I want to be a Referee!

I want to be a Referee

 

 

 

I want to spend my days amid beautiful scenery, with short shifts, superb hours and great benefits

 

I want to work directly with people who have so much respect for my age, experience, authority or skills

 

I want to be out-of-shape, out-of-touch, and above all, utterly out-of-my-mind

 

I want to be a complete imbecile, dumb as a bag of hammers and oh yes, legally blind

 

I want to know that my brains are made of excrement and exactly where my head is buried

 

I want no one to listen to me the first time because I am never right anyway

 

I want to hear every profane and degrading word in the English language, and then some

 

I want to know less about the game than every player, coach or spectator that ever set foot in an arena

 

I want to be part of, in fact responsible for, the worst game in the history of hockey

 

I want to be laughed at when I am hit by the puck, knocked down or put down

 

I want to take over the game and have the spotlight shine squarely on me, the true star of the sport

 

I want to see only one colour, provided I am having a good day and can see past the end of my nose

 

I want to pay attentions to self-righteous people with verbal diarrhea, instead of the game at hand

 

I want to watch people smarter than me slam doors, throw temper tantrums and throw insults

 

I want to spend the bulk of my day watching behavior best suited for the schoolyard or barnyard

 

I want to watch players pass the blame more than they will ever pass the puck

 

I want to spend quality time with people who are blessed with far more attitude and contempt than honor and integrity

 

I want to see people take the game so seriously, they threaten the respect and opinions others have of them, their team and their town

 

I want to watch parents try to live out their own failed dreams through their children

 

I want to be paid little and thanked even less

 

I want to hear people complain

 

I want cold hands

 

I want it all

 

I want to come back next game, next week, next year and do it all over again

 

 

 

Yes hockey fans, I want to be a referee, because nowhere is there a more rewarding or fulfilling way to spend the hockey season

 

And I will wonder why everyone doesn’t want to be a hockey referee – just like me

 

Suspensions

The part of Hockey every player hates…SUSPENSIONS!

Referees should not (and probably will not) speculate on the length of suspensions. Coaches should consult their managers manua. In Ontario (specifically the OHF) we are blessed with a minimum suspension list. This list conatains all the suspensions possible for a player or team official to get. However some leagues have modified the suspensions to make some suspensions more severe than others. Here are some things to keep in mind when suspensions are assessed:

• Misconducts usually noted as an M followed by two numbers (e.g. M22,M20…) don’t incurr additional games. Unless it is their second misconduct in the same game (which should be noted with GM26).
• Any Game Misconduct has a suspension associated with it. They are usually noted much like Misconducts except that it is “GM” followed by two number (e.g. GM50). However there are two suspensions that occur thay may or may not be noted with the GM coding they are Instigator and Aggressor noted INS or INS36 and AGG or AGG37 respectivly.
• Gross Misconducts and Match Penalties also have suspensions associated with them. However it is not unusual for the league to assess additional games, if the player is a habitual offender, or the incident was so hanous that it requires additional games.
• Game Ejections (GE56 in the OHF) do not have additional games assoiciated with them.

Finally if there is every any doubt as to if the player is suspended or not. It is best to sit the player out and wait to hear from the league office as to the players officials status. Remember if the player is to play the game may be forfited if ineligble and the player and coach suspended. Don’t take the chance.

Parent and Officials

The relationship between parents and on-ice officials is often a tenuous one. Parents are primarily concerned with the safety of their son or daughter, and if they are watching a game in which they fear the safety of their son or daughter is at risk, they are not in a position where they can jump on the ice to protect their loved one.

Rather than looking to blame the other teams players or the coaches for not respecting the safety of their child, they focus on the official. This is where it is important to have a better understanding of the role of an official.

In some respects it is acceptable to focus on the official if players are put into positions of danger, as the on-ice officials mandate is to make the game “fair” and “safe”. By calling infractions that, in their judgment, cross the line in regards to fairness and safety, the official is attempting to make the game fair and safe, and the Hockey Canada calls on all officials to follow these guidelines.

However, parents and players should be reminded that officials, in general, can only react to what HAS happened, not what might happen. If a player is injured as a result of an illegal play, the official can only react by calling the appropriate penalty, but can not prevent the infraction from taking place in advance. The onus does then fall on the official to make the appropriate call, and with proper training and the opportunity to develop their officiating skills, this will happen more often than not.

Ideally, the official will set the tone early in the game of what is and is not acceptable, and players will adjust accordingly. However, if players decide to take justice into their own hands, the Hockey Canada has clearly mandated that officials should call all infractions that cross the line of “fair” and “safe”.

Officials are also to focus on the whole game while parents tend to see everything that their child does on every shift they are on the ice. Because of this, officials may miss an infraction that happened to their child that is obvious to the parent, but the official may
have been focusing elsewhere at the exact time their child was on the receiving end of
some infraction.

