(The Canadian Press)

By Ian Gustafson

From the Ice to online

New online hockey officiating program available for Sask. high school students

Jul 16, 2020 | 8:28 AM

The Saskatchewan Hockey Association (SHA) is offering a new officiating program for high school students in the province, something a local official says is a great development.

According to a media release, the SHA Officiating Development Program will be a province-wide online course students can take as an elective and earn a 20 level high school credit.

Beginning in September, students can do it on their own time through a Moodle platform and it covers a wide range of topics and has been expanded with more materials. There will also be video clips from different hockey leagues to learn from and many guest speakers such as NHL official Brad Meier.

Development of female official’s coordinator in Prince Albert with the SHA, Barry Schrader told paNOW it is a great development for young referees.

“Now that they’re actually getting a credit for it, I think it’s a great idea, I think it’s a great plan for the SHA to develop young referees,” he said.

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The Good Spirit School Division will offer the Hockey Officiating 20 Level Course to student’s province wide but those who are not in the school division will need to pay $300 to the division to enroll.

The instructor Garry Gawryliuk, will be available for students to ask any questions through multiple platforms such as Zoom.

All the course material is done through the SHA Officiating Branch Workbook and is the main textbook of the course. More expanded content has been added as well as other topics including mental preparation.

Although Schrader is not directly involved with the program, he said they’ve had problems getting people to come back to studies because they don’t want to be in class all day. With it being online he hopes the SHA will double the numbers of students joining.

“In the past couple years, we’ve had to do online modules and then attend a classroom for four hours,” he explained. “Now with this year, not only is it a credit through high school but you can do the modules online and when you do a webinar for a couple hours dealing with the procedures, positioning, calling penalties right at home.” He added it will be easier for the students to work at their own pace.

Schrader said he has been involved in officiating and teaching the position for 40 years. Prince Albert Minor Hockey and Schrader will also be putting on an on-ice session so the children can learn in-person.

“These young officials will then be given games and myself and other senior officials will do on-ice evaluations during the game,” Schrader said.

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ian.gustafson@jpbg.ca