Are Hockey Officials Too Young?
I was a child official for baseball. I started when I was 15. I worked only 10u and 8u games that year, always with a more experienced partner at the 10u level and alone at the 8u.
It was challenging, but I was old enough to have a healthy disrespect for my elders. A teenager with a bad attitude and about the same height as the coaches has no problems on a field alone. Trust me on that. Even with that, I was assaulted by a coach at 16. While we like to imagine that things are worse today, this was in 1986. The coach was in his late 30s or early 40’s.
Now, I am a dad and I have a strict policy of not harassing child referees. I don’t even ask them questions which gets me in trouble, because the adult officials with them get tired of me yelling across the ice at them. The problem in USA Hockey is that it allows officials to be as young as 10. Officially, kids are not allowed to referee kids in their same age classification, but lately I have seen a lot of 12 year olds working 12 year old games.
I don’t care how good the referee is, this is a recipe for disaster!
In spite of popular opinion, hockey coaches are actually more restrained than baseball coaches. Unlike baseball, where the only penalty is ejection, hockey officials can hit you with a 2-minute penalty for being an idiot. It is an effective deterrent. Even with this having anyone below the age of 14 out there officiating is ridiculous.
I know it is hard to find officials to work these games, but this is ridiculous. It is not that these kids don’t have potential, but they are just too young to project any authority. When you do not have the upper body strength to break a net loose that is stuck into the ice, you should not be officiating. Sorry, that is just the truth. Do we allow 10 year old coaches?
The lack of professionalism in hockey officiating caused me to get out of it. As an official for 22 years of one kind or another, I am amazed at how pathetic the advancement path is for young officials. They also have no use for people like me who just want to work adult games and a few high level house games. Many of the officials at the higher levels are working for “beer money” and the younger kids are thrown to the wolves on the 6 am House games no one wants.
Compare that to the sister sport of lacrosse where there is a similar limited supply of officials, but the organization welcomes guys who just want to work lower levels in the same way it welcomes young guys (18 or older is the youngest you can be in lacrosse officiating). Of course, there are politics like everywhere else, but there are plenty of opportunities out there. The assignors are officials themselves and understand a little about official development.
Every year USA Hockey bemoans the fact that guys like me stop officiating and young officials leave the program after only a year or two. There is no secret here. The local associations are the problem.
I am not here to lob bombs at USA Hockey. The explosive growth of the sport and lack of infrastructure is creating these growing pains, but USA Hockey has the opportunity to fix them by following the same steps as every other sport. Hockey people like to think that Hockey is “different,” but that is a myopic view that has led to this mess.
Here is how to fix it:
1. Minimum age of officials – 14
2. Different Developmental Paths – Simply follow the model for youth hockey.
The current system doesn’t make a distinction between guys (like me) who could qualify for Level 3 based on rules ability, but not truly be qualified to work High-Level games for other reasons (skating). Simply having a recommendation system at the State Level would help a lot. Yes it would be political, but it would be better than it is now.
3. Better State Organizations. The current system is too weak and doesn’t have any teeth. When real issues are brought up no one listens. Just because someone is a good Hockey Ref, does not make them a great administrator. Not all complaints are just coaches griping, but my experience is that legitimate complaints are ignored are worse.
4. Emphasis on safety. Someone is going to be hurt badly in a game where incompetent referees are to blame and then that video will be shown over and over and the lawsuits alone will kill USA Hockey. If this isn’t fixed, it is coming. While the UK has a different legal system, there have been rulings against Rugby Referees. The legal term is: “negligence.” An assignor who schedules a 12 year old kid to referee 12 year olds or even 10 year olds is dangerously close to that.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. USA Hockey is doing a good job with the limited staff of volunteers. It is time to take it to another level with our young officials and old guys, like me, to bring the game into the 21st Century. I hope that this commentary will be taken in that spirit. There is a lot right about what USA Hockey wants to do, it is up the officials organizations to step up and take it to the next level.
This isn’t about “beer money.” This is about the love of the game and the safety of the kids playing it. I challenge the official’s organizations to step up and start developing young officials and stop throwing them to the wolves.