USA Hockey supervisor Butch Martin says that youth hockey teams in the Tri-Lakes area might have to cancel games and potentially event tournaments if he can’t find more hockey officials for the upcoming hockey season.

There has been a nationwide shortage of youth sports officials. But for Martin, the situation in the Tri-Lakes region has caused particular concern.

“I used to have about a pool of 30 guys that I could reach out to on any given weekend. We could handle pretty much anything that came through here,” Martin said. “My pool of 30 is now about eight.”

Martin, of Lake Placid, said some officials have either moved on, aged out or just lost interest.

At right, Seann Cassidy, of Lake Placid, drops the puck during a faceoff between Saranac Lake Placid’s Noah Munn-Jennings and a Burnt Hill-Ballston Spa player during a game at the Saranac Lake Civic Center on Dec. 4, 2021. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

“Specifically over the COVID years, we didn’t do anything in 2020,” Martin said. “The guys sat at home and they said, ‘Do I need to go back out there and take abuse all weekend long?’

“I probably lost five because of that, five out of 30 is a pretty good number. Then a few guys got older and decided to cut back and didn’t really want to do it. Other ones had other interests.”

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Decline of officials

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Martin said the situation isn’t just specific to the Tri-Lakes area, it’s all over New York state and it’s a very serious issue.

“I have to reach out pretty much all over the state. I used to be able to reach out to the CAN/AM Potsdam area and get guys from there and they are facing the same situation,” Martin said. “They are facing a situation where they don’t have enough guys. I’d say, ‘I need your guys.’ There have been weekends where you would have to tell the youth hockey people, we just don’t have officials.”

The situation became so severe that during a CAN/AM hockey tournament last spring, games were nearly canceled, according to Martin.

“I was able to bring in six to eight guys from the Syracuse area to help us fulfill the midget weekend,” Martin said. “We wouldn’t be able to do it without them.”

While Martin has never had to cancel a hockey game or a tournament, he’s seen it happen close to home.

“I know in the Albany area they have and I know in the Massena area they have,” Martin said. “We’re going to get this process over with and get you in there. We’ll train you. We’ll get you some games.”

Martin said CAN/AM Hockey, which hosts multiple tournaments that sometimes hold around 100-games, has seen similar challenges when the Olympic underwent upgrades to its hockey rinks.

“Last year in Nashville, they reached out to us, because we didn’t have anything going yet because of the rink situation and a couple of our guys went out there to Nashville,” Martin said. “They ended up working all day long. Usually, you want to do two or three, maybe take a couple of hours off and do two or three and that’s your day. They worked eight straight hours, which was way too much.”

Martin said it’s a tough situation right now and he doesn’t want to cancel games.

“Especially when these tournaments bring in money. What it does for the community we want to make sure we can cover those games more,” Martin said.

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Issues

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Approximately 50,000 people throughout the United States have discontinued their service as high school officials since the 2018-19 season — the last full school year unaffected by the pandemic, according to a survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Martin believes a main factor for the decline is the conduct of parents and spectators yelling at officials and causing them to feel like they are in danger.

“You hear about officials being attacked all over the country. That ripple effect definitely goes down and into the younger kids,” Martin said. “Most kids start at age 14 or so. (Imagine) a 14-year-old goes out there and gets screamed at by an adult and it turns them off right away.”

On social media, videos of officials being attacked have gone viral. While the situation is rare, Martin believes these videos are a factor in the decline in officials.

“You would see clips come out of these parents going crazy. That would possibly affect a young man’s decision to do this or not,” Martin said.

While situations such as coaches or spectators berating officials will likely never go away, Martin said he has taken a different approach from the typical zero-tolerance policy from USA Hockey.

“We kind of avoid confrontations at all cost,” Martin said. “If somebody comes down and starts screaming and yelling, we don’t react right away. We’ll let them calm down and see what happens. If they don’t calm down right away then you can go after them either suspend them or tell their organization that, ‘Hey, this team or this coach was out of control.'”

Martin said that along with a good support system from CAN/AM organizers, his approach has seemed to work out well.

“We seem to be doing OK, just maybe out of a weekend tournament here with 40 games, one or two may act up,” Martin said.

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Becoming an official

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As someone who has been involved in the hockey world for a long time, Martin said becoming an official has completed his cycle of hockey.

“I’ve been doing it long enough and officiating long enough where you see a whole lot of changes out there and you appreciate the players out there and the levels and you watch players develop,” Martin said.

Martin said being an official has not only helped him, but also other officials find a new appreciation for the game.

“Let’s say a young person decides to officiate a number of times and they come back and say ‘Boy this is a whole lot different from when I was playing. