Over the last five years, there has been a massive increase in the amount of resources available for officiating development in British Columbia. This process has ebbed and flowed over time but recently, there has been marked improvement. Not only have associations begun to recognize that officiating is integral to the game but they understand their own roles in improving the quality of their officials. While investment at the association level is limited by the means of their membership, the improvement has been noticeable across the board.
This new reality has led to a need to measure and quantify the success of officiating development programs. An association’s board is accountable to its members for all expenditures.
PROJECTS
I am always looking for new partners and ideas to introduce into my practice. Please feel free to contact me any time.
Research: Officials' use of video
This new project will examine how elite officials use video as a self-evaluation tool. When do they review video of their games, what strategies do they use, and do they find it effective? More information on this project will come in autumn 2025.
Research: Referee Decision-Making
This research project was the cornerstone of my Master's degree from the UBC School of Kinesiology under the supervision of David Hill and Dr. Maria Gallo. This project focused on whether it was possible to quantify the performance of elite ice hockey referees based on their penalty calls. You can learn more about this project and the results on my blog.
Hockey Canada Officiating Program
In 2021, I joined Hockey Canada in a full-time role as the Manager of Officiating. In this role, I am responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Officiating Program, including resources for grassroots education and development, the national Officiating Program of Excellence and Hockey Canada's national championships, and representing the Officiating Program to the IIHF. My projects include:
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Hockey Canada Officiating Coaching Program
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Women's Officiating Program of Excellence
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Officiating Program leadership restructure
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HCOP Curriculum Project
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IIHF ICE26 Education Working Group
Past Projects
In pursuit of my Master's degree through UBC's School of Kinesiology while engaging Train to Compete officiating athletes in an elite environment. The ultimate goal is to prepare these athletes for Canada Winter Games 2023 and using that event as a spring board for future success at the national and international level.
BC Hockey EXCEL Officiating Program
BC Hockey Officiating Coach Education
Coach education is a passion of mine that I have been working on since 2015. Our program with VTMHA gave me the opportunity to begin developing curriculum for mentoring and training officiating coaches. This is an ongoing project that I am actively working on through the summer and autumn of 2019.
BC Hockey Female High Performance Program
In 2017, I had the opportunity to take leadership of the Female High Performance Program, working with Level 3 and Member High Performance officiating athletes. These individuals are working in the Female U18 AAA and USPORTS leagues, and competing for national and international assignments. The 2019-20 season will be the third year of our initial five year plan on which we are actively working.
PCAHA Female Minor Mentorship
Although the primary focus of my provincial role was on the High Performance side, I am very invested in development on all sides of the female game. One area of concern is that the female game lacks athletes continuing to participate in sport for life, particularly once they finish their secondary or post-secondary education. Our team is currently working on this project and implementing a new mentorship and training program in the summer and autumn of 2019.
HCOP Clinic Curriculum
This is a project that I have been actively working on since 2014. My instructional practice has focused on innovation of our curriculum and instructional methods. I had the privilege of leading a major curricular overhaul in 2015 and a curricular update in 2018. I am currently working on new instructional material and province-wide instructor mentorship through summer and autumn of 2019.
Thunderbird Officiating Development Program
This project was my first opportunity to build a program for coaching and training Level 1-3 officials. This program served approximately 150 officiating athletes and continues to be one of the most successful development programs in British Columbia. You can read more about my time with the VTMHA (2011-2017) in my portfolio and in the Vancouver Courier's two-part series from 2015 (Part 1 & Part 2).