Travel Plans

I've blogged about some of my past officiating experiences and how I got to this point but I really haven't written much about the tournament I'm going to!  First a little background - The IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) is the governing body for all 37 nations that have a national women's ice hockey team.  Each year, the IIHF sponsors world championship tournaments at both the senior level and the u18 level.  Now because it would be next to impossible logistically to have a 37 team tournament as well as the vast differences in level of play, they split all of those countries into 6 divisions.  Each division has their own World Championship tournament, with the team that wins moving up a division and the team that is in last moves down a division.  It is the goal of all nations to reach the top level, as those are the teams that play at the Olympic Games.  The goal is the same for us on ice officials, we all strive to work the highest level tournament possible.  

This year I'm fortunate enough to be headed to Malmo, Sweden for the Senior Women's top division tournament.  Competing at the tournament will be Canada, USA, Russia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Japan.  The tournament splits the teams into two brackets - the top 4 teams (A pool) and the bottom 4 teams (B pool) each play a round robin.  At the end of the round robin, the top two teams from the A pool get bye's into the semifinals.  The bottom two teams from the A pool as well as the top two teams from the B pool play in the quarterfinals and the bottom two teams from B pool play a 3 game relegation series, with the loser moving out of the top level World Championship tournament next year.  This format is somewhat new and has made for some very competitive games over the past few tournaments.  USA and Canada play on the first night of the tournament (a rematch of the gold medal game in Sochi) so it is sure to start off with a bang.  

Now on to my travel plans.  First, where is Malmo, Sweden? That is a good question, I had to look it up on the map.  Malmo is the 3rd largest city in Sweden and is in the very southern tip of the country.  It is actually a short ferry/train ride from Copenhagen, Denmark which is actually where I will be flying in and out of.  This year my flights are pretty good, if you remember last year I had 2 layovers, one of which was 5 hours!  I leave Philly at 6:50 on Wednesday evening and fly direct to Frankfurt.  In Frankfurt I have about a 2 hour layover before the short 1:20 flight to Copenhagen.  Once I arrive in Copenhagen there will be someone waiting for me to help me get to our hotel in Malmo.  The tournaments officially kicks off on Saturday, March 28th and the final games take place on Saturday, April 4th.  Here is a link that contains the schedules and more tournament details: http://www.worldwomen2015.com

As I've mentioned previously, one of the wonderful things about working these tournaments is the opportunity to travel after.  This year, my good friend from college Kathleen is coming over to travel with me.  I am going to meet her in Copenhagen after the tournament ends.  From there, we are taking an overnight cruise to Oslo, Norway.  We will spend a day/night in Oslo then take a train to Stockholm, Sweden.  After another day/night in Stockholm we will take another train back to Copenhagen before heading home on Thursday, April 9th.  I'm super excited to be able to travel with a friend and am looking forward to exploring Scandinavia.  I'll be leaning on some of my fellow officials who are from those countries to point us in the right direction in terms of what to see and do - just another benefit of having friends from all over the world. 

Alright I'm off to bed, there is lots to get done both at work and personally in the next 72 hours.   I'll leave you with a funny story.  Today I worked my last game prior to leaving, just a local women's league game.  I got my haircut this past week for the first time since the early part of the season.  I had to adjust my helmet fit because my hair wasn't fitting right! #femalerefproblems

Soapbox Post

I had a couple of things happen in recent weeks that have really annoyed me.  I typically don't use this as a forum to complain but I think I'm going to get up on my soapbox for an entry.  Last year at Worlds, one of the officials from Switzerland gave out riot pads (little note pads we carry in our pockets on the ice) that on the cover said "No refs no game."  There is no truer statement, without refs you can't have a game.  And if people continue to abuse officials, nobody will be willing to put on the stripes.  The number of registered officials is declining and while I think there are a number of reasons for that the biggest one is people are sick of taking the abuse.

