The 100th column. 

That’s right, this is the 10-carat diamond OS. One hundred columns since 2014.

So let’s get to the basics. As regular readers know, OS is here to expose the gritty truth about amateur hockey officiating. It’s not a good-to-know fluff piece. It’s not a “who’s your mentor” hanging curve.

Nope, OS is here as the mouthpiece of veteran Level 3 officials across the country. You know, those guys that do everything from Squirt house to ACHA, and of course, beer league. I mean, you can’t be a veteran Level 3 without substantial butcher league experience.

And when you finally get that gold-covered 25 years of service USA Hockey rulebook, later autographed by Ron Hoggarth in the musty bowels of the Las Vegas Ice Center referees’ room, well, it just doesn’t get much better for a veteran Level 3.

Yeah, it’s us vets that even allow organized amateur hockey to exist. And as such, OS zebras demand respect, which often is lacking from parents, players, coaches, governing bodies and assignors.

OS is here for those officials, and the results show.

Results? Explain, Mr. OS.

OK, I will. Let’s start at the beginning. You know, the very first OS. Here’s an excerpt:

Welcome, Let’s Play Hockey Readers. I’d like to thank the editors at Let’s Play Hockey for picking up OFFICIALLY SPEAKING, formerly a column in a local Chicago hockey newspaper and always a reader favorite, where the gritty truth about amateur hockey officiating was exposed in a witty but honest format, through my personal reservoir of 24 seasons and 5,200 games as registered hockey official.

Funny how now those figures have grown to nearly 28 years and 5,700 games officiated. But I digress.

Here’s more from that original preseason piece:

So, what’s the problem with the USA Hockey referee registration process?

Well, from the perspective of a 24-year veteran official and attorney admitted to practice in two states, USA Hockey appears to have morphed into a giant insurance company and risk-averse staffing agency, replete with out-of-control annual registration requirements and a rule book that reads like it was authored by lawyers and law review editors. 

Let me elucidate by a hypothetical example.

Individual A. Profession: Lawyer. Experience: 25 years. Annual license renewal fee: $345. Hourly CLE requirements: approximately 12 hours. Annual testing: None. Service to community: protects life, liberty, property and preservation of inalienable rights through the U.S. judicial system.

Individual B. Hobby: Hockey referee. Experience: 25 years. Annual license renewal fees: $80 USA Hockey, $55 local affiliate. Annual CLE: 6 hours on-site seminar, 2 hours online video, 2.5 hours online Safe Sport video. Annual testing: USA Hockey open-book test and local affiliate closed book exam. Service to community: ensures future AHL all-stars follow rules when attempting to direct piece of galvanized rubber into metal goal frame. 

Make sense? 

Yup, the very first OS was all about the much-maligned referee registration process. And till this day, almost every official I know thinks it should be revamped. That’s why 10 percent of OS columns have been devoted to improving it.

And as OS reported last week, USA Hockey has heard. The referee registration process is undergoing necessary streamlining, including opt-out components for the on-line modules.

Think OS, appearing in Let’s Play Hockey, had anything to do with this?

You bet. And that’s a perfect example of the service this column provides to the hockey community in general, and the officiating ranks in particular.

But there’s more. In fact, through rule analysis, SAT-style essays, practical application anecdotes, self-deprecating humor, and of course, the nationally renowned Monthly Mailbag, OS has opened the collective eyes of the entire hockey community, which now understands the training, frustration, rewards and overall general inefficiencies that represent the world of amateur hockey officiating.

Heck, even parents who hate OS still swear that my style has assisted their kids in English and grammar classes.

But let’s stick to the on-ice stuff. 

Yeah, from being chased out of rinks by angry step-dads to securing lucrative assignments to Wayne Gretzky’s Fantasy Camp, there’s a whole officiating world out there that your PeeWee travel parent, midnight lumberjack and low-level JV coach is entirely unaware of. 

But you are. People like you get it. 

That’s because OS readers are informed. Sharp.

Truth-seekers, if you will.

Keep reading. OS is here to help officials and eliminate unnecessary burdens that infringe on a referee’s time.
OS is all about results.

And like last week’s column about the registration process shows, OS will never stop working for the veteran Level 3.

 

Questions and comments can be sent to editor@letsplayhockey.com, via Twitter @OSpeaking or through the Let’s Play Hockey Facebook page.

 

Photo: Mike Thill/Let's Play Hockey