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Breaking the Glass Ceiling

March 5, 2020, 10:38 AM ET [3 Comments]
Paul Stewart
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • RSSArchiveCONTACT


The official profiled in this video, Katie Guay, is one of the great young referees that I have had the pleasure to work with over my years in officiating. She is an outstanding skater. As a former player and someone who has innate hockey intelligence as well as book smarts, she can think the game on a high level. Strong on the Rule Book, strong on feel for the game. She's a good communicator, and knows how to deal with high-pressure situations. She has some experience officiating men's games as well as women's hockey.

In short, in my opinion, she can referee at any level, when given the change. Yes, that includes professional hockey. It's not about X or Y chromosomes. It's about ability. Let's be really honest here. If she were a male, she'd already have been put on the same path that I was: given experience by working a high volume of men's junior and minor league games, with plenty of feedback from skilled mentors, and then moved up to the NHL.

Unfortunately, the glass ceiling is still very much in place. It's time to find out if there really is a path to the NHL or just lip service and publicity vehicles to trumpet diversity, with little or no actual follow-through. I don't think the NHL gave much genuine support or proper coaching to the two Europeans who briefly refereed in the league -- the type of mentorship that makes all the difference between putting someone in position to succeed or to fail -- nor do I see much in the way of genuine investment yet in officials such as Katie.

It's not just the NHL. Other leagues still do not seem ready to have a woman -- no matter how clearly skilled she is -- work a regular slate of Division 1, major junior or minor pro circuit games. Without that experience, you can't work up to the NHL.

Regardless as to whether this particular official or any female official makes it to the NHL, I do hope that because of Katie Guay and others who have donned the stripes, that many other young ladies will look at them and think, "I can do this, too."

We need more woman to referee. It's time to break the glass ceiling and truly help make Hockey better from all sides of the game. We need more and better officials, especially women to do that. I say "especially" because we have a signficant -- and deepening -- pool of fine female hockey players who have the athleticism and love of the game that it takes to be able to embrace officiating as a way to stay in the game when their playing days are done.

Every game is important to those that are playing and coaching. Thus, we need to tap into the vast reservoir of women who can skate and nudge them into thinking about officiating. The Good Lord knows we aren't getting enough male candidates to fill the voids. It's time then to reach across the aisle and seek some help from those others who can skate and have played the game.

I think the NHL's Exposure Combine is a good thing. But it's only a baby step. I don't know if you've seen the video feature on NHL linesman Shandor Alphonso that runs pregame in many NHL arenas, but it's a really good profile of him both as a human being and an athlete.

Alphonso is a former Sudbury Wolves (OHL) and Lakehead University left wing who attended an NHL Development Camp as a player before he persued officiating. Shandor's story makes for good "diversity publicity" for the NHL because of the color of his skin. But he'd deserve to be in the NHL solely because of his outstanding athleticism, having a good head on shoulders, and being given the opportunity to work the lines in the Ontario Hockey League right up the ladder.

Just as with Katie and female players, I hope that current male players, regardless of their skin color or ethnicity, can watch the video on Shandor Alphonso and his passion for his work and be inspired to try out officiating. I love the part of Shandor's video where he admits that, during his playing days, he had never even considered officiating to be a possible option before it was suggested to him. That is usually how it goes. The rest came from inside and through mentorship and experience.

Another good step -- but only a baby step -- that has been taken: Recently in Philadelphia, the NHL had high-school aged officiating trainees stand alongside their NHL counterparts during the playing of the national anthem, just as teams sometimes have youth players stand next to NHL
players during the pregame ceremonies. We need to support and fuel the dreams of aspiring young officials the same as we do with young players.

Every little bit helps. But the truth of the matter is that the process is moving too slowly. There are leagues that have more games to assign than qualified officials to assign to them. We should be very scared, because the problem is real and the problem is worsening at a faster rate than potential remedies are being devised.

Part of the problem is that there is no substitute for experience, and you can't skip steps in the development process. Lest we set up people to fail, I am reluctant to push any prospect official into the NHL or the upper echelons of international or collegiate hockey before they've gained sufficient experience. Likewise, we shouldn't put Katie or any woman into higher level men's games including the pros untill they are 100% ready for it.

I happen to recall in my own life, coming from playing to officiating, despite my family background in the officiating fields of sports and even with my size and skating ability plus my apparent gender, how nervous I felt when I started working the AHAUS, ISL, ECAC, WHL, OHL, IHL, AHL, eventually the IIHF for the Canada Cup and then, finally, to the NHL. This was a multi-year process.

My course of learning my trade was designed by NHL Vice President of Officiating, Scotty Morrison, Director of Officiating John McCauley, Senior Supervisor Frank Udvari, Supervisors John Ashley, Dutch van Deelan, Sam Cisco, Matt Pavelich, ACHL President Ray Miron, AHL VP Gordie Anziano and AHL President Jack Butterfield. They worked the hell out of me, put me in tough situations and didn't hold back in telling me not how and when I screwed up, but what I needed to do moving forward. I reffed, and reffed, and reffed some more. In so doing, I was prepared to succeed.

All of these aforementioned people were supportive in the "immersion track" that the NHL put me through as I wound my way across North America working 5 different Leagues with as many rule books and levels of ability. Those experiences helped me accelerate as an Official from city to city and night to night.

After I completed 37 games in 39 nights with two nights spent watching Dave Newell ref in western Canada, John McCauley said to me, "I'm either going to make you into a referee or I'm going to kill ya."

I survived because nothing and no one was going to deter me. That's the mentality it takes. But it also requires good teachers, a belief in you from your bosses, and a fair opportunity to prove yourself.

At the time when I retired from being an NHL on-ice referee, I became an AHL supervisor. I watched a lot of games, nearly 150 plus playoffs in those two years prior to the 2004-05 lockout. I saw and coached many of the officials who are now senior referees and linesmen in the present NHL.

Some didn't make it but that was something that was as much our lack of coaching as it might have been their lack of talent or passion.

At that time, I had conversation with a certain still-employed and high-ranking league official. He wanted to cast aside a recent hire, mostly because the prospect was slightly older than most of the newer candidates. It was thought that he was past investing time in as we would only get maybe 10 years out of the guy. It was that gauntlet of games in every league that got me ready to deal with any and all the happenings which would occur at The NHL level.

I asked The NHL VP rhetorically, "What is the shelf life of an Official at the NHL level anyway?
"I ask because I didn't start til I was nearly 30. I lasted 20 years, 17 in the NHL. If the cancer had done me in in '98, The NHL would have only gotten 11 years of NHL service from me. To me, we need to look at each individual and assess what they bring to the game for this season and next and not project 10 years down the road. For me, we judge on brains, courage, feel, patience, smarts and acceptability. Age is a factor but not a roadblock that talented people can't overcome."

Let's get the BEST people. Not just the youngest. Not only males. Not only Canadians. Let's get the best, because the current pool is not as deep as we need it to be. More numbers will create more chances for success. More numbers will increase the competitive juices of the candidates to do their best and thus to be the best. That's how we make officiating better.

I am hopeful that someday the glass ceiling gets broken. Who will make that first crack in the glass is a decision out of my hands. Across the board, we need both males and females, not to be "politically correct," but rather to do this for THE GOOD OF THE GAME!

In the case of Katie Guay, I think that this official has the best shot at breaking through thei ceiling. But then again, what do I know about hockey? I'm not a lawyer.

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A 2018 inductee into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, 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.

Visit Paul's official websites, YaWannaGo.com and Officiating by Stewart.

Follow Paul on Twitter: @PaulStewart22
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