Many congrats to Nathan on his new position!
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Rugby Canada is pleased to announce that Nathan Abdelnour has recently been appointed to the position of Referee Development Manager. This position continues to be based within Rugby Canada’s Centre of Excellence at Langford. Nathan is a National Panel level referee, an IRB accredited Coach of Match Officials and an accredited IRB Match Official Educator. He is a graduate of both Carleton University and the University of Toronto.
He is a native of Ottawa who is bilingual and has spent time as a player and referee in France. He has also refereed in USA. Over the past 12 years he has served the Eastern Ontario Rugby Referee Society and Rugby Ontario in a number of administrative and leadership roles.
Nathan comes to this role with a background in management, personnel development and supervisory roles in education and more recently, in industry. Beyond Rugby, he has a keen interest in politics and is in possession of a Private Pilot’s License that he gained in 2008.
The management of Referees and other Match Officials within Rugby Canada will change with Nathan commencing this role in early May. Nathan’s role will focus upon Referee recruitment, development and education. He has been employed to place an emphasis upon referee development, advancing the level of accreditation of provincial referees and the promotion of referee coaching. This role will entail co-operative development ventures with Provincial and regional Referee Societies across Canada as well as building relationships with IRB Educators and IRB Trainers of Educators within Canada and around the world. Members of the selection panel suggested that “Nathan has all of the personal qualities, knowledge and professional background to serve the growing referee community across Canada. He displays an exemplary understanding of contemporary referee development and understands the realm of refereeing beyond Canada. His international understanding of the game plus his development from being a beginning referee through to him now serving on the National Panel of Referees along with his experiences in recruiting and educating referees is the necessary support that is required across all Provincial Unions and Provincial Referee Societies”.
The management of the High Performance Talent Identification Pathway and the management of the National Panel of Referees, of which there are 12 in 2013, will continue to be undertaken in a part time capacity by Trevor Arnold. Trevor’s part time role will also support and monitor all other Match Officials associated with the high performance level of the game including IRB accredited Match Commissioners, Citing Commissioners and Judicial Officers. Whilst the role will involve extensive travel identifying talent from across Canada he will be based in Alberta after he has assisted with Nathan’s orientation.
Both Nathan and Trevor will continue to be supported by input gained from Rugby Canada’s Match Official & Laws Advisory Panel. In 2013 this panel consists of Gerry Clayton (BC & ON), Alan Gray (NB), Alan Hudson (BC) and David Mew (ON).
