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By Shane Clausing

peace region seeking officials

Peace Region hockey associations seeking new officials for season

Oct 27, 2021 | 12:00 PM

Peace Region hockey associations say they’re in need of more officials as the hockey season gets underway.

Keegan Johnson, the Clinic Coordinator for officials in the Peace Region tells EverythingGP the pandemic did hurt them as well as other associations throughout Alberta.

“We’re definitely short on officials, we have more and more hockey it seems every year to cover,” he explained.

“The City of Grande Prairie itself covers quite a bit of hockey between Junior A, Junior B, GPAC, and house league. More officials would definitely make it easier on us.”

Over the course of the pandemic, Johnson says they lost about 10 per cent of their officials. They were able to retain a majority of their veteran officials, however, the biggest drop-off they’ve faced since the pandemic is in youth aged between 12-18.

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“We have a decent number of older officials 20 and older that cover the higher end hockey and then we’re missing that group in the middle that can transition into that next wave of officials,” he said.

“We’re definitely short across the board. If you’re over 12-years-old and want to officiate, there’s room for everybody.”

With the biggest officiating gap at the youth level, Johnson says there are quite a few incentives for those at the high school age if they want to continue to pursue officiating.

“There are post-secondary scholarships available for kids going into post-secondary. Hockey Alberta does offer scholarship money that can help a kid out in the post-secondary world. It’s not very well known up here,” said Johnson.

“If you’re working some hockey as a high school student and have some time to kill in the winter, there’s definitely some financial help if you apply for it.”

In order to become an official, you must register for a clinic at Hockey Canada’s website.

Once you’re signed up for a clinic, you’ll have to sit through the course, write a test and complete an on-ice session. Once hired, all officials are trained and get paid for the games they work and are trained for.

The clinics put on by Hockey Canada are hosted throughout the Peace Region at various times throughout the year.

Johnson hopes by attracting more youth to officiate games, they’ll be able to retain them and train them to help support hockey in the Peace Region for years to come.