A little more about the tournament

A few people have been asking me about what teams I'm going to see at the tournament so I figured this would be a good opportunity to explain how the IIHF Women's Worlds work.

If you recall watching the Olympics last winter, you might remember that there were only 8 teams in the women's tournament when in reality there are about 40 countries around the world that sponsor a women's national team.  Every non-olympic year the IIHF sponsors world championship tournaments that give the different countries the chance to "move up" to the top level.  On the women's side there are a total of 6 divisions; A pool contains all of the top teams (USA, Canada, etc.) followed by divisions 1-5.  At each of the different tournaments, the winning team moves up a division the next year and the last place team gets relegated to a lower division.  After 3 years of tournaments the top 6 teams in the world automatically qualify to play in the Olympics and the last two spots are filled in a final Olympic qualifier tournament.  

I've been assigned to work the Division 2 championship.  That means the countries at my tournament are fighting to earn a spot in the Division 1 tournament next year.  In 2011, based on the current world rankings, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Italy and North Korea will be competing at the Division 2 level.  The only one of these teams that I have ever seen was Great Britain (they competed in the World Games I worked in China) so I'm not completely sure what to expect in terms of level of play.  The drop off in skill after you get past the top 4 (US, Canada, Sweden and Finland) is pretty big but I'm unsure just how big that drop off is at this level. I do have to admit I'm surprised to see the Czech Republic ranked so low, especially given their history on the men's side.  The other interesting team in this group is North Korea.  Given the political climate, you have to wonder if the delegates from North Korea will accept an American official on their game.  I could care less, once you are out there you forget who is even playing, the only concern is getting the calls right but it is an interesting situation.  More to come on that.  

The tournament format is a round robin, there is no playoffs or championship game so every game is important.  Games are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, 3 games each day.  There are 11 total officials so I imagine I'll be working on 4 of the 5 days but we won't find out assignments until we get there.  The website for the tournament is http://www.iihf.com/channels1011/ww-ii if you are interested in keeping track of things.  

I can't believe I leave in less than a week!  Games start a week from tomorrow, I'm starting to get really excited!

Travel Plans

One thing I learned when I went to China was the IIHF definitely isn't extremely proactive when it comes to informing the officials of their travel plans.  When I posted on Sunday, I still had not received any information regarding flights, hotels, etc. so I didn't even know what day I was leaving the USA!  Finally, on Tuesday, the IIHF sent us our travel information.  When I opened the attachment with my flights I was totally psyched to see that I got direct flights on US Airways (where I have preferred status) both ways!  In the words of Charlie Sheen, "WINNING!"  I leave on Saturday, April 2nd at 6:20 PM from Philadelphia and fly into Charles De Gaulle in Paris.  I still don't know how I am getting from Paris to Caen but those are only minor details.  For those that aren't familiar with French geography, Caen is not Cannes, where the film festival is.  Caen is about 2 1/2 hours west of Paris, right near Normandy.  

One of the reasons I was super excited to see that I had direct flights both ways is because I'm flying home from Amsterdam, Netherlands.  I wasn't surprised to fly direct from Philly to Paris, but I figured there was no way I was going to get to go direct home.  So why am I flying home from Amsterdam instead of Paris?  One of the really cool things about getting selected for an IIHF tournament is you can tell them when and where you want to fly, within reason.  This allows you to stay for longer and be a tourist/take vacation after your tournament.  When I found out I was selected for this tournament back in October, I knew I wanted to take advantage of that but wasn't exactly sure how.  After getting clearance from work to take two weeks of PTO, I started to work on some of my friends to see if they wanted to take a trip.  One of my best friends and roommate from college, Kristin, decided to take me up on the offer.  After she got the green light from work we had decide where we wanted to go.  The nice thing about Paris is it is pretty centrally located within Europe and you can go a lot of different places all within a relatively short train ride.  After studying google maps and looking at Eurorail schedules we decided to do a 3 city loop and visit Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.  We are both really excited because we have talked about taking a trip together forever and are finally able to do it, and to Europe no less!  I'll post later about our specific plans but at least now I know I leave the USA on April 2nd and return on Sunday, April 17th. 15 days and counting until I leave! 17 days until the start of the tournament!

Getting Ready for Round 2!

It has been awhile since I wrote in this blog so I should probably try to bring everyone up to date. Back in February 2009 I was fortunate enough to be selected by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and USA Hockey to officiate the World University Games in Harbin, China. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and was two weeks that I will never forget. While in China I decided to start this blog to keep everyone at home informed of what I was doing as well as to help me remember all of the different things I experienced. Looking back, I'm so glad I decided to keep a blog and have always said I would blog again if I ever got to experience another IIHF tournament. That being said, back in October I found out that I had been selected to work the 2011 Division 2 Women's World Championships. The tournament takes place from April 4-10 in Caen, France.  Over the next few weeks as I get ready to go I'll update the blog with more information about the tournament as well as my travel plans for after the tournament.  21 days and counting until the start of the tournament! I can't wait!