Now as a referee you have to have a thick skin, it comes with the territory.  And believe me when I tell you I've put up with some brutal stuff over the years.  But I also think the abuse has gotten a lot worse in the last few years.  I know I'm not dreaming because I have seen more articles about fan/coach altercations with youth sports officials in 2015 than I have in the last few years combined.  Over the last month I've worked a number of games for various leagues and every other official I spoken with has said the same thing "I can't wait until hockey season is over, I'm sick of the bs."  I don't remember it being like that in years past.  Listen, I will be the first to admit that I make mistakes out there.  And trust me when I tell you nobody beats themselves up over it more than I do.  I made a mistake earlier this season that I saw on video after the fact and I swear I didn't sleep for 3 days, I kept replaying it over and over in my head, thinking about how I could have done better.  There was a fantastic article that I read (click here to read it) earlier this year about hockey referees and game control, blown calls and other misconceptions.  I said it should be required reading for all parents and coaches before the enter the ice rink, both at the beginning of the season and again come playoff time.   That way, when I have a coach of a u14 team tell me that because I called a penalty in OT on his team I "stole the game from his girls and broke their hearts" I can say, have you read that Sports Illustrated article? (True story, by the way).

Another example, a few of us officials were sitting up in the snack bar area at the district tournament. I'm fairly certain the mother at the table next to us knew we were the refs because she certainly had a lot to say about the officials, both those who were working the current game her daughter was playing but also those that had worked the game those same two teams played earlier in the day.  Heaven forbid little (insert name here) ever does ANYTHING wrong - it was always the ref's horrible call.  It took everything in me to walk down to the locker room, grab a whistle out of my bag and slam it on the table in front of her and say "if you think you can do better, there is a certification seminar on April 12th, I'd love to see you there."  Because to me, if all you can do is complain and talk about how horrible the refs are why don't you do something about it.

Those are just a few recent examples, it has really been going on all season.  And not to pull the girl card but I think it is even worse as a female.  I was fortunate enough to be the first female to work a boys Flyers Cup Final this year.  After that game, the one guy in the penalty box came over and was chatting with scorekeeper (a sophomore on the West Chester University women's hockey team) and I.  The guy asked the girl if she would ever try to be a referee - he reasoned she would make a lot more money on the ice vs sitting in the score box (a very true statement, I made 5x what she made that game).  Her response "I couldn't handle being yelled at by parents and coaches."  It is sad that this young girl won't try officiating because she knows she is going to be abused.

Speaking of females, part two of my rant is about to occur.  Back in 1997 the IIHF made the decision to go with all female referees for their World Championship Tournaments (read about it here).  While I'm certain there were some growing pains, in the end it was a fantastic move as there are so many great officials around the world who now have something to work for.  USA Hockey and the IIHF have done a fantastic job of promoting female officials.  They work hard to put us in situations where we can learn, grow and succeed.  NCAA hockey, on the other hand, still isn't where we need it to be in terms of supporting the female officials.  The Frozen Four for both D1 and D3 are taking place this weekend.  They bring in 3 4-person crews for each level.  Of those 24 people selected, guess how many were women?  If you guessed 2, you are correct.  How sad is that? Are you really trying to tell me that there aren't more than 2 qualified women working NCAA hockey?  I struggle with this greatly.  NCAA hockey is, for all intents and purposes, the best women's hockey in the world outside of the national teams and the small pro league that exists in Canada.  How can we only have 2 women working the WOMEN'S championships?  It doesn't have to be me personally out there, I just want to see more of us females out there.

Something needs to change but I'm not sure what the answer is.  If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.  This post has turned into way too long of a rant.  I promise I'll get off my soapbox now.  If you ever read my blog again, my next post will be way more fun.  It will include all of my travel plans and some details about my specific tournament.  I can't believe I leave on Wednesday!

Reflections

As I sit here with a jug of Gatorade and box of saltines (thanks stomach bug) I'm slightly panicked that this time next week I'll be on a plane on my way to Sweden!  So how did this all happen?  I've done some detailed posts on this in the past so here (click here to read my very first post) so here is the readers digest version:

I started officiating my senior year of college for extra cash.  When I graduated and got a "real" job, I wasn't going to continue until I fully understood how expensive it was to play hockey in the Philly area.  I figured I could ref on the side and basically make enough money to pay for my hockey dues.  Opportunities started to present themselves and I became more entrenched in the officiating community.  Several development camps later I earned my IIHF license in 2008 and was selected for my first IIHF assignment that fall, the 4 Nations Cup in Lake Placid.  It was there that I worked my first USA vs Canada game - that will always be a very special memory.  I started my current job at the Hartford right after I got home from 4 Nations.  The following week, Matt Leaf at USA Hockey emailed me and asked if I'd be able to go to China for 2 weeks in February for the World University Games.  I was a little nervous going in to ask my boss for two weeks off in a job that I had literally just started but fortunately the Hartford has a generous PTO policy and my boss at the time understood this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and allowed me to go.  That tournament allowed me to get on the IIHF's radar and now I'm fortunate enough to be headed to my 6th tournament.

