Game Journal - 4.19.08

Dairyland Dolls at Grave Danger

Incident - Due to Seattle's penalty system, I pack reffed Madison in the first half and reffed the Grave Danger in the second half. While my reffing was consistent throughout, I still walked away feeling like I had influenced the outcome of the game.

Comment - I know, academically at the time, and totally now, that I did everything fine in this situation. I discussed calling with their referees before hand to get a handle on the system. During the second period I told the head ref that I was calling a lot of seemingly unexpected penalties, and gave him the option of whether or not to say anything, which he decided not to. But I probably could have mentioned it myself (though, that would arguably have been overstepping my bounds). I suppose I'm still acclimating myself to not always being head ref. I am glad that I at least did not let the skater's reactions convince me to change my reffing, or let any concern I might have had from distracting me from making calls.

Game Journal - 4.12.08

Incident 1 - During the jam a skater earned her third major penalty of the period. Between jams this was discovered and we ejected that skater. First I informed her, then followed up that she had to leave the track entirely. I found someone to serve out the rest of her penalty and restarted play.

Comments - I should have made a greater effort to explain to both teams and to the other referees why she was leaving the track. While I did notify everyone I needed to notify, there were other people who would have been well served by being informed.

Incident 2 - A skater was apparently called out for a major by a jammer referee at the back of the pack and instead of skating to the penalty box, simply slowed down for a lap, then rejoined play. Worse, when a member of the other team asked a referee about it, the concern was ignored.

Comments - As the head referee for the bout, I feel these break downs in systems are ultimately my fault. Some of us are rushing through processes or ignoring problems in the name of returning to play, despite the advantage these actions might grant by our carelessness.