Despite the warmer weather of spring and summer, when green grass replaces the cold ice in outdoor rinks across the country, the sport of hockey continues for players, coaches and officials alike.
It’s a particularly important time on the calendar for young referees and linespersons, who use the months of May through August to hone their craft, and make sure they’re prepared for the upcoming season of youth, junior, collegiate and professional competition.
At a national level, USA Hockey invests significant resources to identify, educate and prepare officials through its Officiating Development Camps. The camps are led by highly qualified instructors, and focus on teaching and refining techniques, proper nutrition, physical and mental conditioning, power skating and managing games at all of the various levels. The ultimate goal of the camps is to “provide all participants with the fundamental skills needed to return home to their grassroots hockey communities and be the best officials they can become.”
In addition to USA Hockey’s national camps, there are also select districts that run their own camps to help develop local officials.
“Camps like ours are important because there needs to be a place where officials of different levels with different goals can receive higher-level training,” said Susan Collins, director of the Southeast District Select Camp. “To have a resource for advanced training for these officials is critical for the continued development of local organizations. For those that will continue to work their way up the officiating ladder, our camp provides a valuable steppingstone where the skills they need down the road begin to develop. For all of them, these camps provide a place where connections are made and lifelong friendships start.”
A Grassroots Hockey Education in the Southeast
Collins’ Southeast District Select Camp began in 2007 and with few exceptions was typically held at the Extreme Ice Center in Charlotte, N.C. Now the camp will be moving around the district each year, following the player development festival.
The camp runs from Wednesday to Sunday in mid-May and targets two types of officials: the “up-and-coming” official, that has goals of working higher levels of the sport including college and/or professional, and the “grassroots” official, who may not have aspirations to work beyond the local level, but will use what they learn at the camp and take it back home to help with their hometown associations and be a mentor.
“Each day we are usually at the rink from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. We hold six hours of power skating, have group building activities and classroom sessions. We also teach different workout and stretching techniques to help our campers build their off-ice routines,” said Collins. “Our instructors focus on positioning, rule application and the mental side of officiating. Our campers will work at least three games in the three or four official systems and are recorded for half of each game. There is one evaluator on each game for the referees and one for the linepersons. Campers receive feedback immediately following each game and have written notes from their evaluator. They are able to access the recordings of their games at the conclusion of camp.”
With such a large district, Collins believes providing higher-level training to all types of officials provides a big benefit.
“We need mature and experienced officials just as much as younger officials with big dreams,” she said. “We want all our campers to recognize the value of continuing to grow as an official and we preach to them that you never stop learning when it comes to officiating ice hockey. There is so much more to officiating than memorizing the rulebook. Our camp helps officials learn the art of officiating, which is just as important as the science of it.”
Growing the Game in New York
Rick Pratt was an official for 46 years, working his way up through the high school, Ontario Hockey League and collegiate ranks. He’s now retired, but like a lot of experienced referees, is still giving back as the Referee-in-Chief of the Central Section of the New York State Amateur Hockey Association. Pratt, along with Camp Coordinator Todd Smith, helps run the New York State Officiating Development Camp in Oswego, N.Y., which has been held since the early 1990s in late June/early July.
“Mario Pusateri, who was the national evaluation coordinator out of New York at the time and basically the founding father of the officiating program, said ‘do you want to try and start a camp,’ and I got involved, and B.J. Ringrose got involved and other than the Covid years, we’ve kept it going every year,” Pratt said.
While currently a smaller group of officials, Pratt estimates that, at its peak, the camp had up to 30 participants, ranging in age from 14 to 62. A typical camp itinerary includes on-ice fundamentals work and power skating starting at 7 a.m., and classroom sessions including going over new USA Hockey rules, reviewing scenarios and improving judgement. Officials are on the ice up to four times a day, which includes working games and opportunities to support the nearbyPlayer Development Camp. They also participate in outdoor learning segments and team-building activities to make it a fun, enjoyable and memorable experience for all involved.
“We had a 60-year-old tell us it was the best time he ever had in the game,” said Pratt. “First and foremost, we want to help develop the fundamentals and rule knowledge, to help make them the best officials they can be. We’ll give them 1-on-1 attention, so that they walk away with something that sticks with them. We try to make it meaningful for each participant. It’s a big boost for the game in New York.”
