My proudest moment, refereeing the men's final at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Jeff Brehaut - a life on the stand

How did you first get involved in volleyball?

My first involvement in volleyball was on my first day at work as an apprentice, one of the guys I was working with asked me at lunchtime “did I play volleyball” , I did not then and he said come and try we have a game at lunchtimes on the field. That’s how it started and I am still involved. 

I played for many years with Poole VC , Granwood Rockets VC and Weymouth VC and qualified as a referee early on , just after I started to play, as I was the one who refereed at tournaments when we played.

At this point I knew that once I stopped playing refereeing would be my route forward, and to that end I was involved in officiating whist I was playing.

Once playing was over , my refereeing career got going I had already been refereeing a little at tournaments and also at the ISF’ held in Bath in 1979 and also as a line judge at the Spring Cup held in Bath and Nottingham in 1978. In 1980 I started to referee and stopped playing and there it really started. In 1981 I attended my International Volleyball Referee course held in Nottingham in association with the Commonwealth Championships and after that I continued to referee both Nationally and Internationally.

Volleyball Refereeing continued for some years until the early nineties when I began to get involved with Beach Volleyball and at this point I was refereeing both codes. The Beach Volleyball side developed and in 1966 I was invited to attend the fours ever International Beach Volleyball Refereeing Course held in Rio De Janeiro. This was with the FIVB World Championship Series event that was being played at that time. Fortunately I passed the course and was selected to Referee the final match between Brazil and Australia. This was a big challenge as it was the first time I. Have refereed at that level and it was in front of a crowd of 6,000 spectators. This I think was my biggest challenge in Refereeing , being a new face in the refereeing ranks at this level and dealing with the course and the added pressure of the crowds and the heat of Rio. This gave me the confidence to know that I could deal with refereeing at this level and the demands it made.

Later that year , I was invited to referee at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, the first games with Beach Volleyball as a medal sport. This was a great honour and a milestone for Beach Volleyball. It was a fantastic experience and one I will never forget , it was made all the more special when I was assigned to referee the first ever Men’s Gold Medal match , my proudest moment in Volleyball.

I continued refereeing both codes for another 7 years until stopping refereeing in 2003, I did manage to referee at the Sydney Olympic Games, again being assigned to the Men’s Final and at the Goodwill Games Held in Brisbane in 2001, I have also refereed 8 World Championship finals.

Life after refereeing.

After my refereeing career finished I developed my roles as a Referee Delegate on the World Tour and also as a Technical Supervisor this was both for the FIVB and the CEV. That game me the opportunity to attend the Olympics games of Athens and Beijing and also the Commonwealth Games of 2018 held on the Gold Coast.  I also had the opportunity to meet and talk with the then IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch which was a great opportunity for me. It was a great experience and I enjoyed my time with him.

How has the lockdown changed your plans?

Lockdown has been a strange time, normally during this period I would be travelling to events and working with the officials to deliver great Beach Volleyball events. Staying at home is very different, but I have been keeping touch with as many people as possible, working on a few projects that I have on my list and trying to keep busy.  Once we are through this period of time I may hoping that things can get back to normal and we can get volleyball in all its forms back up and running. I have some things planned in the longer term , courses to be run and events to go to, but we will have to see how things progress and how soon this can happen.

I hope that everyone is staying safe and we should all look forward to getting back playing as soon as possible , but obviously safely.

Thanks Jeff.