Some Ontario hockey leagues tackling referee abuse as season begins

As young hockey players across the province hit the ice for a new season, some leagues in Ontario are looking for ways to fight an age old sports problem: people yelling at referees.

The Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) and Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA), which both have tens of thousands of players, are providing arm bands for first-year or teenage referees that are meant to make parents or coaches consider who they're criticizing. 

Dave Wedlake, chair of the officiating program for the OMHA, said refs face common insults like, "Are you blind?" Some are flat out told they don't belong in the profession, should go work somewhere else and that teams would be better off without them. He said verbal abuse can cause some to question if the job is right for them.

"I hope [parents and coaches] pause and stop and think for a minute that that individual they're yelling at could be their very own child," Wedlake said. "As they're in the building watching these young kids play, we also have young people officiating. So remember to take a breath."

Hockey is not the first youth sport to grapple with the issue of referees facing verbal abuse. Last fall, Ontario's soccer association outfitted some refs with body cameras meant to act as a physical deterrent for verbal abuse. 

The OMHA's armbands, which say "No ref, no game," will be worn by on-ice officials under the age of 18, while the GTHL's will be worn by refs in their first year. While the OMHA's program is beginning this season, the GTHL began having house league refs wear armbands last winter and will expand the campaign to its competitive levels this year.

Eighteen-year-old GTHL referee Harry Smith has enough experience to no longer require a green armband, but he still remembers initially feeling anxious the first time a coach really lashed out at him three years ago.

After the game, he said he went home and reminded himself he was a 15-year-old being screamed at by a grown adult.

"And I'm not in the wrong," he said. "I'm just trying to do my job right."

Smith said the yelling takes a while to get used to and not everyone he knows has been able to handle it as well as he did. 

"They want to do their best. And when there's a lot of pressure being put on them when they're just trying to learn, trying to figure out how to do things, it's really difficult," he said. "So people tend to give it up." 

Scott Oakman, executive director of the GTHL, said its hard to say if the issue is getting worse, but it certainly hasn't been getting better in recent years. 

"We live in a generation now where you hear stories about people in authority being treated with different levels of respect than perhaps they would have been a generation ago," he said.

He said hockey is a game based on respect and this is an opportunity to remind people of that.