An effort to eliminate abuse of young hockey officials.
All referees in northwestern Ontario under the age of 18 are now wearing green arm bands.
Hockey Northwestern Ontario’s Director of Officiating Bryan Graham says abuse of officials is a big concern.
“We’ve had so many officials leave Hockey Canada’s officiating program, whether its in Hockey Northwestern Ontario or across the country, and the number one reason that they leave the program after the first year or possibly the second year is because of verbal abuse. So we need to stop that.”
Graham says the arm bands draw attention to the officials being minors and adults should not be yelling at them for mistakes made on the ice.
“No parent or any hockey administrator would ever in a million years allow the players to be verbally abused by an adult. So why would we allow those same adults and coaches to abuse young officials.”
Graham says the program was adopted from a similar one used in minor league baseball in Montreal.
HNO GREEN ARM BAND INITIATIVE
The objective of this program is to reduce harassment and abuse of younger on-ice officials by clearly identifying them as minors and to protect their psychological and physical safety at the arena. More information here:https://t.co/JlfnKJ3E1t pic.twitter.com/gQZujQEbdg— Hockey Northwestern Ontario (@HNOHockey) October 11, 2022
