But the association was in desperate need of a treasurer and he had the necessary qualifications. He agreed to take on the job, somewhat reluctantly, and made such a success of it and later appointments that promotion on the administration side came rapidly. Slightly more than a week ago, almost 10 years to the day after his first connexion with basketball, Mr M. A. Henshall was unanimously elected to the highest office of the Canterbury association—that of president. He succeeds Mr R. S. Thomson, who was not available for re-election. ‘lt just shows that if one becomes interested in anything he can get right through to the top just by applying himself,” Mr Henshall said this week. Even now, Mr Henshall has never played in a game of basketball. “I have often wondered what the game looks like from the eye of a player,” he said. Yet he has made an enormous contribution to the sport in a number of directions and at

all levels during the last few years. After his appointment as treasurer in 1957, Mr Henshall quickly gained a lively interest in basketball. “What appealed to me was the technical aspect of the game. It is something like a game of chess. You have to set your players up. Once my interest started it just snowballed,” he said. - He acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the game in remarkably short time, and in 1960 was chosen as a member of a three-man panel—with Messrs R. S. Thomson and H. Fox—to sel-

ect the Canterbury team for the national championships in Invercargill. The following year he coached the team for the South Island championships in Christchurch and the New Zealand championships at Auckland.

Then, in September, 1964, he became the secretarytreasurer of the New Zealand Men’s Basketball Referees’ Association, which was then based in Christchurch. Because of pressure of work, he was forced to resign as treasurer of the Canterbury association at the following annual meeting. But his interest continued to grow. He became the referees’ representative on the national council in Wellington and was one of a committee of five responsible for the new constitution of the New Zealand association. In April, 1966, the New Zealand Referees’ Association moved to Dunedin, Mr Henshall resigned as its secretary-treasurer. He retained his place on the national council when he was appointed a South Island vice-president and is one of the key men in the new national administration of the sport.

And if this was not enough, Mr Henshall also found time to sit and pass the exacting theory and practical examinations for his New Zealand referee’s badge. He is now one of a small band of eight who are

fully qualified referees in Christchurch. On the local scene, Mr Henshall does not envisage any revolutionary changes although “we must always be conscious of streamlining the administration.” However, he' does feel that the present system of administration at a national level, which he helped design, should be changed slightly. He feels that policy throughout the year could be controlled by a national council of five and that members of the management committee should come from outside Wellington as well as inside it Too much work was at present thrown on the shoulders of the willing workers in Wellington and the system, at any rate, was costing too much money. From a referee’s point of view, he considers that there is always room for improvement in the officiating. “Referees should apply themselves to the best of their ability, remembering that constant practice always brings the best results,” he said.

Players should also remember that referees are always doing their best

He feels that the national council should not lose sight of a coaching school for referees as well as players. Although he has never played the game, Mr Henshall has seen enough to become an expert critic. H ) considers more though; should be given to the attitude of a player to the game and how he fits into a team off the court Colour blindness should also be more carefully considered.