But it has been a long and bumpy road to her selection as a referee for the Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa league this season.
Growing up in Waimate, Young played miniball, touch and netball but it all took a back seat to her first love, athletics.
While at Roncalli College in Timaru she represented New Zealand in the triple jump and long jump, but after suffering six dislocated knees since 2018 — and "too many other things in between" — she decided to give up on athletics.
The 22-year-old coached a miniball team while at school, and always "drew the short straw" to referee games, so when she moved to Dunedin in 2019 to study, she decided to tap into that more.
Her bachelor of applied science lecturer Roger Southby connected her with Trinity Catholic College, formerly Kavanagh College, to coach the school’s year 9 and 10 girls basketball team. Despite not finishing her diploma, it heightened her love for other avenues sport could offer.
She started playing for University then switched to Andy Bay Falcons, and was "roped" into refereeing secondary school basketball alongside her games.
It helped spark her passion for refereeing further, so she took on women’s club basketball and lower-grade men’s club games, as she still "felt pretty fresh".
Over the past three seasons, through courses and various tournaments, Young worked her way up the ladder coaching top-level women’s and men’s club basketball, while juggling coaching the Andy Bay Falcons Blue men’s team last year.
Refereeing was something she had "just fallen into" but it gave her the opportunity to still be involved in a sport where she could work on herself individually — and help her gain more confidence.
"Athletics was really good for that because it’s obliviously quite individual," Young said.
"You put in your own work and you get your own rewards and while I do enjoy sharing those rewards as a team when I play basketball ... I feel like you learn a lot of life skills when you do things yourself.
"I used to struggle to talk to people and I think when you’re put in the situations of having to deal with angry players and stuff in the moment, you force yourself to have those tough conversations, and I think that’s helped everyday life."
Determined not to let her injuries stop her from enjoying sport, she started refereeing at national tournaments and realised holding the whistle could take her further.
Her hard work had paid off and she was ecstatic to be appointed as a level-four referee for the Tauihi league, the only Dunedin official on the national panel this season.
"I’m super excited. I think I’m very lucky I’ve kind of got the old triple threat going — coaching, reffing and playing.
"You get to know the people, so many people — they’re pretty much like my family. It’s quite nice when I’ll be reffing Tauihi, the Hoiho, I’ll be reffing basically all my friends, people that I’ve played with and all these other girls that I’ve played with at various times in other teams as well.
"It’s quite cool that I can be part of that because I’m definitely not at the skill level to be able to play it."
Most players were pretty good at respecting their friendship on the court but she did get the "odd look" then patched it up over dinner the next night, she laughed.
Tauihi would be a great experience — alongside scoring National Basketball League games — and she strived to coach the men’s league and get her Fiba licence in the future.
