First Day of Games

Today the tournament officially started.  This morning we had a quick skate to help get the legs loose.  While on the ice we had a little relay race - the referee's vs the linesman.  I'm happy to report that the linesman won this round!  After our skate we had breakfast prior to our meeting.  I was pretty psyched to see they had hard boiled eggs - it makes me feel like I'm at home.  After breakfast we had our meeting where we reviewed some of the rules as well as went over the schedule.  During the meeting we also received some of our equipment.  At the higher level tournaments, the IIHF supplies you with equipment and clothing.  At this tournament we received a helmet and visor as well as a jersey. We are also supposed to be getting a track suit and coat but apparently all of that stuff is being held up at customs in Prague. This may sound great but unfortunately none of the equipment fits!  The jersey I got looks like a dress on me and the helmet doesn't fit my head well.  I brought all of my own stuff, however because of sponsorship rules I have to wear the helmet they provided (CCM is the sponsor and I have a Bauer).  I was able at least cover the logo on my own jersey and wear that - if I had to wear the jersey they provided I would have looked ridiculous!  I also had to cover the logo on my pants (Bauer) since they aren't one of the sponsors.  Apparently the same rules apply for the teams and they can be fined huge amounts if they wear any unapproved logos.  Who would have thought they would be so strict on that stuff!

The other thing that happened at the meeting was we got our money for the week.  At these tournaments you are supposed to get half of the money in Swiss Francs and the other half in the local currency, however here they gave us everything in Swiss Francs.  This presents a little bit of a problem because all of the banks are closed because of the holidays and I have no Czech Koruna.  I'm hoping the banks are open on Monday so I can get some cash!  Most places take credit card but I definitely could use some cash so I can buy little things like Diet Coke - I think I'm going through withdraw right now!

There were 4 games today - two in Zlin and two in Prerov.  I was assigned the first game in Prerov, Canada vs. Switzerland with Malin from Sweden and Michaela from the Czech Republic (I'll do a post on all of the officials later).  I was expecting a blow out so I was really surprised when the first period ended and the score was 2-1.  I think the Canadians were a bit surprised as well with how much of a fight the Swiss put up because after the 1st period they came out flying.  The final score ended up being 13-1 and the shots were 72-26.  It is sometimes tough to stay focused in a game like that but I think as a crew did a good job overall.  It certainly helped that we were in front of a big, animated crowd.  The arena in Prerov holds approximately 3000 people.  The official attendance on the scoresheet was 1400 but I think there was probably closer to 1800 people - the building was definitely more than half full. 

After the game Malin and I showered and came back to the hotel to have a late (4:30) lunch. Michaela had to stay in Prerov because she was the standby linesman for the next game.  The arena here in Zlin is only a 5-10 minute walk from our hotel so we decided to head over and watch the USA vs Russia game at 5:00.  The US dominated that game as well, winning 8-0.  That said, the Russians came in to the tournament as the lowest ranked team and they looked a lot better than I expected.

Now we are relaxing back at the hotel until dinner at 9:00.  I'm not sure if we will do anything for New Years Eve or not - and quite honestly I don't know if I'll even be able to stay up until midnight!  I'm definitely still feeling the jet lag!  Tomorrow we don't have to skate in the morning, the first thing we have is a meeting at 10:00 so I'm hopeful I can get a good nights sleep and get all caught up.  Tomorrow afternoon I'm working here in Zlin - Russia vs Czech.  These two teams should be very evenly match and are both coming off of losses so I'm sure they will play desperate hockey.  I'm working with the two Finns during that game, Anu and Anna.   I'm also the standby linesman for the later game, USA vs Sweden in Zlin so I will be spending my entire day at the rink.

Have a happy and safe New Years!

Hello from Czech!

We made it!  It was a long travel day.  My first flight from Philly to DC was only about 40 minutes but I'm happy it was short given the screaming child sitting two rows away from me.  Once in Washington I met up with Dina and we grabbed a quick bite to eat prior to boarding our Austrian Air flight to Vienna.  I was lucky to have an aisle seat, however the person sitting next to me had his arm in a sling and basically took over the shared armrest.  I was nervous the whole time that I was going to bump him and hurt his arm!  I slept for a little bit but the seats were really uncomfortable so I ended up reading most of the time.  When we finally landed in Vienna, we went through customs and gathered our luggage and met the person who was driving us to Zlin, which was about 2 1/2 hours away.

