Field Hockey Canada formally launched our Team of Teams movement in January, 2021. In the first edition of our Teams of Teams Celebration Week, held from March 22nd to 26th, 2021, we will be highlighting umpires and officials throughout the community for their hard work and dedication to the sport. Thank you for engaging with us; you are a part of our team.
Here is what to expect:
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This week we will be featuring a series of stories from the perspectives of our Canadian umpires and officials, so be sure to stay tuned to hear what they have to say! |
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LAURIE HOGAN – CHAIR
ALAN WATERMAN – MEMBER
TONY STEWART – MEMBER
PAULA PARKS – MEMBER
MARIO DEMELLO – MEMBER
MARGARET JOHNSON – MEMBER
SUSAN AHRENS – MEMBER
Field Hockey Canada reached out to Laurie Hogan to learn more about the Officials Committee, who they are, what they do and how they contribute to our cross-Canada programming. Take a read to learn more about this fantastic team of members!
The Officials’ Committee reports to the FHC Board of Directors. Our mandate is to identify, develop and prepare officials for domestic and international competition. When we say Officials, we mean umpires, umpire managers, umpire assessors, umpire coaches (or trainers), technical officials (including judges) and technical delegates.
The committee has a wide range of roles and responsibilities that include everything from developing education and pathways for all officials, to appointing officials to major domestic events, to providing opportunities to promising officials, to working with the PSOs to support their unique needs.
The committee meets monthly. Currently, each committee member is supporting at least one sub-committee or working group that is focused on appointments or education. Committee members are expected to support the development of the materials for those groups, however, some of those groups have been more active than others during the pandemic.
Our meetings are usually about an hour long. We start with an update from our FHC representative. Then we go through updates from the various sub-committees and working groups. We also have an annual work plan that we follow to ensure we are getting our work done in a timely manner. Our busiest time is when we prepare for National Championships, work for those events starts 6-8 months in advance with planning and invitations being released. The work continues right up to the event to make sure we have a good representation of officials from across Canada and ensure we are providing the best possible options to the teams.
In Fall 2019 we created 4 sub-committees/working groups to help support the work of the committee. These groups are made up of representatives from across Canada. The four groups and their mandates are:
One of the biggest challenges we face is ensuring we have the proper representation of officials at our National Events. We have to balance: availability of officials, experience of officials, expected level of play and available finances to support the event. It can be a challenge to provide the right development opportunities and balance requirements of the event. It can be a challenge to recruit officials because of availability to commit their time to these events. We spend a lot of time making sure we have enough officials for an event and balancing their experience with our requirements per event.
The Committee works closely with the National Teams to provide qualified umpires for National Team events. In supporting our National Teams in their test matches, inter-squad scrimmages and camp events, we are providing opportunities for younger, promising officials through our development pathway. For these events, we are trying to balance development with on-field leadership and mentorship. Typically, we work with the local Provincial Sport Organization to identify officials ready for development and exposure to higher-level events and we try to match them with an International Level official to officiate these matches. I hope that this partnership continues to open up opportunities to use these National Team events as part of our development pathway and provide more and more officials with international level experience and opening up more opportunities for their development.
In the past two years, I have worked with the FIH and PAHF mostly around education opportunities and umpire fitness tracking. We’ve worked to open up communications with FIH to seek clarity, provide suggestions for improvement and better understand processes and decisions.
We have worked very closely with the PAHF in the last two years, specifically with their Appointments Committee as well as their Education Committee. Most of our work has been focused on education and working with the PAHF Education Committee to provide free education to our Canadian Officials. In the Fall of 2020 PAHF hosted the first event exclusively for Canadian officials where we discussed the evolution of hockey and the changing expectations for officials.
NOTE: For our National events, FHC will follow the FIH rules and any rule changes that come into effect for 2019. Our Officials Committee also recommends that PSOs and leagues follows these FIH rules. (http://fih.ch/inside-fih/our-official-documents/rules-of-hockey/)
Please use the following Assessment Forms. All Forms were updated in 2011.
Contact Susan Ahrens, Field Hockey Canada’s Chief Executive Officer with any questions you may have.