Jayson Stiell is a FIBA level certified official hailing from Montreal, Que. with over 20 years of officiating under his belt. Refereeing at the highest level in Canada and on the international stage, Stiell is a mainstay for U SPORTS, CCAA, and CEBL games on the sidelines.

Most recently, Stiell was recognized by the CEBL for his refereeing pedigree earning the 2022 CEBL Official of the Year award in his third-season with the league after officiating the league’s championship game in both 2021 and 2022.

Tell us about your journey of officiating in basketball – what initially pushed you into this career? 

I played city ball in Montreal for six, seven years or so, then stopped playing. I got into coaching a little bit, but while I was playing, I got into refereeing. 

I was playing in a house league in 2003, and one of the refs didn’t show up. They were like ‘Do you want to ref the game?’ — ‘I was like ‘Yeah, sure I guess.’ I officiated the game and I was given $20 afterwards, and I was like ‘Oh, I get paid for this too? — Amazing!’ 

At the age of 15, I started refereeing with our local association. I quickly found out there’s a structure to it — you can move up levels and referee at college and university ball. One of the guys that I took to in the organization was the president at the time and his name was Mike Homsy . He had his FIBA license, had been to a World Championship and the Olympic Games. I took to him, and I decided that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a university referee and get my FIBA license. In 2012, the opportunity came up. I succeeded and passed all the tests and ended up getting my FIBA license.

At the time I knew about refereeing basketball, but every time I moved up there was a new opportunity. Something just kept pulling me back and I was like ‘Okay, I have to take this even more seriously.’ That was very, very cool.

What do you enjoy most about officiating?

I enjoy the challenge. 

The old saying is ‘You strive for perfection, just hoping to have a very good game’. Monty McCutchen said that ‘You shoot for the moon, but if you miss, you land amongst the stars.’ It’s never ending, and there are always ways to improve. The day you referee the perfect game, that’s the day you stop — it’ll never happen.

What’s the most memorable game you have officiated?

There’s a couple, but one that’s most recent was my second World Cup Qualifier game which was this past summer.

I had the opportunity to referee Puerto Rico and Mexico’s senior men’s teams – it’s a rivalry. It was played in Puerto Rico, my first time there, and the place was sold out with 11,000 people going bonkers. Bonkers. The game went into overtime. I’ve been doing this for 20 years, but that game I remember specifically. Puerto Rico was shooting free throws and my hand was shaking.  

I was amped — It was a one-point game in front of 11,000 people — hostile crowd chanting. I've had quite a few international experiences, but that one was definitely one for the history books.

Can you talk about the importance of the Black Referee Summit, hosted by Canada Basketball + Canada Basketball Officials Commision – what impact can it have for the future of officiating?

I think it’s a great initiative. 

Shoutout to Vern Bovell who got the ball rolling to identify some systematic issues we have within our officiating community. We had it for the first-time last year, and I got the chance to be a part of that summit. I’m hoping we can build on that and get better. But it was definitely an eye opener for a lot of people. It helped identify some issues that we have. It was a move in the right direction and hopefully we can continue building on that.

You are one of two Black FIBA certified officials in Canada, what can be done to grow the game and increase representation in officiating?

I find it so interesting that we promote, and we market basketball in Canada by using players and coaches, but there’s no promotion or marketing for officiating. Officiating is where we have the biggest gap — we’re missing referees like crazy. But there’s no marketing or anything like that. Doing this interview — a Black kid may see this and be like ‘Oh, this is pretty cool. Maybe I’ll get into refereeing and see what happens and where it takes me.’  

I think the promotion of officials and the promotion of Black officials will help mend the gap of missing referees but will also help get more Black officials involved.

In 2008, there was a CCAA Men’s National Championship on the South Shore of Quebec. I went to the tournament to watch because I’m a basketball junkie. I saw Mike Falloon, who is from Toronto, representing Ontario at that tournament. Mike is a short, light skin Jamaican referee and I’m like ‘Holy smokes, look at that guy. There’s a guy that looks just like me and he’s at the highest level reffing a national tournament. I want to be like that guy.’ 

From that point on, we exchanged contact information. He’s been a mentor to me ever since. If we can have that same experience with young Black players, coaches or whatever — they’ll be like ‘Well, if he can do it, maybe I can do it.’

How did it feel to be named the 2022 CEBL Official of the Year?

It was really, really cool. But just like everything else, it’s a little bit of a double-edged sword.  

You’re named referee of the year, then everyone expects you to be the best! But then you go out there and blow a call, everyone is like ‘This guy is the referee of the year, are you kidding me?’ It was cool that I got the award. I got to see people at the banquet — everyone saw me without my referee shirt on — so that was cool to hangout, chit chat with people about life and stuff off the basketball court.

They allowed my parents to come to the banquet and I shared that moment with them, so that was a really, really cool experience.

What advice can you offer younger referees, or individuals considering pursuing a path in officiating?

Strive to be the best referee you can be. When you self-reflect and do your self-evaluations — if you’re happy with what you see in the mirror, that’s the greatest goal of all. At the end of the day, I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror and say ‘I’m content. I’m happy with the work I did.’