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A few months ago, Referee Magazine published a good article geared toward officials in all sports: Eight Ways to Ruin Your Reputation. I prefer to put a more positive angle on things and focus instead on ways to build your career. This advice comes from years of personal experience. Here are 10 tips:
1. Get in the best physical condition of your life and maintain it. Hockey officials that are not in good shape and can't skate well cannot be effective at their jobs. These are baseline musts for any serious official. Being out of shape embarrasses our profession. In one league, I recently had to remove a referee mid-game because he'd let him go physically and couldn't even bend down and pick up the puck. I was angry and embarrassed.
2. Live by the credo "Whatever game I am officiating is the most important one in the league tonight." No assignment is "beneath" you, in other words. Don't try to cherry pick your assignments. Go where you are told to go and give your all. You owe it to the game, to the players and coaches and to the fans in the stands.
3. Be ready to go on demand. I always kept a bag packed at my house, even if I didn't have to immediately travel to an assignment. You never know when the call to substitute or switch assignments may come. Have contingency plans in place. Keep contacts and phone numbers handy and up-to-date for the various responsibilities you handle in your private life.
4. Respect your fellow officials on and off the ice I never publicly criticized the skills of other officials during my career, nor do I even now say "so-and-so is a bad official" for public consumption. I do not have a problem criticizing NHL decision makers by name and I am vocal in saying that the coaching that officials receive needs improvement. I will dissect certain calls for positioning and other such teaching-tool reasons. However, I will not publicly wade into the territory of naming which officials' work no appeal to me. I also don't crap on former NHL officiating colleagues, whether I personally like them or not. If I don't have something nice to say about a fellow official, I simply say nothing at all.
5. Seek coaching and constructive feedback. Attend clinics. Study video. Ask questions. Treat the off-season as preparation time, not a vacation. If these things sound unappealing to you, you probably lack the necessary passion and desire for self-improvement to last in this very tough profession.
6. Love your job. Being an official means wading through a heap of political BS, dealing with stress, understanding that criticism and friction are part of the game. No one thinks about us unless something goes wrong -- or until they need to play and realize they can't start the game without us. See these realities with a clear eye, and live for the opportunity to be out there there on the ice or the field. If you have to "learn to love" the job, you are faking it and it will show. The love has to be genuine beyond the love and need for a pay check.
7. Keep a neat and professional appearance. I agree wholeheartedly with something that was written in the Referee Magazine article: "Showing up to your assignment with your ripped concert T shirt and flip flops may make you feel hip, but don’t expect folks not to gossip about your sartorial statement." Dress for business when you travel. Care about your appearance and grooming, both in uniform and the way you look when going to and from the arena. If you want to get a tattoo, that's your business. Just make sure it is concealable on the job. Visible tattoos on an official are a professional acceptability killer. They just are.
8. Study the Rule Book every chance you get. Along with good positioning and hustle, knowing the rule book thoroughly is in indispensable part of becoming a good official. Write up your own comprehensive rule book test, step away from it for awhile and then answer it. Take the Rule Book everywhere you go; even make it your bathroom reading material.
9. Watch other officials work. I am not only talking about officials in the sport in which you participate. Watch officials in all sports because there are some skills that are universal, especially positioning and communication with fellow officials, players and coaches. You can learn a lot about what to do and what not to do. As the late Bruce Lee wrote, "absorb what is useful." Take things here and there that work for you.
10. Play the game. I realize that not everyone is a former professional player who makes the transition to officiating. Stories like mine are the exception and not the rule. Nevertheless, there is no substitute for having a feel for the flow and emotion of the game. When you've played and/or coached it at the organized levels, it's lot easier to "read" the play, empathize with the emotions and to learn the skill and value of applying "mental Clorox". In other words, scrub away the gory details of the last game and get focused on the next one.
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Paul Stewart holds the distinction of being the first U.S.-born citizen to make it to the NHL as both a player and referee. On March 15, 2003, he became the first American-born referee to officiate in 1,000 NHL games.
Today, Stewart is an officiating and league discipline consultant for the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and serves as director of hockey officiating for the ECAC.
The longtime referee heads Officiating by Stewart, a consulting, training and evaluation service for officials. Stewart also maintains a busy schedule as a public speaker, fund raiser and master-of-ceremonies for a host of private, corporate and public events. As a non-hockey venture, he is the owner of Lest We Forget.