SABO is an organization that secures school or recreation league contracts for the purpose of assigning referees in the south Metro Atlanta counties of Clayton, Coweta, Fayette and Fulton. Presently SABO assigns games from public and private middle schools, as well as various youth and adult recreation leagues during all seasons of the year.

How did SABO get started?

The South Atlanta Basketball Officials, LLC got its start all because referees were not giving proper respect to the games they were calling or to the players and coaches in those games. Here is how it occurred.

In 1994 referees for the Fayette County Youth Basketball Association (FCYBA) were assigned by an Atlanta based refereeing group. Many times each Saturday the referees did not arrive at all or arrived late for games as they often underestimated the time it would take to get from Atlanta to Fayetteville. Then when they did arrive, many of the referees were upset to find that they were refereeing games with kids as young as 7 & 8. Other referees would get here to find out that they were not prepared to call basketball played as well as 18 year old boys play. Also because they had no interest in basketball in Fayetteville, they would often get an attitude toward the coaches and players.

At that time Joe Gratzer was President of the FCYBA and Phillip Sisk was one of the board members. The board felt that something had to be done about the referees showing up late, if at all, and their poor attitude toward FCYBA’s games. In their talks they discussed the possibility of using people who lived in Fayetteville who already refereed and of training adults and high school students. The board felt that doing so created a win-win situation because the board felt that;

(1) FCYBA would get referees who had an interest in Fayetteville and its basketball program,

(2) the referees would probably arrive more often and on time knowing what games they would be calling, and

(3) money paid to referees would be staying in Fayetteville.

Since Phillip was refereeing high school and college at the time and had contacts with referees, he volunteered to recruit experienced referees as well as train people new to refereeing. It worked! FCYBA was happy with referees showing up on time, caring about the leagues games and paying officials who lived in Fayetteville. Because of the good attitudes of the referees, bad calls would often be overlooked.

The group had no name at that time and it didn’t really matter until other leagues starting asking Phillip to assign officials to their games as well. Needing a name, his wife came up with South Atlanta Basketball Officials (SABO). The number of leagues that SABO now assigns has grown to include middle schools, some private middle and high schools, adult recreation leagues as well as youth recreation leagues.

As SABO has grown it has become necessary to recruit officials that do not live in the Fayette County area and have no connection to the leagues that SABO officiates. But it is SABO's goal that all referees remember how and why SABO got its start. SABO's hope is that all who call games for SABO, now and in the future, will realize that there is NO place for referees who don’t respect the leagues they call, their players and their coaches.

How does SABO work? 

Referees register with SABO and then they are assigned games according to their ability level. Referees are paid either at the site or at the end of the season for the games they have done.

For More Information, contact Phillip Sisk at 404-457-3843 or e-mail at info@saboref.com