Due to situations beyond the control of the Atlantic District Officiating Program, the Montclair seminar scheduled for March 25th, 2012 has been moved to April 1, 2012. We apologize for any inconvenience this will cause but this situation cannot be avoided. All registration for the March 25th seminar have been moved to the new date and you will not need to re-register to attend. Unfortunately, we will not be able to schedule any other spring seminars for the Atlantic District other than the Aston PA, and now the Montclair NJ both on April 1, 2012.

Once again I apologize for the change and hope officials registered will be able to attend the April 1st date in Montclair NJ.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Marty Maglio via email at marty.maglio [at] verizon.net

Marty Maglio
Atlantic District Seminar Coordinator
USA Hockey

Please visit the Seminar Schedule and sign up if you can attend.

Leo Boylan opened and closed the meeting with a constant message that this is "your" District and he wants input and help from everyone who is interested. He will certainly guide programs, but wants ideas and will willingly accept help from all of us. Leo outlined his plans for structure in the future and told everyone that he hoped to have this laid out at the beginning of the summer. In the meantime, a re-cap from the USAH winter meetings included:

• Registration numbers are down in the district and nationally.
• 2013-2014 will be a rule change year and after that, rule changes will be every 4 years

If you are interested, please monitor AAHArefs.org or Facebook.com/aaharefs for further information about these events. As soon as we have particulars available, we will post details on this site.

Leo Boylan

Leo brings a wealth of on and off-ice officiating knowledge and experience to the position which will help continue to strengthen and develop the district and USA Hockey. He has been a member of the officiating staff of the American Hockey League and the ECAC Hockey League for many years. He also works with the off-ice officiating staff for the Philadelphia Flyers on behalf of the National Hockey League. Leo has also worked international hockey as an IIHF-licensed official.

Leo received the Mike Condon Award for Outstanding Service to the American Hockey League in 2008.

The Atlantic District and the District Officiating Staff would like to congratulate Leo as he takes office.

This seminar will take place on Sunday, December 4, 2011 from 2:00 PM until 8:00 PM at Floyd Hall Arena on the Montclair State University Campus.

All Atlantic District attendees must register in advance by visiting AAHA Seminar Schedule and completing the on-line seminar registration process in order to obtain an entrance ticket.

We thank you for your attention to this announcement and hope this additional seminar convenient to your schedule.

If you should have any other questions, or are a USA Hockey official from outside the Atlantic District who wishes to attend, please contact Marty Maglio via email at: marty.maglio [at] verizon.net.

Please note that the information contained in this memorandum is consistent with the stated policies of the Atlantic District Officiating Program since the rule changes for the 2011-2012 season were made public. If, after reading this, there are any further questions about what happens if a player removes his or her helmet during an altercation, please send an email to webmaster [at] aaharefs.org, or post a question on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/aaharefs.

Due to some misinterpretation and differences in opinion throughout the country regarding New Rule 615(c), the Interpretation Committee has discussed and developed the attached document which will clear up the confusion.

Memorandum

To: All USA Hockey Officials, and District Referees-in-Chief
From: Dave LaBuda - USA Hockey National Referee-in-Chief,
Matt Leaf - Director, USA Hockey Officiating Education Program,
BJ Ringrose - Coordinator, USA Hockey Officiating Education Program

Date: September 30, 2011

Re: Rule 615(c) - Fighting

There has been a lot of discussion regarding the new rule change to Rule 615 in regards to Fighting and removal of the helmet. This memorandum serves to clarify any misconceptions and misinterpretations our 26,000 USA Hockey Officials may have. Please note this memorandum is a product of the USA Hockey Rules Interpretation Committee and should supersede any contradictory presentation or interpretation given by any member of USA Hockey (volunteer or staff).

To start, Fighting is a strict Point of Emphasis among the USA Hockey Board of Directors (the governing body of USA Hockey) this season. The general message that should be understood by all players, coaches, and officials is that under no circumstances should fighting be tolerated at any level of our game. The act of fighting threatens the safety of all players and the integrity of our game, and it should not be condoned by any official, coach, or parent.

The official interpretation of Rule 615(c) is as follows,

Paragraph 1: "A game misconduct penalty shall be assessed to any player whose helmet/facemask comes off their head during an altercation." - This means that a player is responsible for wearing his helmet properly during a game. If his helmet is removed during an altercation (whether deliberate or not) and the officials deem that the helmet was not worn properly by the player (straps too loose, unfastened, or missing, etc.) then that player shall receive a Game Misconduct in addition to all other penalties he incurs during the altercation.

Paragraph 2: "A match penalty shall be assessed to any player who deliberately removes his (or opponent's) helmet/facemask prior to or during an altercation." - This rule states that anytime a helmet is removed deliberately by a player (either his own or an opponent's) during an altercation, a Match Penalty must be assessed under Rule 615(c). A deliberate attempt to remove a helmet can be defined as holding, pushing, or punching the helmet or facemask of the opponent.

The purpose of this rule is to,

• Hold all players accountable for wearing the mandatory equipment properly


• Prevent all types of contact that targets the head


• Prevent all types of altercations in general


• Prevent any deliberate removal of head protection during the game

The judgment is very limited and restricted to whether the removal of the helmet is deliberate and was the helmet worn properly? To help with the understanding of these rules and interpretations, we have provided several scenarios beyond the ones contained in the 2011-13 USA Hockey Playing Rules Casebook.

