Billy Hancock has been a USA Hockey certified official since 2006, and over his career has patrolled the ice for youth, adults, amateurs and pros on the local, national and international stages. However, in his current role, as USA Hockey coordinator of officiating, he may have an opportunity to make his biggest impact yet – this time, off the ice.
It’s no secret that the world of officiating, in hockey and across the sports landscape, has faced challenges in all aspects of the role. As coordinator of officiating, Hancock supports USA Hockey’s determined and ongoing effort to enhance the experience for referees.
“My role is to work closely with local affiliates and districts around all aspects related to officiating,” said Hancock, who most recently served as a linesman in the 2022 Olympic Winter Games and also officiated the 2021 and 2017 IIHF U18 Men’s World Championship, 2019 IIHF Men’s World Championship and 2018 IIHF U20 World Championship. “I’ll be the boots on the ground, so to speak, for our national office, whenever assistance is needed. The bulk of my job is to recruit and retain new officials at all levels of amateur hockey.”
Hancock shared his thoughts on how USA Hockey has and will continue to support local official groups and youth hockey associations, in developing officials and creating a more positive environment at our nation’s rinks.
USA Hockey: Has anything surprised you about the job so far?
Billy Hancock: I’ve been an official since the 2006-07 season, and I knew a decent amount about how the process works within USA Hockey. But I didn’t realize just how big the office truly was until I walked through it, and met all the people in different departments, from the coaching side to the foundation and more. And you see how hard the organization works to try to bring everyone together. It can be challenging but I believe we’re improving that and building good working relationships.
USAH: What challenges do you see when it comes to the current state of youth hockey officiating?
BH: The biggest and most obvious thing is the abuse we see from coaches, players and parents, and them not being penalized. We try to tell all of our officials in our seminars that we have a rule book, let’s defend it. The problem is, we have a number of younger officials. Fifty-one percent of our officials this year are Level 1s and the majority of them are under the age of 18. So, it’s hard to tell a 16-year-old kid, go penalize a 40-year-old coach. It can be intimidating to stand up for yourself and have that confidence. We’re working to improve our mentor practice and shadow program, someone that helps you out for your first season, and says, ‘hey how was your first game, have you had any issues?’ And, if that official has an issue during a game, he can call his mentor and say ‘how could I handle this next time?’ Some areas in the country do a great job with this and others don’t. We want to improve that with assistance from USA Hockey.
As far as shadowing, that’s about having someone on the ice that follows you around, tells you where to stand and how to call a penalty, for the first 2-3 games. They can provide guidance on how to handle being abused, how to handle a game report. There are many things you can do with it.
USAH: What are some things you’ve noticed that are going well or you could point to as already improving or successful?
BH: The development program we have in terms of education going from grassroots all the way to the top, has been great. The development camps are phenomenal. Nobody else in the world has the programs we do to develop officials. I think USA Hockey also does a good job of showing our officials how to get to the next level.
USAH: How can USA Hockey work on a grassroots level to better support officials and make an impact at the local level?
BH: We are already taking steps to improve the Coaching Education Program curriculum, which is a big start. This season for the first time we’re doing rules questions in coaching seminars. A better understanding of the rules can only help with respect for one another and improve the relationship.
We also need to do more work with coaches and officials to help them communicate better with each other. That starts with our seminars for officials. You may have a 35- or 40-year-old coach talking to a 16-year-old official. They need to understand that they’re talking to a child not an adult. For the officials, it’s a very unique situation because even though you might be 16 or 18, you’re still the superior person on the ice and the one in charge of the game. But you need to learn to talk to that adult in a proper way and vice versa. We have had a tendency, for a long time, that coaches, players and parents are on one side of the island and referees are by themselves on the other side. We need to find a way to say listen, all of us want what’s best for the game, and merge all together.
As an organization, we will look to do more traveling out to local rinks and do presentations, about what it’s like to be an official and what’s our goal on the ice, and discuss that with coaches, players and parents. We should have local referee-in-chiefs meeting with affiliates, meetings with associations, get them all together and make it a face-to-face thing.
USAH: What can local associations do on their own to grow their pool of officials?
BH: The simplest way to bring in more officials in is to start advertising it. In the same way that we approach advertising to players with Try Hockey For Free and Learn to Skate, we should appeal to people to be referees. That also includes advertising on association’s websites.. Then, they could have local meetings with speakers, whether it’s me or someone in the local hockey officiating community. We always joke that Rochester, New York is the linesman capital of the world. We’ve had a number of officials come out of that area and work some really high-level games. We have so many American officials that have come out of big and small markets that have gone on to work Division I hockey, the Olympics. Telling their stories and a showcasing officials at the local level is an important step as well.
USAH: How can we grow the number of female officials in the sport?
BH: As we need to for officiating in general, we need to do a better job of getting the word out to female skaters who may be interested in officiating. For example, if we engage players when they are still playing, a start to talk with them about the opportunities that are available to them in the officiating world, it would help spread the word. I think one of the biggest challenges is that female players or those who may be interested in being a referee think there aren’t as many opportunities for them as there are for men. But there’s more opportunity than they think.
We’ve also been striving to create new roles within USA Hockey for officiating education. We now have a female referee in chief, Krissy Langley, who hosts a monthly call called Whistle Talk and talks with high-level female officials across the country about what’s working, what’s not and what we can do better. We’re also doing a mentoring program with local female officials. There has been progress, but we still need to do a better job of communicating and giving young players the chance to get on the ice, blow the whistle, see what it’s like to be an official and get them signed up.
USAH: What are the most important things to do to create a positive environment in the rink?
BH: I think it starts before they get to the rink. Coaches, and maybe even players, should take a walk in a referees’ shoes and see what it’s like to ref a game, maybe go through the seminar process, just learn what it takes to become an official. We also need to enforce a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to abusing officials. It could be having a parent monitor in the stands, who steps up for officials. Again, it comes back to a better understanding of and communicating respectfully with each other.
