What makes a good beer league ref?

[IniNew 53]

Judging by some of the posts in this thread, I now know why I have to deal with some of the people I do. Maybe everyone should get a rule book with the USA Hockey Registration?

[Lee-Bro 1]

We had a ref tonight... omg. It was his first game of the day, so he had no excuse too. First thing he does, beginning of the game, is skate up to our goalie and tell her to freeze the puck as often as possible. At first, we thought it was just because his fat old ass couldn't keep up with the play (which he couldn't). Damn sad, considering the level of play and that it was his only game of the day. But it really got bad when on the way out of the rink after losing a game we should have won, in part due to his shitty calls, we find out that he is the other team's coach! Mother-effer! No wonder he wanted our tender to freeze the puck as much as possible... he was trying to give his girls free line changes on face-offs in our end! What an a-hole!

Wow. No conflict of interest language in the paperwork he had to fill out?

[zebra_steve 11]

When someone likes to say something a little off color towards me (swear words, questioning my sexuality, etc...) if it is said behind my back I will turn around and ask that player or person "I'm sorry, I didn't hear that, would you mind repeating it?" If they are dumb enough (or fired up enough) to repeat it, then you tag them with a penalty. Otherwise, you let it slide and remind the player that you are not going to deal with any sort of poor behavior during the evening. Now if they say it directly to your face, ring 'em up. There is no place for that.

Sorry Bravada... I CANNOT agree with this one. You are baiting the player... Either call it or ignore it....

[Machinehead2k5 32]

don't act like it's a PITA for you to be there just because it's the lowest level of adult league. I play in the next to lowest level in my league and we suck. we know it, we're not stupid. just because we're not AAA level players doesn't mean that we need the ref to act like we dragged him/her there in chains to officiate our game. we paid the same amount of money as the AAA guys so we deserve to at least not feel bad that you're out there with us.

not all of us were lucky enough to be born on skates.

I bet you and I could name at least 2 or 3 refs that don't want to be there.

This past Saturday I played in a game with only one ref. He made it abundantly clear he was going to call anything that was unnecessary, impeded a scoring opportunity, whacks on the goalie after covering the puck, and anything extracurricular he was going to take both players no Qs asked. It was one of the better called games I've been a part of and he kept the lines of communication open the whole time and you could joke with him as well. However the orange team we played wanted to whine the whole time about little things. Towards the end of the game (4 seconds left) I got into a mini-scrap, gloves didn't come off but punches and whatnot were thrown, helmet ripped off, but orange team had a third man in which was missed due to him getting to the "fight" late.

[Bravada 442 0]

It's not a bait. Baiting is the use if deception or trickery to do something someone would not normally do.

They've already done it once, all you're doing is asking them if they'd like to repeat the statement. It is absolutely not a bait.

Trust me, it works

[rachael7 1]

Wow. No conflict of interest language in the paperwork he had to fill out?

Got me, no idea what sort of paperwork zebras have to fill out. I can tell you that he didn't even circulate a roster sheet for the game - only time I've not had to sign in for a league game. He also kept pegging the net 6" from where it was supposed to be. Our tender who is normally incredible, let in a couple soft ones just because her angles were so messed up by the goal placement. And our goalie got so tired of people standing in her crease, she finally took one of them down with a blatant slew foot. Got the ref's attention alright, but he didn't call the slew foot - he called the other woman for being in the crease... lol

[shotty 7]

It's not a bait. Baiting is the use if deception or trickery to do something someone would not normally do.

They've already done it once, all you're doing is asking them if they'd like to repeat the statement. It is absolutely not a bait.

Trust me, it works

it is absolutely baiting. you are asking them to say something to you with the intention of penalizing them for it if they "bite" your request.

[Jarick 5]

I'd say 9 out of 10 games are called pretty well. Sure a ref will miss something here and there, but they're human. I don't get my teammates who run their mouth if the ref sees two people go down and calls both rather than one, or whatever. It's usually the games where the ref starts calling everything (or even worse tiny things on one team over and over and over again) or where they let everything slide because it's late that get frustrating. But there's been way more games I thank the ref after the game for keeping it clean than not.

[zebra_steve 11]

BTW... the call for two teammates fighting is a Game Misconduct to each of them and a bench minor for delay of game to their team.

[chippa13 1844]

It's not a bait. Baiting is the use if deception or trickery to do something someone would not normally do.

They've already done it once, all you're doing is asking them if they'd like to repeat the statement. It is absolutely not a bait.

Trust me, it works

But it creates an adversarial relationship between the ref and the player. You are daring them to do something and that usually turns a situation where only one player was against you to the whole team being against you. Like Zebra said, either call it or ignore it.

[iceNsteel 0]

It's not a bait. Baiting is the use if deception or trickery to do something someone would not normally do.

They've already done it once, all you're doing is asking them if they'd like to repeat the statement. It is absolutely not a bait.

Trust me, it works

You are baiting by doing that. You're intentionally eavesdropping on a conversation, and then (in nothing short of a Eric Cartman "respect my author-a-tyyy" moment) challenging the player to take something that you could not penalize them for into an area in which you can penalize them. It's unprofessional, unethical, and frankly just extremely juvenile.

[tro 4]

Im sure it's been said, but Consistency, Consistency and Consistency.