Our driver was a local referee who actually worked sled hockey at the Paraolympics in Vancouver.  My company, The Hartford, is one of the founding partners of the US Paraolympic team.  We often sponsor different events for people with disabilities and I recently took a client the Ski Spectacular event in Breckinridge, Colorado. There they taught over 800 wounded warriors and other people with disabilities how to ski.  We had different Paraolympians acting as our guides and every single one of their stories was absolutely amazing.  So I found it really cool to hear about the Paraolympics from his perspective after spending time with the athletes so recently.

It snowed the entire way from Vienna to Zlin.  The highways were fine, but when we had to drive through some smaller towns it got a bit interesting.  Their plowing capabilities were about on par with those in the City of Philadelphia, meaning that the smaller roads were not treated at all.  We had a few close calls but in the end we made it here safe and sound.

When we arrived our host was waiting for us and helped us get checked in.  Dina and I are roommates which is nice.  After getting showered and unpacked, we had lunch.  At that point the jet lag and lack of sleep was really starting to kick in so we decided to take a nap.  We set an alarm for 3 hours later, just in case we slept that long but neither of us expected to.  Well 3 hours later when that alarm went off both of us woke up from a really deep sleep.  I'm still tired and am sure I will sleep well tonight but I feel much better after the nap.

Some of the other officials have started to arrive so we went to meet everyone and took a little walk down to the local market.  Dinner is at 8:30 and we have a meeting afterwards to have formal introductions, go over schedules and get the first round of game assignments.  I can't believe games start tomorrow!

Ready to go!

One would think that after all the traveling I've done over the years I'd have the packing routine down.   Unfortunately, not so much.  After running around like a crazy woman the last few days shopping, doing laundry and cleaning I finally started to pack around 9:30 last night.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute!  Every trip I say I'm going to pack less, but it never seems to happen!  In my defense, packing for hockey trips is tough.  Not only do I need to bring all my referee gear, but I also need to bring dress clothes to wear to the rink, exercise clothes and regular clothes for just hanging out. I made it my goal to try to fit all of this stuff in my giant "mother load" wheeled referee bag and a small suitcase.  Fail.  I ended up having to use the big suitcase in addition to the ref bag, but at least I didn't have to extend it all the way!  And at least this time around I had a scale to weigh my bags to make sure they weren't overweight!  When I went to China I had to borrow a friend's scale at midnight the night before I was leaving to make sure I was good to go!  So after taking a quick break to run over to my friends Vinny and Sarah's house to watch 24/7, I came home and finished packing around 2:30am!  At least I could sleep in a little bit this morning!

Speaking of 24/7, the one thing I am slightly disappointed about is I will be away for the Winter Classic.  However, I was over it in about 10 seconds when I thought about the fact that I will be in Czech Republic at the World Championships!  For those non-hockey people, the Winter Classic is the annual NHL outdoor game.  This year it is taking place in Philly at Citizens Bank Park - the Flyers are playing the Rangers.  24/7 is the HBO special where they are giving you a behind the scenes look at the teams leading up to the Winter Classic.  Even if you aren't a huge hockey fan, it is a pretty cool show.  I highly recommend it!  The game itself is on January 2 so I'm hoping I can catch a little of it while I am overseas either on tv or via the web.  My friend and mentor, Ian Walsh, is refereeing the game so I'm excited to watch him.  He is #29 so keep an eye out for him!  Also, if you are looking for some other hockey on TV, the IIHF Men's World Junior Championships is on the NHL network all this week and next.  It is some great hockey and several Americans are there working as well.  I have watched for a bit the last few nights, it was a good reminder of IIHF rules and procedures!

On the topic of mentors, I'd be remiss if I didn't say a few quick thank yous before I left.  Obviously big thanks goes out to USA Hockey for helping me get selected for this opportunity.  There are so many people involved with USA Hockey who have helped me along the way.  All of my camp instructors, supervisors, assignors and evaluators who have helped me learn and develop.  Thanks to my fellow officials for the friendship and support - it means the world to me.  Thanks to everyone at the gym for kicking my butt and helping me be physically ready.  And finally thanks to my friends and family for your support.

I'm sitting at the airport now waiting to board my first flight to Washington.  It is going to be a long travel day but I'm excited.  Next post will be from Czech Republic!

