Shane Hanlon and Tony Mariconda wrote, "The Atlantic District has completed the originally scheduled portion of our 2003/04 USA Hockey Officiating Program Seminars. We are considering hosting 1or 2 more seminars in the Spring of 2004. The details of these proposed seminars will be announced in late January 2004."

"If you have not completed your seminar attendance, you now have 2 options:"

1. You may attend a seminar is another District. (Here is the link to the USA Hockey Seminars Page: http://www.usahockey.com/usa_hockey/officials/seminars/).
2. You may wait until the Spring 2004 to see if additional Atlantic District Seminar(s) are scheduled.

"If you are not complete as a USA Hockey Official for the 2003/04 Season by November 30, 2003, you may not officiate in any USA Hockey sanctioned games."

"Once again, we will post the dates and locations of any Spring 2004 seminar(s) on our Officiating Program website, http://www.aaharefs.org, in late January 2004."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you have not received your USA Hockey 2003/04 Officiating Program card and crest, you are probably not completely registered as an official for this season. Let's review all of the steps required and see where the problem may be.

Each official is required to do the following in order to become completely registered as an official. ALL of these steps must be repeated every season. They may be completed in any order.

1. Registration with USA Hockey

   Officials must register with USA Hockey's National office in Colorado Springs, CO. The registration form is red, white and blue. The form is to be mailed into Colorado Springs, CO with a check for the level you are applying for. After USAH processes you application, they will send you the OPEN BOOK TEST.

   Please note that USA Hockey Registration is separate from the AAHA fee, which is collected at the seminars. The AAHA fee is your registration with our local District. You must still register with USA Hockey, even if you are already registered as a player or as a coach.

2. Officials must complete the OPEN BOOK TEST and mail it to USA Hockey

   Level 1 officials must answer only the first 50 questions. Level 2, 3 and 4 officials must answer the entire 100 questions.

3. Seminar and CLOSED BOOK TESTS

   Officials must attend a full day USA Hockey Officiating Program Seminar. At the seminar, Level 2, 3 and 4 applicants will be administered a CLOSED BOOK TEST. You will be required to fill out and sign an attendance sheet at the end of the day. Failure to sign this sheet will result in you NOT receiving credit for attending the seminar.

   
   

If you have not completed all of these steps, that is why you do not have your new card and crest. You must have all steps completed by Nov. 30th if you are a returning official. If you are not completely registered, you may not officiate USA Hockey games until you do become complete.

If you are unsure of what step in the process you have missed, USA Hockey has a Registration Verification System. To use this automated system, please call 719-576-8724:

• Press 3- to access the automated system
• Press 2- for Ice Hockey
• Press 3- for Referee Registration Status

Then follow the instructions to see what step(s) you have missed.

If this does not help you find where you stand as far as being "completely registered” for the 2003/04 season, or if you feel the information that USA Hockey has is incorrect, DO NOT CONTACT USA HOCKEY DIRECTLY. Please contact Tony Mariconda (tonyrefx3@aol.com), the District Referee-in-Chief and he will help you in anyway he can.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tony Mariconda passed along this interpretation of the fast face-off procedure, provided by USA Hockey:

Situation: In the second period, Team A is set for a face-off in their defending zone. The line change procedure has been completed when Team A realizes that they only have 4 players on the ice when they should have 5 players. If Team A is now allowed to correct this situation they would be delaying the face-off, since a player would have to come from their bench at the far end of the ice. What is the correct ruling?

Ruling: The officials cannot allow a team to run a "sleeper" play by placing too few players on the ice deliberately and then adding a player after the face-off. However, they cannot allow a team to circumvent the new face-off rule by deliberately delaying their substitutions either.

In this case, if the officials feel that Team A made an honest mistake, they should warn Team A, allow the fifth player to come on to the ice before the face-off, and remove Team A's center from that face-off. Any subsequent violations would then result in a Delay of Game penalty.

If the officials feel that this violation was a deliberate attempt to the delay the game, then the Delay of Game penalty must be assessed immediately.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)