Don Blacklock

Don Blacklock was elected as a Director to the Board of Governors to a four-year team from 2023 to 2027 at the General Assembly in 2023. Blacklock was elected to a second term on the board after previously serving as the technical director on the board from 2019 to 2023. That role has been eliminated and the new role of director is more generalized.

In his role as technical director, Blacklock was responsible for the development of rules for all lacrosse disciplines recognized by World Lacrosse, the development of officials and the selection of officials for World Lacrosse world championship competitions. He was also responsible for oversight of World Lacrosse anti-doping activities.

Before his role as the technical director, Blacklock served from 2008 to 2019 as the World Lacrosse’s Men’s Officiating Subcommittee chair, a post responsible for overseeing the design, development and growth of the international officiating program, including the training of officials for all disciplines of men’s lacrosse and selection and management of officials and assessors for men’s world championships. Blacklock himself is a veteran international lacrosse field official.

During his time chairing an officiating subcommittee, he worked to establish and maintain qualification standards and build training curricula and testing for world championship officials. He also provided expertise to help establish referee programs throughout the world in emerging lacrosse nations by teaching referee courses and consulting with National Federations on the design and implementation of officiating programs and accreditation systems.

In England, Blacklock serves as a member of the English Lacrosse Association’s Referees and Rules Committee, which is responsible for the country’s men’s national officiating program. The committee sets the overall direction of officiating for all levels of men’s lacrosse in England, including certification criteria and allocation of officials to county, national, European and international competitions. It also develops and delivers referee training courses and manages the rule change process.

In 2013, he received the Lester B. Pearson Award from the Canadian Lacrosse Association for outstanding contributions of sportsmanship and leadership to the game of lacrosse. In 2014, he received the FIL’s (now World Lacrosse) Development Award for contributions to the development of officiating in international lacrosse.

Blacklock’s involvement in sports extends to other areas, including netball. He serves as digital innovation and transformation manager for England Netball and previously was the organization’s officiating manager responsible for supervising more than 8,000 umpires, tutors, assessors and regional administrators. He also is an independent director for Sports Officials UK, an organization that supports the development of officials across all UK sports. Prior to that, he held various technical positions in the automotive industry.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in administrative studies from York University, a master’s degree in information security from Georgian College and a certificate in project management from Edinburgh Business School.