It's a big blow for the players given the Blaze won two straight championships before last year's league was cancelled due to COVID, and an under-18 team also won't be fielded this year.

Men's state league team the Heat will proceed as planned after they also withdrew last year due to a referee shortage, before that call was made moot by the league's cancellation.

Basketball Wagga president Jessica Sewell is also a trained referee development officer, and is filling the referee technical director role on a temporary basis.

"We're hoping after COVID things will get a bit smoother, but obviously my job as technical director is to get enough referees so we can send all our senior and older junior teams away," she said.

"On top of that, I know the format of how it was going to be run last year was too difficult for players to get to games, the travel commitment was going to be too much given all our girls work.

"The goal is to get the Blaze and the under-18 girls back in 2022."

Sewell said finding enough referees, then developing them to a good enough standard to officiate at state league level, is a constant battle.

"It's been an issue for a very long time. I'm only just picking it up now, but I'm always up for a challenge," she said.

"It's about getting them up to the level in terms of grading, but it's also getting them experienced enough so they don't get crushed in games.

"If you don't have your rep or state league teams the the association just doesn't grow, it stagnates. We weren't able to send an under-18 girls team so that's obviously a year where we haven't had the 18s to develop into the state league.

"It creates a gap in your continued growth as an association."

Sewell said COVID will ensure the Heat's Waratah League campaign will take on a new look this year.

"It will be a slightly different format," she said.

"We haven't heard back from Basketball NSW but with COVID and travel restrictions, it will look a bit different to what it usually does."

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