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A video of a Saskatchewan referee calling on parents and coaches to treat young officials better has gone viral.
David Kadun recently joined the Green Zone to discuss the video and he said there was a specific incident that led to him making the video.
“There was an incident on the ice that the coach didn’t like. He was yelling at myself and I had a teenage linesman and right in front of them he’s dropping the f-bomb, he wouldn’t listen, he wouldn’t calm down and then he started throwing the birds up.”
Kadun said the part that upset him the most was when the coach’s son approached the officials at the end of the game and apologized for the actions of his dad.
In the video, Kadun said he’s seen officials get off the ice crying because of the things coaches are telling them.
In Saskatoon, Dalton van der Nest, Hockey Saskatchewan Official and Official Supervisor, said he’s seen similar things firsthand.
“Just a couple of weekends ago, I had an official come off the ice, and he was extremely frustrated with how coaches were treating them,” van der Nest said. “(Officials are) saying their least favourite part of officiating is getting yelled at by the coaches and the parents.”
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Van der Nest also teaches some of the level one clinics for young officials and he said he likes to focus a lot on the maltreatment section of the rule book and to go over what to do in that situation.
“We spent a lot of time emphasizing that, going over real-life scenarios,” he said. “(But) you can’t ask an 11-year-old to stand up to a 30 (or) 35-year-old on the ice (their) first time out.”
Official supervisors usually watch the game either in the stands or in between the two benches, and van der Nest said this allows them to stand up for an official if the occasion calls for it as well as to introduce themselves before the game begins.
“When you have a senior official out there, the coach is going to be less likely to yell at the official,” he said.
Van der Nest also said he would like to see more on-ice supervisors to help out younger officials.
“We did a first-year referee clinic this year where we actually had officials on the ice with them reffing,” van der Nest said.
While it would be very difficult to completely get rid of verbal abuse toward young officials, Saskatoon Minor Hockey started an initiative last season called the Green Armband Program, which sees officials 15 years of age or younger wear a green armband.
“The biggest misconception is that the green armband means that they are a new ref,” he said. “That’s not what it means. It means that they’re a child.”
It’s still a young program but the early results have been encouraging.
“In terms of rough numbers, I believe, the year before it (the program started), 20-ish coaches were suspended,” van der Nest said. “Last year, when we initiated the green armband, that number went down to two.”
The success of its first year led to Hockey Saskatchewan making it a province-wide program.
The program has also garnered some attention from other provinces.
“I even have some referee colleagues that are in Alberta and they’re trying to pilot it,” van der Nest said.
Kelly McClintock, General Manager of Hockey Saskatchewan, said one of the things that has helped the green armband program is that punishments are heftier.
“Any coach that’s removed from the game for verbally abusing an official with a green arm… the suspension is double what it normally is,” McClintock said. “I don’t think it’s excluded all of (the) verbal abuse, but it certainly is making people aware.”
McClintock said Hockey Saskatchewan continues to work with minor hockey associations in the province to help change the culture of hockey.
“Changing a culture can’t happen overnight,” he explained. “So it’s a matter of educating minor hockey associations to how do they educate (their) parents better.”
McClintock also wants parents and coaches to remember when they are yelling at a young official they are yelling at someone’s kid.