Helga Dimitrov writes:
>Dave Aiello wrote:
[edited]
>
>But how frequently do officials and coaches meet to discuss what's going
>on? (I don't know. That's why I'm asking.)
 
Reasonably frequently, although I do not know exactly how often.
 
>Are officials ranked? Do coaches
>and referees critique the officials regularly and share their opinions?
 
Yes, and yes.  In an article I posted this morning, I said that HE
coaches file (or at least used to file) an evaluation of the
officiating crew after each game.  This is reviewed by the league's
Supervisor of Officials.
 
There are officials who no longer work HE games because they were
rated poorly by enough coaches (and the league).
 
>I
>believe a lot of the fan hostility toward officials comes from the
>perception that officials think they 1)can't be wrong 2)are in charge and
>therefore they can do whatever they want and 3)are accountable to no one
>but themselves. Of course not every official is like this.
 
I would say that with very few exceptions, no DivI college hockey
official is like this.
 
I also think that the fan hostility actually comes about from several
reasons:
 
* The fans' belief that because they paid to get in, they can scream
whatever they want at the players and officials;
* A desire to show off in front of friends or fellow fans by harassing
officials; and, typically,
* A serious lack of knowledge of the playing rules and the manner in
which they are to be applied.
 
It is actually not very often that I see fans become hostile towards
officials and I believe they are justified.  But even then, many of
the things they will yell and do are still not justified no matter how
egregious the error.
 
Mike Tuell's comments posted by Wayne last week should be a clear
indication that officials know they are responsible for their actions
and are accountable to the powers that be.
 
>>Finally, every game official deserves the courtesy of being referred to by
>>his full name, or "Mr." and his last name.  If you, as a fan, cannot take the
>>time to find out an official's first name and include it in your article, how
>>can we be sure that you were paying close attention to the play you are
>>questioning?
>
>Give me a break. You want my respect? Call a good game. Be consistent. Show
>that you take your job seriously. Don't tell me you *deserve* to be called
>mister because you choose to wear a striped shirt in a game.
 
Apparently Hockey East agrees with Dave, since HE officials are
introduced as "Mister" so-and-so before each game at HE rinks.  I
believe this is the case at most other rinks, too.
 
Besides, I have seen enough games where officials did call a good
game, were consistent, and still took a boatload of abuse.  Simply
meeting these criteria is just not going to be enough to cause fans to
respect them.
 
An official deserves to be accorded respect by the very nature of his
position right from the start, unless he does something that certainly
warrants him not being respected.  And again, I can think of perhaps a
handful of cases over the several hundred games I have witnessed where
I thought this happened.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93