Mackenzie Knox to umpire at NSW Junior State Titles after earning National C Badge

Less than two weeks ago, Mackenzie Knox was preparing to travel to Bankstown where she was set to compete at Netball NSW’s 2021 Hart Senior State Titles campaign during the June long weekend with her Narrabri Netball Association under-15s team.

However, on Sunday, May 16, the 15-year-old suffered a broken wrist at Quirindi Netball Association’s representative invitational netball carnival.

That ruled her out of contention to compete at her debut senior state event, but she will still play a key role for Narrabri Netball Association when she umpires at her first state tournament later that month.

Narrabri Netball Association will send three teams to the 2021 Netball NSW Hart Junior State Titles from Saturday, June 26, to Monday, June 28, which will compete in the under-12s, under-13s and under-14s age groups in division three and four at Baulkham Hills.

Mackenzie will also travel to that tournament where she will be part of team white.

Mackenzie, the daughter of Michael Knox and Sharlee Bruce, is a keen and enthusiastic netball umpire.

In round four of the 2021 NNA winter season last Saturday, she earned her National C Badge which provided her with accreditation to umpire at the junior state titles.

“I love umpiring,” Mackenzie told The Courier at an under-15s training session at the Bev Burrows Courts on Tuesday night.

“I actually love it more than playing netball,” she added with a beaming smile.

Narrabri Netball Association’s umpires’ convenor Tracey Tomlinson, who is also Mackenzie’s under-15s rep team coach, recently put a call out to umpires to represent the association at the 2021 junior state titles and Mackenzie eagerly volunteered.

“Mackenzie was the only person who answered the call,” Tomlinson said.

“She’s one of those unassuming kids who just goes about her business quietly.

“She’s not one of those over-the-top umpires, she’s not there for the glory, she just does her job and gets on with it.

“As she said, she does it because she loves it which is really awesome because not many kids do it for that reason, they usually do it because I convince them to.

“I can’t badge umpires on my own so a B-badged umpire came over from Tamworth to help on Saturday.

“He was very happy with Mackenzie and he said that it was very pleasing to see that she does it with a smile the whole time.

“I said that’s kind of the kid that she is, even when she broke her arm it was with a smile.”