Officials younger than 18 in Hockey Eastern Ontario (HEO) will now wear a green armband to identify them as a minor in an attempt to reduce harassment and abuse of on-ice officials by coaches, parents and players.
The initiative will begin at the start of the 2021-22 hockey season and all impacted officials will be required to start wearing the green armband no later than Oct. 15. The rule applies to all officials under the age of 18 regardless of the level of hockey they officiate.
Understanding the need for the initiative
Sean Tobin, an assistant referee-in-chief for HEO, said the idea for the initiative came from Hockey Montreal which introduced a similar program in 2020.
“The hope is that it will give folks pause to think about how they’re reacting [to officials],” Tobin said.
A written statement from HEO said the initiative is necessary because officials are “the lifeblood” of the league’s minor hockey officiating program.
“It is important that the hockey community works together to protect the physical and psychological well-being of these minors,” the statement reads.
According to Tobin, more than 40 per cent of HEO’s officials are minors and officials can be as young as 13. He said HEO will commonly see an influx of younger officials as they lose some of their older officials who have been working for two to three years.
“What we hear from a lot of officials is that they give it up because they just can’t handle the abuse,” Tobin said. “They enjoy officiating, but they just can’t handle the abuse.”
Tobin said officiating hockey is often more than just a paycheque—officials can gain experience and develop their social skills.
According to HEO, one out of three officials quit after their first year, and more than half quit after two years. Sixty-five per cent of officials quit after three years, although it’s unclear how many officials quit due to abuse.
“We want to be able to keep more referees around,” Tobin said. “We want them to have a positive experience.”
The mental effects of abuse
Tobin said harassment mostly comes from people in the stands but can also come from players and coaches. Verbal harassment encompasses all age groups and skill levels, he added.
“Referees, like players, make mistakes,” Tobin said. “I’ve had games where I just come off the ice and I know I just didn’t do a good job.”
Tobin said it can be difficult for parents to understand the challenges of being an official.
“It can look fairly easy, but it isn’t. There’s a lot of subjectivity to it,” he said.
Deborah Conners, a sociology professor at Carleton University, said verbal harassment has serious and long-term effects on people, especially youth. According to Conners, verbal abuse can affect a person’s confidence and enjoyment of life.
A child who has experienced adverse childhood experiences—potentially traumatic events that occur during childhood, such as experiencing or witnessing violence—is more likely to experience physical and mental health problems, Conners said.
Conners also said the impact of adverse childhood experiences depends on a person’s environment.
“The person who has a really secure childhood, who has good grades, has a really wonderful friend network, is going to have, likely, less impact—personally and internally—from being abused,” Conners said.
However, Conners said younger people are still developing their identity, which makes it more difficult for them to protect themselves from being verbally harassed. As a consequence, the abuse can become part of their identity.
For youth, being harassed at hockey games could impact their life off the ice, including the decisions they make, Conners said.
“Youth at that age are deciding what they’re gonna do with their lives,” Conners said. “They’re making big decisions that affect their lives.”
Abuse happens because people who have been hurt in the past are more likely to hurt others, Conners said.
“Hurt people hurt people,” she said.
The season ahead
Tobin said spectators are as much a part of the game as players, which means emotions can run high and trigger verbal abuse. He added the initiative is not an attempt to vilify parents and coaches, but to create an environment for growth.
“The emphasis here is on development,” Tobin said. “We just want that green armband initiative to serve as a reminder of that development process.”
Harsher punishments will be given to team officials who commit infractions against green armband officials. In some cases, suspensions for those committing infractions toward those officials will double in length.
HEO said it plans to compare the number and types of infractions given to team officials for abuse and harassment before and after the implementation of the initiative. They anticipate abuse will decrease for minor officials and eventually for all officials.
The organization also said it will conduct surveys with district chairs, association chairs, parents, coaches, players and officials to gather more input on the success of the initiative.
“In my experience, education is more important than discipline,” Tobin said. “If people had a better understanding of the challenges that young officials are facing—that’s the most important thing.”
Featured image by Ross Bonander via Unsplash.