My Travel Plans

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!  I know I did!  Now that the craziness of the holidays is over I can start to focus on getting ready to leave.  The IIHF takes care of all of our travel arrangements, however I've come to learn that they don't tend to book things until the last minute.  I didn't even know what day I was leaving until I was sent my plane tickets on 12/13!  My flight leaves Philadelphia on Thursday, December 29 at 2:55 in the afternoon.  I take a quick, one hour flight down to Washington Dulles on United Airlines. Once in Washington, I've got a two and a half hour layover until I hop on an Austrian Airlines flight that goes direct to Vienna.  The flight to Vienna is about 9 hours, then when you add in the 6 hour time change I don't end up landing until Friday morning at 8:35am.  Apparently Vienna is a better airport and a little closer to the cities of Zlin and Prerov than Prague so that's where we are all flying into.  It looks like it is then about a two and a half hour ride from Vienna to Zlin so I'm sure by the time I get to the hotel I'm going to be absolutely exhausted!  Once everyone arrives we'll have a group meeting to go over the rules, logistics, schedules and other important tournament details.  Games start on Saturday so it doesn't leave much time to get adjusted!  I just hope my equipment makes it, layovers always make me nervous!

Speaking of everyone else, I'm looking forward to seeing some familiar faces at this tournament!  Dina Allen, from Buffalo, NY is the other American official going.  We are meeting up in Washington then are on the same flight to Austria.  Dina and I have worked a number of college games together over the years and I have stayed at "Hotel Allen" whenever I've had games up in Buffalo.  It is always so comforting to have another American at these tournaments!  That said, I'm also excited because I'm also going to see some other officials that I have worked with at previous tournaments.  Malin, a referee from Sweden, was at the World University Games in China with me and Anu, a referee from Finland, was in France with me last season.  Also, my roommate from last year, Jana, is from Slovakia so she may try to come and visit during the tournament.  Lastly, Matt Leaf, who is the head of USA Hockey officiating, is coming as one of the supervisors.  Again, it is very comforting knowing that one of the supervisor's native language is English!

The tournament itself runs from December 31 - January 7.  While we will have 2 off days during the week where I'm sure we will be do some sightseeing, the focus is hockey and the majority of our time is spent at the rink.  However, one of the great things about working these tournaments is you have the option to stay after the tournament to do some sightseeing.  Last year Kristin, my roommate from college, came over and met me and we spent a week touring Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.  Unfortunately, this year's trip falls during her year end (she's an accountant) so she was unable to get the time off of work.  However, Dina's husband Kyle, who also happens to be an official, is coming over and so the 3 of us will be staying until Thursday, January 12 and touring.  I think we are going to go to Prague, Budapest and Vienna but the plan is to come up with a plan once we get there!  I am usually a planner so this is stressing me out a little bit but I'm sure it will turn out great.

December has been a crazy month for me.  I feel like it was just Thanksgiving a week ago!  I spent a weekend in Vegas, a week in Colorado for work and have been running around like a crazy woman during the holidays.  I have a ton of things I need to take care of before I leave and now that I leave in 2 1/2 days I'm starting to stress a bit!  Hopefully it all gets done!  Off to go put a dent in my laundry!

The IIHF and Tournament Details

Merry Christmas Eve!  At the Connolly family dinner tonight I was asked a lot of questions about my trip, the IIHF and the tournament itself so I figured another blog post was in order!  The IIHF is the governing body of ice hockey internationally.  There are 68 member nations, and of those countries 38 sponsor women's hockey.  The IIHF ranks the countries each year then, based on the rankings, splits them into 5 different divisions with each division hosting a World Championship tournament.  The winner of each tournament moves up a division and the last place team moves down to a lower division.  Each Olympic year, the top 6 teams ranked teams get an automatic birth into the Olympics and the teams in the lower divisions have to play qualifiers for the last two Olympic spots.  Last spring I worked the Division 2 World Championship, so the winner of my tournament moved up to Division 1 and the loser dropped to Division 3.  Historically, the US and Canada have dominated the competition, however the IIHF is investing a lot of money in women's hockey to try to improve the competitive balance.  One thing they have done to help is added a U18 Championship Series for women.  The first U18 World Championship took place in 2008 and since then they have added a 2nd division. This year they added a qualification tournament for that 2nd division because so many nations have started to sponsor teams.  It is great to see the sport growing and hopefully, as the other nations start to develop their younger players, they will begin to close the gap between the US and Canada.

