Hockey Shareholders Need to Step Up!

Author: Billy Keane

March 31, 2010

As we close the 2009-2010 season, administrators involved at the Minor Hockey levels summarize the successes of the season past, as well as summarize areas that need improving moving into the 2010-2011 season.  Personally, after watching another season of amateur hockey ranging from 8A1, to Bantam AAA, to Female AA to Midget 15 A3, I can safely say that the need for supporting the referee development is at an all time high.  The support that is required must come from a variety of areas in order for there truly be a difference made in this area of our game.  Specifically, more support needs to come from the Referee Mentorship Program and from increased dialogue with other “shareholders” in the game – the coaches.

The Hockey Canada’s Coach Mentorship Program has done a wonderful job of providing grassroots training and resources to 1000’s of hockey coaches from Victoria to Newfoundland.  Some provinces achieving more success than others, but successes nonetheless.  Like the National Coach Certification Programs (NCCP), Hockey Canada has created a world class model for amateur coach development with it’s National Coach Mentorship Programs (NCMP), which are be used in countries around the world to train young grassroots coaches.  However, now that the National Coach Mentorship Program has a solid foundation at the grassroots level, the next step in the development process should focus on the training and support systems for our young referee’s.

Hockey Canada has lost 1000’s of referees over the years due to lack of “support systems and knowledge”.  Young referees are chased out of the game annually because they are not able to cope with irate hockey coaches and referees.  To find part time employment elsewhere is an attractive option for these young officials, especially if it means there won’t be “fire engine faced adults” screaming at them for little more than minimum wage!  The referees' support system’s foundation should be Hockey Canada’s National Referee Mentorship Program (NRMP).   I know there has been some development of the NRMP, but there still isn’t the same results in terms of senior officials providing the same level of mentorship to young referees that is now currently provided to young coaches on an annual basis.  To truly make a difference, Hockey Canada needs to ramp up it’s resources to pay senior officials to oversee the grassroots mentorship much more closely than it seems to be doing right now.

Additional segments of the support system should be focused as creating more cohesiveness between the coaches and referees.  This additional cohesiveness must be generated by annually by Hockey Administrators, and be included in annual Coach Certification processes.  Scheduled meetings between Coaches and Referees rarely, if ever , take place during the season.   I find if mind-boogling that pre-season and/or midseason meeting between the “stakeholders” can’t take place to benefit our kids development.

I understand the Coaches feel they have been forced to attend clinics and meetings “up the ying yang” for years.  However, opening lines of communication much earlier in the development process of our young officials is critical for them to stay on board with Hockey Canada.  Requiring a member of each coaching staff to attend a meeting that would include senior officials and the young officials at least once a year makes sense to me.  Then the two major shareholders in the development process, coaches and referees, can then have some form of annual dialogue in order to better understand where each other is coming from.  Because at this point, there is virtually no communication prior to and during the season between these two major shareholders of Hockey Canada’s development strategy.

Hockey Canada does not want to “divorce” coaches and referees.  But if coaches and referees stop talking to one another, then we have a real problem.

Oh, I did forget the 3rd major shareholder in this development process: that would be the parents of the young players.  And that is a story for another day.

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