Scott Zelkin has been the director of USA Hockey’s Advanced Officiating Development Program for a dozen seasons. A lot has changed since he took the reins, from the quality and types of training available, to the overall demographics of the program’s participants, to the opportunities available for its member officials. 

Zelkin took time to highlight the evolution of the AODP over the years, including some of its most important changes, as well as what he hopes to see from the program in the future.

USA Hockey: For those who don’t know, what is the mission of the AODP?

Scott Zelkin: Our mission is to coach, train and develop the best amateur officials in the country, and to help them advance to higher levels of officiating including collegiate, professional and international hockey. We also want to have our officials go back and serve as mentors and valuable assets at the grassroots level to help inspire the next generation of officials coming up.

USA Hockey: Has that mission changed at all over the years, since you started 12 years ago? 

Zelkin: The overall mission hasn’t changed, but there has been an evolution. For example, since I started, a major structural change within our program has been increased emphasis on women’s officiating. We want to help female officials advance to places like the PWHL, collegiate hockey and international hockey. 

We also have a clearer international path to offer, in terms of giving officials opportunities internationally both with the IIHF, and potentially with European leagues. The IIHF has always been a part of it, but we have a much more hands-on approach to working with them. Our methods and ways we coach and train our officials have changed in terms of evolving with the times and technology and utilizing different tools to accomplish the same goals. 

The craft of officiating is still the same – it's something that we strongly believe needs to be developed, honed and trained. You still have to be a good athlete, be in good shape and skate and be able to react under pressure and officiate a hockey game in a manner that keeps the game safe and within the rules.

USA Hockey: How has your role evolved with the organization?

Zelkin: I’m really humbled by the trust USA Hockey has placed in me to lead this program, and the evolution has given me more opportunities and more avenues to help lead and guide that development for our officials. When I started, I was focused strictly on the USHL, the North American League and the NA3HL. Now I have through opportunities that USA Hockey and the IIHF have afforded me, I’m leading our officiating coaches, IIHF officiating coaches and international officials and helping to prepare them for the challenges at the international level. I’m more involved now with our summer camps, in terms of structure. We have an officiating department and an extremely collaborative group that works together. And credit to USA Hockey and the leadership above me for recognizing that officiating is an important part of the game, so we’ve staffed up our department and I’m able to have a voice and help lead the collaboration with B.J. Ringrose, Rob Hearn, Billy Hancock, Andrew Bruggeman and Stacey Livingston.

We’re also very much focused on our advanced female officials, so I’ve been overseeing that, and the growth and development of some outstanding female officials that perform great and have the same desires to learn and advance. 

USA Hockey: How else has the AODP evolved, and utilized technology, to meet the needs of aspiring officials? 

Zelkin: We still very much believe that the best way to learn is getting feedback from knowledgeable coaches that are there in the building. Not supervisors, but coaches, who are there to talk about game situations and what they’re doing. That’s not something new, but the methods have changed. We’re able to use video in real-time. A lot of our junior leagues, such as the USHL the NAHL, have video that we’re able to plug into and use as immediately as in between periods. It’s no different than how a coach can walk into a dressing room and show the power play unit some things they might want to make adjustments on. We have the ability to use video and talk about adjustments and learning opportunities either in between periods or immediately after the game. The video capabilities are just so much more advanced then when I started. 

We also didn’t have Zoom when I started. Obviously, we all know way too much about Zoom because of the pandemic and what we went through. But by the same token it’s given us opportunities to do a lot of teaching and learning from distance if necessary. 

Additionally, our scheduling platform that we use is a centralized hub, where we’re able to push out video, push out education materials, offer opportunities to improve knowledge, using technology versus pen and paper or even email. 

USA Hockey: In what ways have the AODP participants changed in the last 12 years?

Zelkin: The passion and the desire to be successful hasn’t changed at all. There’s more of a recognition now that athleticism and fitness is a key component to having success at higher levels. And our officials are recognizing that if they want to compete at higher levels, they have to put in the work to be every bit as much of an athlete as the players that are playing the games they’re officiating. 

In terms of demographics, it’s like the players – the growth of hockey nationally in the non-traditional hockey markets has given us the opportunity to see more officials coming from those places. It isn’t all Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Boston kids. We have officials from California, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. We have officials from Las Vegas. Everywhere hockey is growing, we also have more officials. 

One of our great success stories is Kilian McNamara. He’s from Palm Beach, Florida. He came to our prospects camp about 8-9 years ago when he was entering his senior year in college at New Hampshire. While he was going to school, he worked games for us. After he graduated, he worked full time in the North American League, then the USHL, he conquered those leagues and the year after that he went to the ECHL and officiated games in the American League and a couple years after that he’s now a full-time linesman in the NHL. And he’s from Florida, where 20 years ago, the officiating pool was not nearly as deep as it is now.

USA Hockey: What are some of the benefits for the aspiring/younger officials if they are part of the AODP? 

Zelkin: You’re working with like-minded officials who want to work hard, want to get better and I think when you’re in an environment where people are pushing each other on a daily basis you can’t help but become better -- not only a better official, but a better human – both on and off the ice.

The doorways that are opened are also very wide ranging. We have on the women’s side a fantastic working relationship with the ECAC and their women’s Division I conference. The AODP is responsible for over 20 percent of their officiating assignments, with officials that don’t live in the footprint. We’ve created opportunities for our female officials to work one of the best conferences in the country. In addition to international hockey and outstanding high-level women’s hockey. On the men’s side, there are opportunities in arguably the best junior league in the world, the USHL. The North American League is right there in terms of quality. And beyond that we are placing officials on a regular basis in the ECHL, in the American Hockey League. When the NHL hires American officials almost all of them have worked and spent times within our programs. There’s nothing greater than representing your country internationally and our officials are getting those opportunities. And we also have officials who have moved on to management roles in game of hockey.

USA Hockey: What are some of the AODP accomplishments and success stories you are most proud of?

Zelkin: A couple things come to mind. I don’t take credit for this, but I am proud of our group of officiating coaches and the partnerships we’ve developed with the NAHL and the USHL to create a program that turns our year after year the best officials in the country. The way this program has evolved to become something that has respect in North America and worldwide. Individually, the best days I’ve ever had in hockey are watching some of our officials achieve their dreams and achieve their goals. Watching Andrew Bruggeman and Billy Hancock work the gold medal game of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Watching officials that put time into our program go on to work in the NHL. The growth of the women’s side, including those going to represent USA Hockey at the Milan Olympics. There are so many examples that are rewarding beyond words.

USA Hockey: What does the future hold for the AODP? 

Zelkin: I think the leaders within the program want to keep building on our success. We want to continue to get better and enhance the way we teach and coach our officials. I want us to continue to improve our coaching skills for our coaches and find new and innovative ways to help our officials learn and grow. I look forward to a future where we continue to evolve the program so that we look back in another 12 years and say we’ve come so much further in terms of technology, expectations and performance. I look forward to building on all of that.