YMCA of the Triangle

YMCA of the Triangle 

The Northwest Cary and Taylor Family YMCAs started using Silbo in 2018 for their adult basketball program. Prior to using Silbo, they were working with a booking agent who connected them to referees. However, they found that there was a lack of transparency; referees didn’t always show up; and financially this process just didn’t make sense for them. “With our old vendor it was tough to keep tabs on the quality of referees and hard to deliver feedback to the main guy in charge,” said Eric Santilli, Regional Sports Director of the YMCA of the Triangle. Santilli has been with the YMCA since 2014 and oversees youth and adult sports at two of the branches.

Santilli found Silbo while searching for a referee solution and, after a few conversations with the team, realized the platform was a good fit. Santilli had considered handling referee management in-house, but determined that doing so would require too many resources and that using Silbo would be much more efficient. “At first I was worried that we would lose the personal touch we had with our old vendor. We had worked with him for a long time. But Silbo’s team made the transition easy. When we made the switch, we not only had increased accountability and referee quality, but top-notch customer service and support.

“Silbo approaches the challenge of getting officials to games in a 21st century kind of way. Their interface for both leagues and referees is sleek and easy to use,” said Santilli. While the goal of the YMCA leagues isn’t to make a profit, using Silbo helped them make positive strides financially. This has allowed the YMCAs to invest back into their programs and focus on their main goal: serving the community. Since switching to Silbo, the basketball league has grown, adding more teams to their adult program. On top of that, games that used to take days or even weeks to fill are now filled within hours through Silbo’s RefXchange. “With Silbo, our referees are more consistent. They are there on-time and they understand the unique rules for our league.”