Development of elite young officials will continue over the summer months as the officiating program announces the dates and locations for the Summer Officiating Development Camps. These camps are used to identify and prepare potential college, professional and international officials. Many of the top officials in all areas of the United States have worked their way through the Summer Development Camp system. USA Hockey provides the top instructors available from the National Hockey League, Minor Professional Leagues and the National Collegiate Athletic Association to teach and evaluate the participants in all aspects of officiating. Here is a brief synopsis of each of the camps.

Note: The District Referees-in-Chief have more information and the necessary applications for each of these development camps. Interested officials that meet the criteria for application should contact their District Referee-in Chief.

REGIONAL CAMP

Dan Dreger is a former participant

The regional camps are divided into Western and Eastern camps. Each of the regional camps has 27 participants from their respective parts of the country. Officials range from 18-26 years of age and have a strong desire to achieve higher levels of officiating. Other criteria for attendance includes being an excellent skater, being proficient at working the three official system and the official needs to be willing to take learned information back to his local area and assist others with this information.

The USA Hockey Officiating Education Program will also be conducting Women’s Regional Officials Camp during the summer of 2008. A total of 12 female applicants between the ages of 18 and 35 will be invited to attend the regional session, which is designed to train and identify future high-level women officials. The camp format is similar to that of the regional camps.

NATIONAL CAMP

Next on the ladder for the up and coming official is the National Camp. USA Hockey invites 24 applicants to participate in a program that has a higher level of instruction and higher level of expectation than the regional camps. Officials between the ages of 20 and 29 that have attended a regional camp are eligible and these officials are expected to have displayed a drastic improvement in officiating skills when compared to their regional camp attendance. Once again, they need the desire to officiate higher levels of hockey and the willingness to give information learned back to their respective local areas to be considered a viable candidate.

ELITE OFFICIATING EXPERIENCE

The officiating program would like to announce the continuation of the Elite Officiating Experience. This program will be run in conjunction with the USA Hockey Junior Hockey Challenge and the USA Hockey Women’s Festival. There will be two separate programs for officials, one for the men and one for the women with both scheduled for Lake Placid.

Tom Sterns came up in the development camps

Both programs are scheduled for August. These programs proved to be highly successful in the past as several of the participants have gone on to receive international assignments. The purpose of this program is to identify  potential international officiating candidates and then train them in the rules, procedures and mechanics of the International Ice Hockey Federation. USA Hockey will select six of our top men and women officials who have high-level officiating experience and have a desire to become involved at the international level of officiating to participate in a week-long session. The participants will also have an opportunity to gain game experience by officiating the games between the top junior- and college-aged players and our elite women ‘s players.

For those officials who want to pursue a career in officiating, the USA Hockey Officiating Education Program has put together this elite development program to help you achieve your goals.