Community Sports Builder | Basketball Official
Abbotsford Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2019
Jim Cervo has been a mainstay in the basketball community, both locally and nationally, for 35 years.
He began refereeing in 1984, starting with high school games, and would go on to officiate many provincial championships at all tiers, including multiple appearances at the B.C. AAA boys basketball championships at the Agrodome in Vancouver.
Cervo would progress to the college and university levels, and was selected to officiate at ten CCAA and CIS/U SPORTS national championships, working the gold medal game at the majority of these tournaments.
Cervo’s impact went well beyond his on-court work. He was instrumental in the development of several officials’ associations, beginning with the Fraser Valley Basketball Officials Association (FVBOA) which would come to be known as one of the premier refereeing bodies in the province. He also helped to establish a “college panel” of referees to officiate CCAA games throughout B.C., and was a founding member of the Canada West Panel of Officials which manages more than 125 referees for U SPORTS games from Victoria, B.C. to Winnipeg, Man. As well, Cervo is designated as a provincial and national evaluator, coaching and training basketball officials for all of B.C. and across Canada.
Eventually, Cervo would get involved at the national level with the Canadian Association of Basketball Officials (CABO) where he served on the executive for nearly a decade as the education officer. In this position, he revamped the national training program for all Canadian officials, writing a new certification manual that would become the standard for officiating across the country. This manual is still in use today. As a member of the CABO executive, Jim worked closely with Canada Basketball and FIBA (the international governing body of basketball) on behalf of the officials in Canada.
Cervo retired from refereeing at the college and university levels in 2018, after almost 30 years. He continues to officiate high school basketball in the Fraser Valley and serves on the B.C. Basketball Officials’ Association executive.