I was working this past week with another female official who has a ton of potential.  She was asking a little bit about my upcoming trip but then she asked me a really tough question - what has been my favorite tournament?  That is such a tough question because every experience has been amazing in its own unique way.  China will always be special just because it was my first IIHF tournament abroad, I got to travel with one of my closest friends in the officiating community and it was such a unique place that I would have never gone to on my own.  The next tournament was in France, this was my first official World Championship tournament.  It was a lower level tournament so while the hockey wasn't great it was in such a cool city.  After that tournament one of my best friends came over and we traveled to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam together.  I think this was definitely my favorite "post tournament" travel experience.  In 2012 I was selected for my first A level tournament, u18's in Czech Republic.  That was special in and of itself as it was the first time I got to see the top countries in a world championship.  Ottawa 2013 was just amazing - my first senior A pool, in a country where hockey is religion and again I got to travel with one of my best friends.  Budapest was another A level u18 championship in another phenomenal location.  It was after this tournament that I got to visit an IIHF friend in Zurich, which really shows how fortunate I am to have friends all over the world.  Finally here we are, getting ready to head to Sweden for my 2nd senior A level championship.  While I am stressing about being ready to leave in a week, I can also reflect on how lucky I am to have had all of these experiences and can only be left to wonder what will make this tournament unique!

Next post will include my travel details, which were just emailed out yesterday!

Time Flies

Wow, time flies! I can't believe it is the middle of March already.  I feel like it was just a few weeks ago that I was sitting in Connecticut at a leadership council meeting for work obsessively checking my email because I knew IIHF assignments were due out any day.  That email came shortly after I finished a presentation to senior leaders and it took everything in me not to jump up and start dancing around the room in excitement - I found out I was headed to the Women's World Championships in Malmo, Sweden.

Fast forward 6 months and tons of hockey games later and here I am, starting this blog again.  It is funny, every time I get selected to work an IIHF event I think I am even more excited and thankful than I was the last time.  I still can't believe I'm leaving for my 6th World Championship tournament in 2 1/2 weeks.  There are over 26,000 registered officials in the United States and 22 were selected for international assignments this year.  How crazy is it that not only am I one of those 22, but I'm now doing this for the 6th time?  Wow.  I've worked really hard over the years (and had some luck on my side) but I am truly amazed, humbled and proud to be given this opportunity.  I've had so many people help me along the way and I just can't thank them enough for their support.

For those that are new to my blog, I started this in 2009 when I got my first IIHF assignment, the World University Games in Harbin, China.  Remember, way back in 2009 I don't think I owned an iPhone and iMessage didn't exist so this blog was my way of keeping everyone at home informed of what I was up on the other side of the world.  I had a lot of people tell me they really enjoyed following my journey, but the person that enjoyed it the most was my Grandma Casanave.  When she passed away in 2012 (read that entry here) I decided to continue this blog whenever I traveled to a tournament in her memory.

Over the next few weeks before I leave I'll try to do a few entries that cover how I got to this point, some details about the tournament itself and my travel plans after.  Once I'm in Sweden (I leave March 25th) I'll try to blog daily about my experiences.  Looking forward to a fantastic tournament and more great memories!

Back to Reality

The last few days have been crazy busy!  I made it back to my house at 10:30pm on Wednesday night.  I forced myself to stay awake the entire flight home in the hopes that I could sleep through the night and re-adjust to eastern time quickly.  Unfortunately that plan didn't work out so well as I was wide awake at 4:30am Thursday!  Today was the first morning that I slept past 6am so I think I am finally readjusted.  

Between catching up with work and life I've been running around like a crazy person but that doesn't mean I haven't had a chance to reflect on the past two weeks.  Words cannot describe how blessed I feel to have had the opportunity to represent USA Hockey and the International Ice Hockey Federation again.  The memories and friendships from these tournaments is something I will always treasure.  When I started this journey into officiating, I never thought any of this was possible.  It has taken a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck on my part but I also would never be here without the help and support of others.  Thanks goes out to USA Hockey for having the faith in me to represent them.  I also have to thank all of the instructors at camps over the years for pushing me to constantly get better.  Lastly, I need to thank my family and friends for putting up with me always saying "I can't, I have hockey" during the winter months. 

