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By: Maxwell Sparr Back in 2004, when I started playing high school hockey on Long Island, our coach gave us a drawing of a bird trying to eat a frog, but the frog had its hands around the bird’s neck.  Written in the upper corner were the words, “Don’t Ever Give Up!” I will never forget sticking that drawing on my childhood bedroom wall and it stayed there long after I had gone to college.  It wasn’t until recently that the drawing came back to me and really hit home.   At the advice of an officiating partner, I decided to...

A while ago I wrote a small article regarding the challenges our young officials face in today's sports. Today my son got his last pay for the Minor Hockey season as he begins to officiate the spring hockey season. Since September my son officiated in approximately 240 games - half the games wearing the bands and the other half as a linesman. Through the season he dealt with some difficult coaches and parents. He dealt with it, learned from it and carried on.  Being only a level 1 and a 14-year-old he was assigned higher level games which challenged him and also brought him to...

Have you ever walked into a sports arena and heard parents yell: “That was a foul!" "What the ****!” or “What the hell that wasn’t a penalty!” Or sometimes even worse.  It’s all a small part of a much larger problem which is the verbal harassment of sports officials. From hockey, to basketball, to football, and many other sports - these instances can either make or break an official. It doesn't matter whether they’re 15 or 35 - officials need to know how to handle those kinds of situations. As mentioned this doesn't only apply to hockey, but as many in...

By: Michael Whaley The bond a father and son can grow through the love of hockey is arguably unmatched. This is a story about such a bond. By the time I was 18 months old, my Monday nights turned into late nights at the Ice House watching the local junior B team the London Nationals. This meant that every Monday night you would find David Whaley and his son wearing their matching Toronto Maple Leaf jackets. Dad would prop me up on top of the garbage can so I would be able to follow the puck flying around the ice...

By: Jason Lortie (@doctor_jaylo) In terms of my personal and professional life, I have failed more times than I can remember. But let me try and run you through the major failures of my life and how many of them there have been. Two of the first major failures in my life came at the end of my playing career. I was cut from the high school team I had moved across the country to play for my senior year. I had played with them for the two years prior. After getting picked up by a junior team to try...