Refs and the speed of the game

[Sartellcelly]

I have seen close to 100 games already this year - Jr's, HS and Bantamm AA - and it seems when you are not pulling for a specific team, the ref's tend to get it right more times than not. In those games did the ref's make some questionable calls - sure they did. That said, they got it right most of the time and in all those games I do not recall the ref changing the outcome of a game with a "bad call". If you think you can ref better, I know they are always looking for more good refs, so........

OK, I guess no one can say whether there are or are not more instances. Have a nice day.

[HShockeywatcher]

The officials are part of the game and in play, the players need to learn that, if you keep yourself and the puck more than 5 feet from the boards they'll never hinder you or be in the way, and if you know that the official will be on the line covering offsides yet you skate into him who's fault is that?

Taking responsibility and not blaming someone else? What a crazy idea

[woodley]

Well guys, some of us don't do high school games because we have self identified that we can't keep up!! Personally, I tried and found that I was not in good enough shape to be where I should be.

The current issue truly goes back to how we have treated our young officials along the way. Because they have left officiating after 1 or 2 seasons, we are left with a shortage of 20's and 30's in the game to be able to keep up. When you hit 45 or 50, most refs don't have the physical ability to keep up with play, so you are left with being strategic. Even in the best of circumstances this leads to being caught out of position sometimes. The earlier example of a turned play is a great one.

I know that MSHSL is recruiting within the officials ranks in the youth levels. However, most of the officials that can accept the jobs are the guys whose kids are now gone or the ones who are single. This severely limits the pool!

The answer. .. . there really isn't one for an immediate fix. It is like turning a hockey program around. You have to promote the new thoughts early and give them time to grow. . . in this case, get kids involved, TREAT THEM WELL, and they will develop the love of reffing that will help them move on to higher levels at a younger age!!!

[BodyShots]

One more item - I'd like to see every hockey parent have their player officiate for a minimum of one season. Each parent should spectate and listen to the fan base, as well as take notes on coaching behavior toward their child.

If that happened, we would see a different attitude toward the game, players, coaches and officials.

I know, that's a pipe dream.

I fall into this category, and I do have to say I have a much diffferent appreciation for the job officials do!

I also now realize how difficult it is to get started in reffing. The required classes and gear you have to purchase in the first year for relatively few games is not a good return on your investment. On top of that, you have to take additional one day training courses every year after. Do to location of his college, he was not able to attend a class the second year and the district would not allow him to officiate. Now, in his third year, luckily my son has decided to continue this experiment and was able to attend the required days training.

[inthestands]

One more item - I'd like to see every hockey parent have their player officiate for a minimum of one season. Each parent should spectate and listen to the fan base, as well as take notes on coaching behavior toward their child.

If that happened, we would see a different attitude toward the game, players, coaches and officials.

I know, that's a pipe dream.

I fall into this category, and I do have to say I have a much diffferent appreciation for the job officials do!

I also now realize how difficult it is to get started in reffing. The required classes and gear you have to purchase in the first year for relatively few games is not a good return on your investment. On top of that, you have to take additional one day training courses every year after. Do to location of his college, he was not able to attend a class the second year and the district would not allow him to officiate. Now, in his third year, luckily my son has decided to continue this experiment and was able to attend the required days training.

I had two that worked games, and one that decided against it.

Of the two, one no longer enjoys it enough to continue. He was working HS level games, but got tired of the fan and coaching abuse.

The one that does work games, does HS only and makes enough money to get through college and live modestly. He gave up on the USA level games for a variety of reasons.

There are a good mix of coaches but as with anything you have both ends of the spectrum, very few knowledgable fans, and a shrinking number of respectful players.

If there is to be improvement for the game, it's not just the officials that need evaluation. It's gonna take a long hard look into the mirror from all involved, including the fan base.

[orm1210]

inthestands....i think you have made the most valid point in this thread topic. in order for this game to change for the better, it is going to take a lot of change from everyone involved. a good point you made was the fact of how few respectful players there are in this game, and that is caused from many things, but i hold the kid and the coach responsible. if a coach is sitting on the bench yelling, the kids will do the exact same thing and anyone who argues against that fact has never paid close enough attention. the lack of respect for officials is the number one reason there are so few and the number one reason games get out of hand. i can speak first hand that it is difficult enough dealing with a hot head coach, but throw in disrespectful players and fans and it can effect the way you call a game, period.

[bestpopcorn]

Never understood yelling at the ref.

It makes no sense at any level.

It is disrespectful.

It doesn't work.

I do enjoy watching it sometimes more than I enjoy the game. Nothing better than a group of squirt parents and a big box of popcorn. Otherwise intellegent people making complete asses of themselves.

The younger the ref, the harder they ride him. Poor little guy lasts a season and then hangs up his shiney new black helmet and stripes.

Real classy.

[dangle_snipe]

Never understood yelling at the ref.

It makes no sense at any level.

It is disrespectful.

It doesn't work.

I do enjoy watching it sometimes more than I enjoy the game. Nothing better than a group of squirt parents and a big box of popcorn. Otherwise intellegent people making complete asses of themselves.

The younger the ref, the harder they ride him. Poor little guy lasts a season and then hangs up his shiney new black helmet and stripes.



Real classy.

I asked a coach who was chewing me out how long had he been coaching.
He said 35 years.
Then I asked how many times in 35 years has he had a ref change a call after being biachted at.

He jut looked at me with a dumb look on his face and said zero...

I then skated away realizing he didn't get it and proceeded to finish the game.

It was a peewee B game .....

[Ref190]

I am also a fan of simply asking the out-of-control coach what picture is on the cover of the rulebook, and when he/she cant answer that question... enough said.

[hockeyfan89]

I love to read threads like this, because it brings up a lot of great issues that many people are thinking about. I would like to contribute my 2 cents from my experience as an official and have never addressed this topic in an online forum. First off, I have been officiating hockey since I was 11 years old and am now in my 12th season. I completely agree that young officials have a very hard time making it through their first couple of seasons because of the abuse that takes place from players, fans, and coaches and I was fortunate enough to make it through that. The rest of this post is from my one personal perspective in being a referee. I love being able to still be a part of hockey in this state. While it is nice to get a paycheck from reffing games, it is absolutely not why I ref and I truly enjoy getting to go out and skate with these kids and try to do my best to make sure they are playing the game according to the rules that we are given to enforce. I feel as though this is the case with almost all the other officials that I work with. I am now in my 3rd season working as a high school hockey official and I would like to address the issues that I have read in this thread. I do have some concerns about how high school officials are certified and approved to do high school games. I feel as though my youth officiating district does an excellent job of sending out experienced evaluators to watch all officials during theirs games throughout the season and give them tips to do a better job as well as give them ratings for what level of hockey they should be allowed to do. I have not seen anything of that sort with officiating the high school level. Although their are many officials that are more than qualified to ref at the high school level, there is not a lot of accountability. This brings me to my next point and my main complaint. High school hockey officials are much too controlled by the coaches. I am not referring to a per game basis, but by the fact that the coaches in each conference get to decide each year what reffing association that they want to officiate their games in the next year. This puts unneeded pressure on the associations to get their refs to make sure the coaches are happy in the end to make sure they are able to keep those games for the following season instead of calling the game the way it should be called according to the rules and only the rules. I'm sure I've missed many questions and topics during this very long post so please don't ream me for that, as that is all that came to mind after reading this thread. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.