From Thursday, August 13 to Sunday, August 16, I attended the Western
New England Hockey Officials School, under the direction of NHL linesman
Kevin Collins.  This article is a summary of my experience there, and
is in no way meant to serve as an advertisement for the camp.
 
Me, and three other referees from the Albany area rode down to Enfield, CT
together on Thursday, got our rooms at the Red Roof Inn, and checked in
to camp at 12noon.  In all, 65 students attended the camp, which was
then divided into three classes: A, B, and C.  The C class was the
advanced 3-man class, which all 4 of us were in, and which was filled
to capacity (30 students).  At 1pm, Kevin Collins gave an introduction
to the school and its philosophy, and introduced the other instructors.
 
Among the instructors were Mark Faucette (NHL referee), Marty Demers (AHL
and ECAC linesman), Brian Collins (ex-AHL linesman), and of course,
Kevin Collins himself (NHL linesman).  Faucette was the leader of the
C class, so we spent much of our time learning from him.  At 2pm, we
had a power skating class with professional figure skater Debbie Adams.
Needless to say, this was a very rigorous class, and everyone was pretty
sore after it.  The rest of the day was filled with off-ice classes,
another on-ice session, and dinner.  We covered face-offs and the basics
of proper signals.
 
Friday began at 8:30am with breakfast, a group picture at 9am, and class
from 9:30 til noon.  During this time, we covered all the mechanics of
being a linesman in the 3-man system.  After lunch, we had Will Norris,
NHL officiating recruiter, as a guest speaker.  At 2pm, another class, and
at 3:30pm, we were on the ice to practice the linesman techniques we had
learned earlier.  New to most of us was the calling of offside passes
at the red line (commonly known as 2-line passes), since this call is
not made in most USA Hockey ranks, or any NCAA games.  At 4:30 we had
dinner, 5:45 was class, and 6:45 was a game, in which the 30 of us were
broken into 10 3-man groups.  Each group got to officiate for 10 minutes
running time during the game, and was evaluated by Collins, Faucette, and
Demers.  At this game, I was a linesman in the 3rd group.  Me and my
partner were evaluated by Demers, and we did a good job for the most part.
 
Saturday began at 8:00am with breakfast, then we were on the ice at 8:45
for referee drills (calling penalties, goal line positioning, etc).  At
10am, we had another guest speaker, this time from the AHL (I forget his
name).  11am was class, and at 11:30, we had another guest, whom I wasn't
expecting.  Andy VanHellemond talked to our C group about his experiences
during his last 22 years as an NHL referee.  He had lots of insight in
dealing with players, and gaining their respect.  Of course, Andy is
considered to be the best referee in the NHL, and has definitely officiated
the most games any referee in the NHL has ever done.  He told some very
amusing stories about run-ins he has had with certain players, including
Mario Lemieux.  Andy had a very easy-going personality, and I really
appreciated his style and advice.
 
After VanHellemond's talk, we had lunch, then class, and then ice time
at 3:30.  During this session, we were each videotaped solo, executing
a variety of maneuvers and signals to see how we really look.  After
that, we were dismissed, and later that night was a barbecue at Al
Pinciak's house in Springfield, MA.
 
On the final day, Sunday, we had breakfast at 8am, class at 8:30, and then
had another game to officiate at 10am.  Again, the 30 of us were broken
into 10 3-man groups [come to think of it, I shouldn't say 3-man, since
there was actually one female in our C class, and she was a great official].
This time, I was a referee in group 6.  We were out for 10 minutes running
time again, and I was evaluated by Kevin Collins.  After my block of time,
Kevin and I sat in a room and discussed the various aspects of my
officiating.  It was really helpful to be able to receive immediate
feedback, both positive and negative.  This game was also videotaped, and
for our 11:45 class, we watched the game video as Faucy (that's his
nickname) poked fun at us.  We really lucked out having Faucy as an
instructor.  He's a very cool and fun guy, and we found ourselves
laughing quite a bit.  He's also serious and helpful, and we all gained
alot from him.  At 2pm, we said good-bye, and me and my 3 ref friends
packed up and headed back to Albany.
 
The weekend was extremely tiring, but we all had a great time.  I know
I've come back with some new approaches to my officiating, and a bunch
of things which I need to correct and strengthen.  And I met a great
group of guys, some of whom are already in the ECAC and looking to get
into the AHL and/or NHL.  This camp is the place to get recognition if
you want to go pro.  One guy I met was on his fifth camp, and has been
contracted to referee in the USHL in Iowa this year.  Another one, Scott
Hansen, I've known from back in Connecticut (my home state).  He's in
the ECAC and AHL, and is now looking to get into the NHL.  He had a great
camp, and has a good shot at it.
 
Well, that was my experience at "referee school".  Definitely a good one.
And you guys think that referees are just "guys they pull in from the
street"...  :-)   It takes alot of hard work and dedication to make it
in the officiating business.  Thanks to schools like the one run by
Kevin Collins, the quality of officiating in all leagues will hopefully
increase in the future.  And I'm glad to be a part of it.       -- kennyz
 
--
Kenny Zalewski -- Information Technology Services at Rensselaer
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 83 Albright Court, Troy, NY, 12180
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