When it comes down to it, there’s actually is a lot of common ground to be found between hockey officials and hockey coaches – especially from the female perspective of each.
Taking that idea, and their commitment to growing girls and women’s hockey, the Los Angeles Kings, in collaboration with USA Hockey, hosted a free women’s coaches and referee Level 1 certification in August in a continued effort to nourish the growth of the women’s side of the game.
“We had put together a program through the NHL called the Girls Complete Hockey Pathway, and basically we were looking to establish the ability for female players to play their entire female hockey career in girls or female-only programming,” Chris Crotty, director of hockey development with the Kings explained. “One of the elements of that initiative was to get more female faces on the ice in general, so when we have young girls out there playing hockey for the first time, they have a female coach or female referee on the ice with them.
“So, this certification weekend was a part of our bigger girls hockey infinitive, and we think it was a great success and really happy with how everything turned out.”
The Kings capped the weekend-long program capacity at 50 participants, which quickly sold out due to the offering of all fees – totaling $100 per registrant – being covered by L.A. and USA Hockey. The program offered classroom and on-ice sessions at the Toyota Sports Performance Center, with USA Hockey and IIHF experts present.
Participants were given the option if they wanted to earn certification in coaching or officiating, but all participants had to complete both days in order to receive their certification voucher, giving those interested in officiating a chance to learn about coaching and vice versa.
“It really enhances the hockey IQ of a player or a coach because even if someone decides not to pursue the idea of officiating, they still understand it on a deeper sense of the game,” said Jennifer Cameron, an IIHF and NCAA game official. “I think that was really cool to see. With USA Hockey they have some newly formed women’s groups for coaches and officials, and it’s really interesting to hear a lot of the same overlap with successes and or struggles that the women have in this hockey world. I think this just got to reinforce sharing of experiences but also support and resources from both ends.”
To that point, Molly Myhre, L.A. Kings coordinator of community and hockey development, added that the weekend also served as a broader way to empower the female hockey community as a whole.
“They want to form a community,” she said. “They’re interested in more than just being coaches and refs, they want to create a female hockey community. The two-day event was just overjoyed. They were great participants, they were so involved, and they were very thankful too which is awesome to hear on our side of it.”
Myhre said multiple clubs have since reached out with an interest in hosting a similar program with their respective NHL team. The more offerings, the bigger hockey grows in girls and women’s circles.
“The Kings were able to appeal to people’s genuine interest with this program,” said Cameron. “By waiving the fee, you don’t have to worry about finances getting in the way or whatever barriers might be there.
“By offering this, they found a way to exclude all barriers and say, if this is something that you already are involved in or might want to be involved one day, come out and give it a try. That was tremendous.”