If your going to let a hook go for one team, you have to let it go for the other and let if you let it slide 2 min in, you let in go 2 min left.

Tuesday the refs let the game play with little in the way of calls for 57 min and then down 1, he calls a ticky tack hook that happens 50 times a game with no call. That's what really sets guys off.

[WSjo22 1]

Im sure it's been said, but Consistency, Consistency and Consistency.

If your going to let a hook go for one team, you have to let it go for the other and let if you let it slide 2 min in, you let in go 2 min left.

Tuesday the refs let the game play with little in the way of calls for 57 min and then down 1, he calls a ticky tack hook that happens 50 times a game with no call. That's what really sets guys off.

That's all I ask for from refs. I can hack and hook with little rubs against the wall or not you make the calls that will dictate how I handle a situation but please be consistant in a game. If you let those go for 2/3 of the game you can't start calling them because it's starting to escalate.

[nevertheless 0]

As a relatively new referee (2 years) (and a first time MSH poster), I'd have to say that the major thing I've seen in my life as a player and as an official is professionalism.

So what makes a good beer league ref? To me #1 is: look, act, and be professional. IMO it goes a long way for beer-leaguers to feel like their officials know what they're doing and are capable and able to handle the job. Once players get the sense that the official is off of their game or has 'lost control' it gets ugly real fast. IMO, It's already too late in beer league if you have to go talk to the benches to calm them down.

My Bad Experiences:

I've played in one game where one official was just so out to lunch, ie: sitting at centre ice while the other official is deep in the zone, not following the puck into his zone, not motioning icings etc. It got so bad that the other official started screaming at him from across the ice to get into position. Clearly the official, for whatever reason, had decided to mail in the game. The effect this had on my bench was incredible. Guys that are normally level-headed were getting into it with players from the other team, getting chippy in the corners, screaming at both refs etc, I could tell that fights were imminent. We tried to calm down our own bench but it was a close thing.

I've seen the officials during play just leaning against one or another of the benches chatting it up with players--gossip and absolutely nothing to do with the game. Not only was the official not paying attention to the game he wasn't even facing in the correct direction.

Each and every time I've seen or been the only official. It's not just twice as hard to officiate a game alone, IMO it is orders of magnitude harder to call a game as the only official than it is to call one with two or more.

My Great Experiences:

Thankfully, these happen each and every single time I don't recall something bad to say about the refs, which is by a large margin the majority of games I've been involved with.

[chippa13 1844]

Its funny but some of my best games were those that I did myself. A little more skating but I felt so much into it. In fact, one Midget AAA game that I did solo, the guy who gave it to me received calls about how well I did the game.

[zebra_steve 11]

When you are alone, similar to being the ref in a 3 official system, if you don't see it you can't call it.... (we are not going to discuss conferring with lineys here as it's kinda out of the scope of beer league refereeing). It takes practice to be able to see "most of the ice" all of the time and to know where you need to concentrate your primary focus. Hint, it's not always on the puck. If you see it and don't call it (or are not sure of what you saw) you don't have a partner to save your bacon and call it for you - as you might in a 2 ref system. The game can go to hell really quick if it looks - to the players\benches - that you were looking right at something and didn't make the call. If you see it in your peripheral vision and think it might be a call but are not sure, do you error on the "let them play side" or call it tight side?

What about stuff away\behind the play? That depends on the game and the players... Lot's of BS going on and someone's probably gonna sit just to set a standard.... If I'm alone then you're gonna sit because I'm not dealing with it. If they're skating, bumping and grinding and playing then I'll probably tell them to get up and get back into play... in essence I'm saying. "Guys, I saw you and you are right on the line. I could stop play and give you both a coincidental minor but I don't want want to disrupt the flow of the game because you two want to be idiots. Quit wasting everyone's time and play hockey." Then if they keep at it they go sit down.... In these instance too many times the benches IGNORE THE FACT THAT THEIR PLAYER IS A WILLING PARTICIPANT and yell about you not calling the other team when you tell them to grow up and rejoin play, or yell that you take both. And YES, sometime the right call IS only taking the one.

New officials are initially taught that (in a 2 ref system) the outside ref watches the slot and away from play and the inside ref watches play (around the puck).... good starting point, but as soon as the ref becomes proficient they should then be mentored to widen their vision to see the entire zone and not necessarily focus on the puck. In essence, when they are on the goal line they should work to develop vision of the ice like they are wearing the bands in a 3 man... strive to see and make every call that is in your zone. If there is a battle in front of the net and the forwards are just cycling the puck in the corner, or it's being passed around the edges of the zone, then you can concentrate more focus on the battle. You will follow the puck in your peripheral vision as there will be less of a chance for an infraction on the puck and it will also be more obvious like a hook, trip, or slash. The stuff in front is another story and often you need to see the battle develop.... how many guys have been called for a retaliatory penalty after getting jobbed by the opponent in the slot. The movement from you getting lit up draws the refs full attention and he clearly sees what you did. He knows that something happened to cause it, but was it worth a penalty or is the retaliation worse than the action that caused it?

[BlackIce 1]

Are you playing in toronto at TNHL at rinx? If so you're with about 20-30 guys and gals who agree with you every night.

Yup, I play TNHL but not at rinx.