Joey Payeur
Shane McDonald needs to find some more people in stripes pronto.
The referee-in-chief for the Emo-Devlin-Barwick Minor Hockey Association said a lack of available referees may force it to start cancelling games—and even tournaments—if the shortfall is not made up fast.
“We’re down to three adult referees and two of them are myself, who works shift work, and my son, who also works shift work,” McDonald said.
“We draw from Fort Frances when we have to but you have to consider the travel costs for that,” he noted.
“We would like to get more locals involved and even the load out a bit.”
McDonald said the referee shortage has been an ongoing problem for several years, with a decline in youth officials also occurring thanks to a segment of those involved in minor hockey who still don’t grasp the notion of respecting referees.
“The biggest problem is the abuse that they take,” he remarked.
“We lost three kids last year because of what they had to put up with from coaches and parents.
“The majority are getting better but the minority are as bad as they ever were,” McDonald added.
“They have to realized referees are like players—they have to develop,” he stressed.
“You can’t chase them away before they have had time to develop.”
While no games have been lost so far this season, McDonald said it’s inevitable that repercussions from the ref shortage will be felt in the very near future.
“If you can’t get refs, you can’t have a game,” he noted.
“We haven’t had a whole lot of games scheduled to this point, but it’s going to get busier.
“It’s going to make it very tough to have tournaments here,” he warned.
McDonald said they have two Midget players who can referee from PeeWee on down, but the Midget games themselves might have to be cancelled.
“I’m a coach of one of the Midget teams, so technically I shouldn’t be reffing,” he noted.
“My son’s brother plays on one of the teams, so technically my son shouldn’t be reffing, either, due to conflict of interest.”
In an effort to bolster the numbers, the EDBMA will be hosting an officiating clinic this Saturday, tentatively slated to run from noon-4 p.m., at the Emo-La Vallee Arena
Fort Frances Minor Hockey Association referee-in-chief Pete LeDrew is working with McDonald to stage the clinic, with officials here having a stake in what happens with the Emo refereeing situation.
“It’s a big-time commitment to referee and so many of these kids have so many activities,” noted LeDrew, who said the refereeing situation in Fort Frances is better than Emo’s—but not ideal.
“We’ve got a big gap from the ages of 17 to 40,” he remarked.
“You have refs all the way through high school and then they graduate, and everyone’s going away to school and not living in Fort anymore.
“Meanwhile, we have three refs in their 60s.”
LeDrew said more mentoring for officials is being done by the FFMHA, but he agreed it’s no easy task to get prospective officials to get past the near certainty that they’ll be subject to verbal abuse by disgruntled teams and fans.
“There’s a fear in a lot of kids about that negative feedback from coaches and fans,” LeDrew conceded.
“There is still that reputation of these people giving refs a hard time.
“It’s dramatically changed over the years but it’s still in the back of their minds,” he noted.
But LeDrew said the lower number of officials also is tied into the lower number of players throughout minor hockey.
“We’ve gone from doing 20 games a week to now we’ve only got 25 or 26 a month,” he remarked.
“There’s not even Bantam house league hockey in Emo this year, which is a shame.”
Anyone wanting to register or find out more about Saturday’s officiating clinic can contact McDonald at 276-0167 or e-mail LeDrew through a link on the FFMHA website (www.fortfranceshockey.com)
You also can go on the Hockey Northwestern Ontario website (www.hockeyhno.com).