Now that it is officially the offseason I'll put the whistles away for awhile and take some time to recharge the batteries.  However, that doesn't mean the training stops.  I have a few items the supervisors told me to work on so I'm working on coming up with a plan on how to turn those weaknesses into strengths.  I'm hopeful to get another opportunity to do this again next year but that is the crazy thing about this international officiating stuff - you never know when the ride is going to be over until it is over.  That is why you have to make the most out of every opportunity you get.  Hopefully you have enjoyed this version of my blog and my fingers are crossed I'll get the chance to put more entries in next year!  Enjoy your summer!

A Quick Adventure

This was written on the plane on the way home...

Today was my last day in Europe.  While I am sad to be leaving, I'm also looking forward to getting home and getting back into a normal routine.  My flight wasn't until 5:15 Zurich time so I had most of the day before I had to head to the airport.  I wanted to do something relatively active (vs going to a museum) since I would be sitting on an airplane for 9 hours later in the day.  Anna suggested that I go for a hike at Uetliberg.  Uetliberg is a mountain area just outside the city that has a hiking trail that offers amazing views of Zurich and the Alps.  The plan was to store my luggage at Anna's office then take the train up to Uetliberg, go for a little hike then come back, meet her for lunch then head to the airport.

I was able to find the train line that takes you to Uetliberg pretty easily.   Only one slight problem - not all of the trains on that line run all the way up to Uetliberg.  So the first train I was on started out going the right way, then all of a sudden started going the other direction!  I was so confused!  I got off at the next stop and caught the next one to the turn around station.  I was able to look at the schedule board there and figured out that every 4th train goes all the way up to Uetliberg.  Fortunately, I got on the correct one and eventually made it up there.  It was definitely worth the trouble, the views were amazing.  I followed one of the trails that was supposed to eventually lead me to a gondola that I planned to take back down into town.  Along the way there was a cell tower that had an observation deck open to the public.  You could see everything, it was gorgeous.  I took a ton of pictures but I doubt they will do it justice.  When I entered the trail, there were signs about the gondola but unfortunately they were all in German so I couldn't read them.  I just assumed they said it was in a certain direction - bad assumption.  After what I think, based on a map I took a picture of, was a 7.5 km (just under 5 miles) hike I found the gondola and realized the sign said it was closed for maintenance.  Opps.  Fortunately there was a trail that you could follow under the gondola that got you down, it was just really steep and a lot more work than I wanted to do!  When I eventually made it down to the bottom, I found the train that would take me back into town.  I had planned to meet Anna between 1-1:30 and despite the train and gondola snafu I had about an hour and a half before I had to meet her.  Yesterday when I was downtown I saw you could rent pedal boats on Lake Zurich.  I decided to continue my active day and do that for a little while.  It was fun, it offered some really pretty scenery and it was nice to be out on the water.  I did that for about 45 minutes then headed back to meet Anna.

We got lunch at this little take out place close to her office and ate outside along the river.  I wish my office had something like this setup, it was so peaceful and nice.  After lunch I went and got my stuff to head to the airport.  I made it there in plenty of time and was able to relax for a bit before getting on the plane.  I land at 8:15 EST in Newark.  I'm getting a ride home from there so the goal is to be back in Manayunk by 10:30 or 11.  Then, a little more than 12 hours after landing in the states after being away for 2 weeks, I go to the final walk through of my new house!  After the walk through I'll empty my bank account, sign the papers and get the keys!

I'll do a wrap up post or two in the next few days but this was another fantastic trip! The tournament was great in all aspects and I really can't thank Anna enough for hosting me in Zurich!  It was great to meet some new friends and reconnect with an old one!

Amazing Day in Zurich

Wow, what a day!  Zurich is an absolutely amazing city and I had perfect weather to walk around and explore. We woke up early this morning and headed into town.  Anna had to go into work for awhile so she dropped me off where we were going to meet later in the day armed with a map and a list of things to do.  It was so funny, she told me to message her on facebook (since my phone doesn't work here) every once in awhile so she knew I wasn't lost!

