In May 2023, John Higgins became the Coordinator of Officials for the Western Basketball Officiating Consortium (WBOC). This appointment puts John in charge of recruiting, selecting, developing, evaluating, and assigning officials for every men’s basketball game hosted by schools in the WBOC, including the Big Sky, Big West, Mountain West, Pac-12, Western Athletic, and West Coast Conferences. This past summer John was hired to manage and further develop the officiating program for the COC-MBB.  The COC-MBB has the following conferences under his direction:  Big 12 Conference, West Coast Conference, Missouri Valley Conference, Western Athletic Conference, Big Sky Conference and the Big Sky Conference.

Having officiated the Final Four multiple times himself, John understands what it takes to ref these high-level games. With this membership, you get to tap into decades of John’s knowledge and experience as well as expertise from over 50 experienced and top training officials!

“My Officiating Story” shared to you….everyone has the opportunity, it takes hard work, commitment to training and development and YES, some Good Luck.  Being in the Right Place and at the Right Time is important but you must be prepared to take advantage of the opportunity when it arises!

My officiating career happened by a fluke, when the referees did not show up to work a college freshman vs. junior college game at my then university, Kearney State, which I was a member of the basketball team.  The head coach was asking and offering $20.00 to work the game and, I volunteered!  After moving back home to Omaha, and starting a construction business, I needed something to do in the winter months, so I began officiating at the grade school and recreational level league games.  Coming from a family of athletes, who was led by my father, a college athlete, teacher and high school coach for basketball, football, baseball and track, for his entire life, was the person who most influenced the passion of competition and "be the best you can be".  I continued to work in small leagues and high school.

I was hired in the MVC in 1987-88 season by Dave Phillips and worked only 2-3 games a season.  It wasn't until my third season when Jim "Boomer" Bain, the then supervisor needed to replace an official that couldn't make it to Northern Iowa for a league game that he was attending the game.  I was the replacement official, and he liked what he had seen!   By the end of the season, he assigned me a total of seven games and the MVC tournament.  The following year I was hired into the Big 8 and my schedule grew to 30 games.   As I continued to work, I began joining several other leagues and in 1994-1995 season, I was selected to work the NCAA tournament. Thanks for reading my personal officiating story and opportunity that arose and led to my successful career over the past 34 years.