Dear Members of the Atlantic District:

The Atlantic District is now accepting applications for the position of Referee-in-Chief.

The Atlantic District is now accepting applications for the position of Atlantic District Referee-In-Chief, which was formerly held by Tony Mariconda.

The duties of the Atlantic District Referee-In-Chief are below for your review.

Interested applicants are to email the following information to Tom Koester, Atlantic District President, at tkoes3 [at] aol.com.

The deadline for receiving applications will be October 20, 2011.

Your application should include your name, address, phone numbers, email address, short description of education and profession, your officiating resume, and any information you believe would be helpful as the Atlantic District Referee-In-Chief.

Your application also needs to include answers to the following questions in 200 words or less.

A.) The local officiating community has many qualified officials that are available and willing to participate in the program. These experienced officials are waiting for the next Referee-In-Chief to reach out and engage them. How do you plan on gaining their trust and commitment to contribute to the Atlantic District Officiating program for the long haul?

B.) How would you improve our current seminars to make them more interesting and informative?

On October 21, a district committee will be convened to review the applications. The committee will notify the individuals, who they believe are best suited for this position, hold interviews with them and then make a recommendation of three persons to USA Hockey. The final selection for the new Atlantic District Referee-In-Chief will be made by USA Hockey.

Thank you for your interest and best of luck to all that apply!

Sincerely,
Thomas C. Koester
Atlantic District President
USA Hockey Director

The original of this form is always posted on the AAHArefs website. If you know of any other place where this form is posted, please let us know so that we can try to have the form updated or removed. Please send and email to support [at] aaharefs.org.

As a result of the Referee-in-Chief vacancy, all requests for Assignors List changes that are not part of the annual update that comes from the League Referees-in-Chief should be submitted to support [at] aaharefs.org.

When change requests are received, they will be acted on in the following manner:

• Changes will be confirmed with a third-party such as the league referee-in-chief, league president, or another recognized authority within the District.
• Once the change is confirmed, the Assignors List will be updated, and change will be published on the AAHArefs Facebook Page and on the AAHArefs Twitter Account.

This policy is subject to change after the new Referee-in-Chief has been selected.

If you have any comments or questions, please contact Dave Aiello, the District Officiating Program Database Coordinator at daiello [at] rinkatlas.com.

• A Level 2 and 3 seminar at Bridgewater Sports Arena on Saturday, September 24, and
• A Level 1 seminar at Ice Vault in Wayne, NJ on Sunday, September 25.

The time of the Bridgewater seminar (2:00pm to 10:00pm) is unusual, but was necessary because of limited availability of facilities at this time of year. As always, please carefully review the information on the Seminar Schedule before registering.

Constant Contact, our email list management service, automatically filters out officials who give the same email address as another official when they register with USA Hockey. Most email list management services that we evaluated also do this, so we couldn't really avoid the problem.

As a result, every official should have their own email address, despite the fact that USA Hockey doesn't require this.

Tony Mariconda

Tony became the Atlantic District Referee-in-Chief in 1999 and among his many accomplishments, he was the Camp Director of numerous USA Hockey Officiating Regional and National Camps; helped produce the USA Hockey Seminar Instructor Program and the original USA Hockey Officiating Evaluation Program.

Tony is survived by his wife Joan, two sons and daughter's-in-law Philip and Susan Mariconda, and Paul and Holly Mariconda, and his beautiful grandchildren. Tony and Joan were both recently named to the Atlantic District Hall of Fame. Joan is an AAHA board member and a USA Hockey Director. Philip and Paul are both veteran ice hockey officials.

The family has requested that we provide the following information about funeral arrangements:

• Visitation: 2 - 4:00pm and 7 - 9:00pm, Wednesday, September 7
• Funeral: 10:30am, Thursday, September 8

Browning-Forshay Funeral Home
557 Lafayette Avenue
Hawthorne, NJ 07507
[ Directions ]
973-427-0800

• Burial: Following funeral

Holy Sepulchre Cemetery
52 Totowa Road
Totowa, NJ 07512
[ Directions ]
973-942-3341

Obituary and on-line condolence book provided by the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to:

• The USA Hockey Foundation
  1775 Bob Johnson Drive
  Colorado Springs, CO 80906
• American Cancer Society
  PO Box 22718
  Oklahoma City, OK 73123-1718

Follow the District Officiating Program on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/aaharefs and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/aaharefs for further updates to this story.

All Participants:

The Atlantic District Level 4 Officiating Seminar has been rescheduled to take place on Sunday, September 11th from 10:30 AM to 7:00 PM at The Igloo, Mount Laurel, NJ. Please... confirm your registration to this rescheduled seminar.

If for any reason you cannot attend this seminar as previously registered, please contact Dave Zulla at david.zulla [at] verizon.net immediately.

I want to thank all the officials who were scheduled to attend this for your understanding in this matter.

If you should have any other questions, please contact Marty Maglio via email at: marty.maglio [at] verizon.net.

Marty Maglio
USA Hockey
Atlantic District Seminar Coordinator

Records have been retained of who was originally registered for the Level 4 Seminar, in case questions arise.

Follow the Atlantic District Officiating Program on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/aaharefs or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/aaharefs for the latest news on seminar schedule changes.