There’s nothing like a trip back home to remind a veteran referee about the best that hockey officiating has to offer. I’m talking a ton of games, an excellent seminar and the chance to work with old friends. Thanks to the AHAI assignors and Mike Wagner’s On-Ice Officials, I was thrown a smorgasbord of early-season games, from high school to PeeWee, including my favorite staple – the low-level JV game. And since we don’t have high school leagues yet in my neck of the cactus, all of these assignments were very much appreciated. 

Kudos also goes out to the instructors for the Chicago Level 3 Veterans’ Seminar. They treated the vets with class and respect, much in the same manner as this column tries to do. Yup, about 2.5 hours of instruction and review, no ice session and then the closed-book test. No talking down to veterans. No bragging about AHL games like former instructors often would do – while us attendees turned green with jealousy. Nope, just humility and honesty from the two seminar instructors. And trust me, this was much appreciated by everyone in attendance.

The annual seminar. That’s where a portion of everyone’s annual dues go. No beefs. Pretty straightforward. 

Not so with evaluations. 

See, during the two weeks I was in town, I was subject to three evaluations. Not AAA games. Not three-man games where I was the referee. I’m talking medium-level high school, Midget and Bantam games. Games with two seasoned officials in their 50s with completely clean records. Games that the evaluators even stated were easy games.

Games that did not call for evaluations. Because evaluations cost money.

“So what,” you say. “Evaluations are good. Evaluations make you better.”

I repeat: Evaluations cost money.

I used to work for the government. I understand the public servant mentality. My job was to represent bureaucrats. Bureaucrats spend money. I know how they think. See, when it’s not their money, they don’t care. They just want numbers. Numbers make them look good. All that matters is looking good. With other people’s money.

Which brings us back to evaluations. Approximately 1,000 games were evaluated last year in Illinois, according to sources. Each game pays at least $15 to the evaluator. That’s $15,000 for evaluations per season if 1,000 games are viewed.

Now, of those 1,000 games, let’s say that 60 percent are useless evaluations. That number may actually be low because most of my Level 3 vet friends insist that they were evaluated multiple times last season. (And Level 3s are the staple of any association). But let’s just stay at 60 percent. That means 60 percent of evaluations encompassed seasoned and experienced officials assigned to lower-level games. Games that simply needed bodies. Games that cannot be classified as either upper-level games or games where an official is seeking higher responsibilities or endeavors to move up in the ranks. And certainly not games being officiated by newer or young referees that could really use an evaluation at the early stages of their careers.

Nope, these are games that veterans sign up for because they like officiating.

600 games X $15. That’s $9,000 being paid for useless evaluations. And that’s someone else’s money.

Whose money? Maybe it’s a player’s USA Hockey or local association fee which could be $10 more than it needs to be. And maybe a family has three kids playing each season. That’s $30 a season multiplied by seven or so seasons. You know, $200 for this family, $300 for that family – soon you’re talking real money.

After my mid-level Bantam game officiated with another 25-year veteran, a game which constituted my third evaluated game in two weeks, I asked the evaluator why he was sent to do the game. He responded exactly as I figured. He was already at the rink so he simply stayed to evaluate the next game.

“But why evaluate a game with experienced referees that have not had any issues which would even necessitate a game review?” I queried.

“Because the evaluator-in-chief wants numbers,” he answered.

Bingo. It’s all about numbers. Not content. Not integrity of the process. Just numbers. Exactly like those government bureaucrats. It’s all about numbers.

Numbers make someone look good.

As long as it’s someone else’s money.