Prince Albert's Ty Skene will be working at the WHL Cup in Calgary at the end of the month. (Submitted photo/Ty Skene)

By Jeff D'Andrea

Heading to the Cup

Prince Albert’s Skene to work WHL Cup

Oct 11, 2019 | 2:05 PM

Prince Albert’s Ty Skene will skate alongside the best prospects the WHL has to offer.

Skene will be a linesman at the 2019 WHL Cup in Calgary, starting on Oct. 23.

“It’s a really big honour to be selected,” Skene said. “We’ve got a great group of young and upcoming officials in Saskatchewan. To be picked out of that group to showcase my skills at such a big stage, it’s a big honour and I’m really excited for it.”

Skene also officiated at the Telus Cup Western Regionals in Tisdale in the spring, and also does a ton of SJHL, SMAAAHL games among others.

Skene, who’s in his second year at the University of Saskatchewan studying civil engineering, originally got into the officiating business to improve his hockey game. Ten years ago when he started, Skene figured the extra skating would help him in his games, but then started to pay more attention to officiating.

Community support

The Hunger Games return to Prince Albert

52m ago

Raiders win 5-3

Defensive scoring leads Raiders over Wheat Kings

8h ago

GST Holiday

Federal government's two-month GST holiday begins

Dec 14, 2024

“I was still playing at the time and I wanted to get some extra ice time during the week to freshen up my skating, and a little pocket cash. Once I realized that my playing career wasn’t going to go as far as I hoped, I really focused on officiating,” Skene said. “We have a great group of officiating coaches in Prince Albert that really pushed me and kind of brought me up through the leagues.”

Wearing the stripes can be a thankless job. If you make a mistake, you’re going to hear it from the crowd and at least one of the benches, if not both. But Skene takes that as a challenge, and said building respect is what it’s all about.

“When you make a good call and everyone on the ice agrees with it, or even if they don’t agree with it, just to build a respectable reputation with the coaches, teams and the other officials, that’d be the most rewarding part for me,” Skene said.

–

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW