> Now, I'd like to find out how intramural ice hockey programs > are run at other colleges, especially with regards to > officiating. > > Kenny Zalewski -- Head Referee, RPI Intramural Ice Hockey Program Ohio State boasts the largest intramural sports program in the country. Fortunately, hockey is one of the sports. It has a high enough participation rate that it is graduated by skill level into four leagues - A,B,C and D. The pace of the game in A league is farely fast; it is about the pace of a collegeate club league. D league is for people who have never really skated before. Spring qurter has a slightly smaller number of participants. The biggest losses are in the lower leagues, so D league is eliminated and C becomes a novice league. All leagues have no checking and only A allows slapshots. (I think this is silly, but you know how insurance goes!) Equipment (helmet, shin pads and gloves) is available for those palyers who have none - the only thing the player must provide is a stick (of course sane players will invest in a pair of elbow pads.) Sign-ups are held at the beginning of the quarter at which time players are asked to go through a skills test to determine which league they will play in. There is no need to sign up as a team and many people sign up as individuals or in very small groups. There is a way of keeping theses groups together, but it does not always work. (Last year, the league officials lost the sign-up sheets and everybody's team got scrambled - the officials claimed no responsibility for this.) There are some teams which are established and participate year after year, but most are made up of individuals like me who just want to go out and play hockey and don't know too many other people who are in the same ability group. Regular season play is set up in a round robin format with the top teams making the playoffs. Playoffs are single elimination and will include either four or six teams depending on how many teams are entered in the league and how the people running the league happen to feel in any particular quarter. The entire program is run by an assistant manager at the ice rink. He hires the officials (oddly enough they all work at the rink.) They do an O.K job, but nothing spectacular. They don't need to be too good though as only a handful of the players outside of A league really know the rules anyhow. All in all, I think OSU runs a pretty good program for IM hockey. It is not quite as well run as other sports though. There is kind of an "old boys network" of people who work at the rink. Oftentimes, I get the impression that they think the league exists for their enjoyment rather than for the players. But people tend to lose perspective sometimes when running this kind of program - particularly when they are also participants. Good luck at RPI! - Patrick Fleming ----------------------------------------------- - Department of Chemistry ------------- If you were right, ------ - The Ohio State University -------------- I'd agree with you -- - [log in to unmask] ----------------------------