Coffey (51), a community adviser for the Dunedin City Council, was expected to officiate as a referee at the Paralympics but lost the spot to Carol Armstrong (Auckland).
Coffey was a referee at the world championships in Christchurch in 2003, the Athens Paralympics in 2004 and the world championships in Vancouver last year.
There were 27 international referees who controlled the world championships, but this was reduced to 16 for the Paralympics in Beijing in September.
"I was not selected by the International Paralympic body to be a referee this time," Coffey said yesterday.
But the New Zealand team was impressed by Coffey's ability as a manger at an invitation event in Montreal earlier this month and asked him to join the team for Beijing.
He will be an assistant for Liam Sanders (Auckland).
In Montreal, the New Zealand pair of Henk Dijkstra and Greg Jackson beat the top Canadian team to win the bronze medal and Jackson beat the Canadian No 1, Paul Cautier, to win the gold medal in the singles.
It will be Coffey's third Paralympics. He was ramp assistant for Dijkstra at Atlanta in 1996 and was a referee at Athens in 2004.
Boccia is a game that can be likened to petanque and bowls and is played by people with severe physical disabilities, such as cerebral palsy. Coffey has been refereeing at international level since 2003 and controls competitive events in Dunedin each week to hone his skills.
He is going back to where he started and is enjoying the prospect of being able to help the New Zealand team win its first Paralympic medal in the ramp event at Beijing.
Coffey will be joined at Beijing by Dunedin's Henk Dijkstra and his helper, David O'Donovan. Dijkstra will partner Greg Jackson (Christchurch) in the pairs at the Beijing Paralympics in the ramp event.
Coffey was working with the Crippled Children's Society in 1995 when he volunteered to become the ramp assistant for Dijkstra, who was competing at the world championships in Sydney.