So that said, I'm going to the IIHF U18 Women's World Championship in Zlin & Prerov, Czech Republic.  This is the top division U18 Women's tournament.  The countries participating are the USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland and Russia.  Those countries are divided into two divisions for the preliminary rounds.  Group A games are taking place in Zlin and include the USA, Czech, Sweden and Russia.  Group B, which includes Canada, Finland, Germany and Switzerland are playing their preliminary round games in Prerov.  The teams were grouped based on the world rankings from the last several tournaments.  The winner of each group will receive a bye to the semifinals.  2nd place from pool A will play 3rd place from pool B and vice versa for the other spot in the semifinals.  The 4th place teams from each pool will move to the relegation round.  Here they play a best of 3 series, with the winner staying in the top division and the loser dropping from the top division.  The US and Canada are expected to dominate, however rest of the teams are all very close so those games should be very competitive.  More information on the tournament, including schedules, articles, pictures and stats can be found on the following websites:

IIHF Tournament Page - http://www.iihf.com/channels1112/ww18/statistics.html
Official Tournament Site - http://www.u18wwc2012.com/eng/index.asp

Time for me to go to bed, I need to go to sleep so Santa can visit! :-) Next entry I'll talk about my travel plans and other tournament details.  Goodnight and Merry Christmas!

Round 3!

Well, not as long of a gap between posts this time!  At the end of September, International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) assignments for the 2012 season were announced.  I was fortunate enough to be selected to work the 2012 World Women's U18 Championship in Zlin and Prerov, Czech Republic.  The tournament begins on December 31 and ends on January 7th.

For those who may be new to following my adventures, I'll give a little bit of background on how all this came to be.  During my senior year at Penn State, I decided to start reffing to make a little extra cash.  I didn't work much but when I did I generally enjoyed myself - it didn't really seem like work.  After graduating and starting my "real job" I thought about not bothering to renew my certification for the next season.  However, I started playing on a women's team and for the first time in my life I had to pay out of my own pocket to play hockey.  While I knew hockey was an expensive sport, I guess I never realized just how expensive it was!  After writing the check for my dues I decided it couldn't hurt to renew my certification, maybe I could work a few games to help pay for my team.  To renew your certification every year, you must attend a one day seminar, take a rules test as well as an open book test online.  The day of my seminar I wasn't feeling well and almost skipped it but in the end I dragged myself to the rink.  I started working a few games locally and befriended some of the other officials.  One of them recommended me for the local playoffs and there I was observed by USA Hockey evaluators.  I must have done an ok job because not long after playoffs, I received an invite to referee the Chicago Showcase tournament.  Again, I almost didn't go but after talking to another female referee who had been I decided to give it a shot.  This was my first experience working higher level hockey as well as my first experience with the USA Hockey National Officiating Staff and boy was I in over my head!  I'll never forget my first game, I was absolutely lost out there!  However, after a long week of training and supervisions, I was selected to work the championship game and actually felt like I sort of knew what I was doing!  Shortly after I returned home, I got another call from USA Hockey inviting me to attend the 2006 Women's Regional Officiating Camp.  Again, I remember thinking "really, a whole week of ref camp?  Are they serious?" But I had such a great experience in Chicago I figured why not give it a try.  So for a week in July I, along with 9 other girls from around the country, headed up to Rochester for what was one of the most intense, hard fun weeks of my life.  It was there that I realized a couple of things:

1) There was so much to learn about officiating.  Working a hockey game is so much more than calling penalties and awarding goals.
2) There are a lot of opportunities out there for female officials if you are willing to learn and put in the work.
3) The officiating community is awesome.  These were some of the nicest, most genuine people I have ever met.

After a successful week in Rochester I decided to take officiating a lot more seriously than I had in the past.  After graduating I had become a little lazy with my workouts - I wasn't nearly as intense or consistent as I had been when I had been playing in college.  I got myself in much better shape, worked on my skating and studied my rulebooks.  I started working NCAA hockey as well as higher level boys hockey locally and gaining more experience.  I was invited to my first national championship tournament at the end of the season as well as a Select Camp the following summer.  After select camp I was asked to attend the Elite Experience in Lake Placid.  It was there that I had my first opportunity to referee the US National team and earn my international license.  USA Hockey gets a limited number of "licenses" from the IIHF every season and I was fortunate enough to be selected to have one.  Since earning my license in 2007 I have had the opportunity to work numerous international competitions.  I can't imagine how my life would be different had I not dragged myself to that seminar that Saturday morning!

In 2009 I was selected to work my first tournament abroad, the World University Games in Harbin, China.  I started this blog then to keep everyone at home updated since I wouldn't have a phone.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it so last season, when I was selected to work the Women's World Championships Division 2 in France I decided to blog again.  So here we go again, as I get ready for my next adventure I've decided to start up the blog again.  I'll update a few times before I leave as well as daily while I am away, but don't worry, most entries won't be this long!  Hope you enjoy it!