At lower levels of minor hockey, officials are encouraged to call penalties as they happen. Judgment should not be a major factor for young officials, and a penalty that is deserved, should be called regardless of the game situation. Penalties should be applied to the “letter of the law”.

Often officials at the lower levels are young and just learning the “art of officiating”, so mistakes will be made. Is it acceptable to yell at officials when the make mistakes? Do you yell at the players every time they make a mistake? Why is it that nowhere else in the country except a hockey arena is it considered somewhat acceptable to yell at other peoples kids? Please consider your actions and give the officials a chance to learn the skills needed to officiate. As well, are you sure you know the rules as well as the officials?

The Hockey Canada has far too much turnover in the number of officials from year to year. A big reason for this is abuse from parents. Much of officiating is learned from experience, and if we can reduce the amount of officials who quit, the quality of officiating overall will improve. Every time a kid quits officiating, they are replaced by a rookie who ends up making the same mistakes that the person who quit made. This continues the cycle that continues to see too many inexperienced officials working games they are not as qualified to work as the Hockey Canada would like them to be. Please give officials a chance to improve. That is what the Hockey Canada’s Shared Respect Initiative is all about, respecting the role of all participants of the game – players – coaches – officials –parents.

Too often it is the “vocal minority” that creates the biggest problem for officials. Most parents do not yell at officials. The Hockey Canada calls on the “silent majority” to stand up and prevent verbal abuse of officials from the stands. Minor Hockey Associations are encouraged to adopt parental “Fair Play” policies that include penalties for parents that abuse officials.

In higher levels of competitive hockey, officials need to practice more judgment and game management skills. In these games, the “spirit of the rule” can take precedence over the “letter of the law” scenario described previously. Officials are instructed to ensure they call all “IMPACT” penalties. Impact penalties are anything that seriously threatens the safety of another player (Check From Behind, High Stick, Slash, Spear, Butt-End are some examples) or penalties that deny a player a reasonable scoring opportunity. As well, officials may make calls earlier in the game that set a standard he would like to maintain regarding various situations, such as interference, holding, body checking, etc.

In the course of officiating the game, officials may detect infractions that are penalties based on the “letter of the law” scenario, but do not cross the line in regards to the “spirit of
the rule”.

Source: Hockey Canada-Parents and Officials

LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT A HOCKEY REFEREE

Let’s “take a look” at the official who is alleged to he responsible for the inability of players
to score goals and teams to win games. He is the living barrier who mysteriously
transforms victory to defeat. What are his qualifications and is there anything to be said in
his d e fense?
In the first place, the ID EAL referee must be an apt student, who is letter perfect in the
laws of hockey and their interpretation. Unlike judges in our courts, h e must see the crime,
identify the offence and hand out the sentence – not later in the day, tomorrow or next
month, but all within seconds.
Next, the IDEAL referee must be a good skater and physically sound. A player can get
frequent relief, but officials must be on the ice for the entire game. Moreover, hockey
officials are expected to act as peace officers and prevent crime by restraining angry
players who are intent upon “beating up” their opponents.
An IDEAL referee, and there is no such person, should have the speed of a sprinter, the
endurance of a marathoner, the tact of a diplomat, the mind of a professor and the
unruffled demeanor of a supreme court judge. It would also help if he had 20-20 vision
and was stone deaf.
Fans, players, coaches and management alike expect too much of officials. Few players
ever think their sentence was deserved; coaches shriek in anguish at a borderline off-side
call; and fans view with alarm, every decision that goes against their favorites. Yet
contrastingly, a judge has his judgement appealed and his decision r e peale d without loss
of prestige. No less than perfection is expected from the versatile hockey official.
It is an old but valid argument that referees don’t make the rules; they are merely agents
charged with the responsibility of enforcing the laws as provided by the rule book. The fact
that players trip, charge, smear or high-stick is not the referee’s fault any more than a
police officer is responsible for the actions of offenders who break society’s laws.
Few men are so constituted that they can suffer silently while they are publicly criticized.
While it is unlikely that hockey’s governing bodies will do much to ease the referee’s life
while the sport is enjoying a prolific boom, it does seem that there should be less official
criticism of referees and linesman. For instance, it isn’t fair to second guess them with
slow motion film. The man on the ice has to call the play instantly; he can’t wait for the
crowd to tell him and he can’t see what goes on behind his back. Neither can he ponder
over border line incidents in his private chambers or delay a decision momentarily while
waiting the instant replay. He just has to do the best he can based on his years of
experience. H e doesn’t expect to be popular ; but he has a right to be recognized as the
representative of the law makers and to be spared from public humiliation and criticism
from those who are themselves involved in the development of the sport.
Certainly, hockey cannot exist without officials; so we had better learn to live with them
and, who knows, we might even learn to like them.

Source:Hockey Canad-Parents and Officials