Treatment of Officials
Dear Membership and Affiliates,
On behalf of the board of directors, I would like to take this opportunity to remind all players, parents and coaches that are involved in minor hockey in Regina that Hockey Regina Inc has a zero tolerance of any form of abuse of officials. Recently, we have had situations where the officials have been intimidated, threatened and put in an unsafe environment both on the ice and off of the ice.
It is important to understand the role in which the parents and coaches play in the development of our youth¦s general conduct in hockey. It is our responsibility as parents and coaches to ensure our youth learn and show respect for the game, their opponents and officials through our actions. The Respect in Sport course reinforces that we each have a responsibility to remind each other of any inappropriate actions that are abusive towards players, parents and officials.
Without the official¦s presence, the games are not played. That official is someone¦s son, daughter, sibling or parent v imagine how you would feel if it was your family member being yelled at or assaulted.
Verbal abuse of officials carries a minimum thirty day suspension for the player or parent. Discipline for continued inappropriate behavior can rise quickly to one year and greater suspensions. For your information, I have included a copy of HRI¦s Referee Policy below.
As always, I welcome constructive criticism and solutions that attempt to better our program. Let¦s work to build a culture of respect in hockey for our players, coaches, officials and fans.
Sincerely,
Stephen Eger, Interim President HRI
hri.stephen@gmail.com
REFEREE POLICY
- Contact with referees is prohibited by any parent/guardian prior to, during, and after any league, tournament, provincial qualifying, and playoff game. Contact refers to any verbal dialogue, gesture, and/or physical touching.
- A coach may, for the purpose of pointing out a correction to a game sheet, approach a referee post game.
- No parent/coach, independent coach, or parents shall enter into the referee room. If the referee agrees to talk with a coach, any such conversation should take place outside the referee room and only in the presence of the head coach and one assistant coach.
- The decision of a referee during a game is deemed as final. No parent/coach, independent coach, and/or parent of a player shall attempt to persuade a referee to change their decision during or post game. This is not intended to discourage in any way or by any means the required or necessary dialogue that a coach may have with a referee during game play. It is reasonable for a coach to request clarification on a referee¦s decision during a game.
- Threatening and/or intimidation of a referee will not be tolerated under any circumstances.
- Where a parent breaches any of the expected rules of conduct in relation to referee contact and the identity of the parent is unknown but can be conclusively determined by the Division Director which team the parent is associated with; failure of the team to provide the name of the parent responsible may result in the suspension of the head coach to be determined by the Board of Directors.
- Complaints with regard to any failure to comply with theses rules will only be received from RHOA. Reported occurrences by RHOA to HRI will be investigated immediately by the Board of Director¦s or any committee directed by the Board of Directors. The Board of Director¦s reserves the right to determine any action as they deem reasonable to rectify the situation.