I started off by taking a 20 minute walk down Bahnhofstrasse.  This is the Swiss version of the Champs Elysees - lots of designer shops that charge way too much money for everything in the store. On the way I passed by the national bank of Switzerland.  That street dumped me right in front of the huge train station I was at yesterday.  On the other side of the train station was the Swiss National Museum.  I went into the museum and learned all about Swiss history and saw lots of different artifacts.  The coolest part was the war history stuff.  They had many of the weapons used and lots of suits of armor to look at.  After exploring the museum for a little while I left and headed towards Old Town.  Old town is an area of the city that has all of these little hilly cobblestone streets that are completely closed off to vehicle traffic.  There are a ton of cafes, shops and galleries.  I walked all around and choose a random cafe with outdoor seating for lunch that turned out to be really good!  I had a sandwich and salad lunch combo and it cost me what amounts to almost $30 US dollars!  Anna had warned me Zurich was expensive and clearly she wasn't kidding.  After I ate some lunch I headed towards Lindenhof.  This is a little park in the city that Anna's mom had recommended for great views of the city.  I forgot to mention yesterday, Anna's mom joined us for dinner last night.  She was very curious to meet one Anna's "hockey friends" since she doesn't know any other girls who prefer to watch hockey on tv, drink beer and play sports over most other things.  She was a wonderful woman and it was very fun to talk to her.  Anyway, Anna's mom was correct and the views of the city were awesome!  After taking a ton of pictures, I headed towards the 3 famous churches of Zurich - St.  Peters, Fraumunster and Grossmunster.  St. Peter's is famous for its clock tower - apparently the clock is the largest in all of Europe.  Fraumunster and Grossmunster were homes for the nuns and monks respectively.  The story is the river that runs between the two was put there to help them avoid any temptations.  Both were absolutely gorgeous.  The cool thing about Grossmunster is you could go to the top of the clock tower for amazing views of the city.  It was definitely worth the hike up!  After leaving the churches, I headed towards the Zurich Opera House, which sits right on Lake Zurich.  After exploring the Opera House a bit I walked all along the lake through a bunch of small parks.  I looked into renting a small motorboat or pedal boat but unfortunately I didn't have enough time.  I then headed back to the train station where Anna and I were met up at Starbucks (thank you Starbucks for your free wifi so I can use my phone).  

After Anna and I met up we went to the store where we picked up some stuff to make for dinner and she helped me pick out some Swiss chocolate to bring home to everyone!  For those of you that get a sample, you can blame her if you don't like it, haha!  We then headed to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) offices to meet her boyfriend who had the car.  Adrian (her boyfriend) works for the IIHF and helps out with some of the officiating stuff.  I get emails from him before every one of these trips so now I can put a face with a name!  He gave me a tour of the offices (which are in this beautiful old mansion) and I got to say hello to KK.  KK is in charge of all officiating matters in the IIHF.  I had met him last year in Ottawa so it was nice to see him again.  After our visit to the IIHF offices, Anna and I headed back to her house.  On Tuesday nights she goes to this fitness class with a few friends so I said I'd go along with her.  I wasn't exactly sure what to expect but I figured at least I'd get a workout in!  The class was 1:15 minutes long.  The first half was an aerobics type workout - I called it Zumba on steroids.  That was entertaining to say the least.  First, as many of you know, I don't have the best rhythm in the world.  Couple that with the fact that all of the instructions were in German and I was an absolute disaster!  All I could do is laugh, the people in this class will probably say to her next week - who is that crazy girl you brought that had NO IDEA what she was doing? After the aerobics portion there was a strength portion where we used bands to do all sorts of things - this was much more in my wheelhouse.  After the class we headed back to her house to make dinner, drink Swiss beer and watch the Swiss Pro Hockey League playoffs.  It was interesting to watch, they play by IIHF rules on Olympic size ice so it is a bit of a different game than NHL hockey.  By far the coolest thing though - the leading scorer on each team wears a special jersey that says "top scorer" and has a yellow helmet with flames on it.  Yes, I'm serious, a yellow helmet with flames.  It was amazing, I want one for mens league at home!  

It really was an awesome day.  I cannot thank Anna enough for her hospitality, it has been great staying with her and hanging out.  I owe her big time when she come and visits the USA (and Anna - since I know you are reading this you better come!).  Tomorrow I am going to do a little more sightseeing before I have to head to the airport to catch my flight home.  I can't believe I get home tomorrow night and settle on my house on Thursday morning!  Goodnight!