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Skills for Stripes

By USA Hockey Officiating Program, 01/17/15, 7:30AM MST

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Q-and-A with Southeastern District Referee-in-Chief

Spend five minutes with Jim Dewhirst, USA Hockey Southeastern Referee-in-Chief, and one thing is apparent: He loves this game.

Growing up as a hockey player in Illinois, Dewhirst has brought that same passion he found as a player with him as an official. Now he uses it to help other officials develop in the game.

I like being there to help (younger officials) work through any and all issues on and off the ice,” said Dewhirst. “It’s just fun working with these guys that are developing.

Still active in officiating games while holding down district duties, Dewhirst knows the importance of a skilled official. He shares with us the talents every official should develop on and off the ice.

USA Hockey: Aside from the basic abilities of skating, what skills should every official have?

Jim Dewhirst: I think there are three things that officials need. Number one, they need the ability to be realistic and to be realistic about their own abilities (as an official). Everyone wants to make the NHL or college (level), but they forget that you don’t start out a ref today and get there tomorrow. Number two, an official needs to have confidence in what they do, but they can’t be cocky in what they do. (Officials) have to go out and command the ice with confidence but they have to remember the game is about everyone else, not you. Number three, is to have good people skills. You have to know how to speak to players and coaches, and it’s not always in the nicest of situations – it’s in the heat of battle. There are disagreements and you have to be able to deal with that and keep your emotions in check.

USAH: Those are important mental components. How does an official work on overcoming those challenges?

Dewhirst: There’s a lot more going on in the head of an official than just raising your arm for a penalty or goal. You have to recognize that you never stop learning. You have to realize that you’re going to make mistakes, but when you make a mistake, it has to become a learning tool. It can’t be someone else’s fault. You have to step back and say to yourself, ‘How do I prevent this from ever happening again?’ You have to do a lot of self-assessing after games. Accepting that mistakes will be made will help you focus on those skills and change your in-game mentality.

USAH: Like a player, are there practice elements for officials to help them?

Dewhirst: You have to officiate all kinds of games. I work a lot of upper-level games, but sometimes I learn the most lessons working with some of the younger kids. It’s always nice to go back and touch base there. It scares me to death because I’m not used to working them, but there are a lot of things that you do there that will help you. 

USAH: What other resources can help officials hone their skills?

Dewhirst: I think that you need to spend a lot of time watching a lot of different officials work and see the things they do well. You have to try and take those things and emulate them with your own skills. You also need to see the things that they don’t do well and don’t do those. Other officials are a fabulous resource.

Some of the most important resources we have though are the rulebook and various publications that USA Hockey has available. USA Hockey does a very good job of breaking things down into little pieces. As far as the rule book goes, what happens a lot is you’ll take a look at it when you first start refereeing and then you’ll never look at it again and sometimes you lose touch with some of those things. 

USAH: The rulebook should probably be an official’s best friend, right? 

Dewhirst: Absolutely. You can’t ever expect to know all the rules. You may think you know them, but there will come a situation when you’ll step back and realize you don’t. You not only have to know the rules, but you have to know how to apply them. The rulebook, especially in today’s time where we have so many officials working out of several different rulebooks, has to be known cover to cover. Just knowing little pieces of each one is not good enough. 

USAH: You’ve said that developing young officials is one of your favorite parts of the job. Is there one skill in particular that you see most officials struggle with? How do they improve on that?

Dewhirst: There are various skill issues with every official and it really depends on the official. Some might need to be better at skating or learn positioning better, but I think the toughest skill for officials is that you have to be able to skate on to the ice and give that game, that one point in time, your all. A lot of officials, when they’re doing four games a day, they think they can coast through this – you can’t do that. You’ve got to do your best job in every game. It’s difficult, very difficult, but it’s key. After I finish a game, I always ask myself if I gave my everything. If the answer is no, then I did something wrong. I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I want to give everything I had to that game. 

USAH: It sounds like you’ve successfully relayed that information to help your own officials in the Southeastern District …

Dewhirst: I don’t know why, but sometimes they think I know something and I’m not sure that’s true. 

Overall, there are a lot of very good officials in the Southeast. Some have moved here from places up north or southwest, but a lot are pretty homegrown and it’s amazing to watch these people work. I may not have the numbers that (other districts) do, but I certainly have the quality everyone else does.

For those officials in the world looking for a different place to live, the Southeast is a great spot and we’d love to have you here.