Welcome to my blog on ice hockey -the greatest game on earth. Many of my posts wil involve officiating. We ice hockey officials have a challenging and difficult job with high expectations that most fans overlook.
My background:
I have been a USA Hockey certified official for twelve years. I started officiating ice hockey back in high school when my friend, and hockey team mate, suggested we referee as a way to get additional skating time and make some money. After my initial year, I ended up taking a couple of years off before I picked up officiating again. I have officiated for eleven straight years now. USA Hockey has four levels of certification, with level 4 being the highest. I was a level 4 official for a few years and am presently a level 3 certified official.
Over my twelve years of being a hockey referee, I estimate that I have officiated approximately 4000+ games from mites (aged 6-8) to adult league.
Where I have officiated:
My officiating career began in Anchorage Alaska with the Anchorage Hockey Officials Association. To put it lightly, Alaska is a hockey hotbed. High level hockey includes: The Alaska Aces -a semi-pro team in the ECHL, the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves -a division one college team in the WCHA, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks -a division one college team in the CCHA. This high quality of hockey filters down to the youth level as former professional and college players become youth coaches and pass down their knowledge.
I officiated in Anchorage for seven years. I can't think of a better place to learn the ins and outs of officiating due to the abundance of games to work -from youth to adults- and quality of fellow officials to learn from. Performing an action repeatedly can often be the best way to learn and improve upon a skill. And officiating is definitely a skills that is honed with experience. As a college student, I had plenty of time to devote to working hockey games. At my peak, I officiated 80+ games per month. On a couple of occasions, when youth tournaments were taking place, I worked 10 games in one day. My feet hated me on those days and I do not advocate wearing ice skates for 14+ hours a day! But with all those games, I had no choice but to improve as an official.
From Anchorage I moved to Portland Oregon and became a part of the Oregon Hockey Official Association where I officiated for four years. The hockey scene in Portland is drastically smaller than Anchorage's but Portland does have a strong hockey history and a couple of Junior leagues. The Portland Winterhawks play in the WHL and the NORPAC Junior A league has a few teams in the area.
I officiated in Anchorage for seven years. I can't think of a better place to learn the ins and outs of officiating due to the abundance of games to work -from youth to adults- and quality of fellow officials to learn from. Performing an action repeatedly can often be the best way to learn and improve upon a skill. And officiating is definitely a skills that is honed with experience. As a college student, I had plenty of time to devote to working hockey games. At my peak, I officiated 80+ games per month. On a couple of occasions, when youth tournaments were taking place, I worked 10 games in one day. My feet hated me on those days and I do not advocate wearing ice skates for 14+ hours a day! But with all those games, I had no choice but to improve as an official.
From Anchorage I moved to Portland Oregon and became a part of the Oregon Hockey Official Association where I officiated for four years. The hockey scene in Portland is drastically smaller than Anchorage's but Portland does have a strong hockey history and a couple of Junior leagues. The Portland Winterhawks play in the WHL and the NORPAC Junior A league has a few teams in the area.
While in Oregon, I enjoyed to the opportunity to improve my abilities as a referee (wearing the bands as opposed to being a linesman) while officiating NORPAC games for three years. During this time I was able to work with and learn from several great officials.
Currently I officiate in Columbus Ohio as part of the Central Ohio Youth Ice Hockey Officials Association.
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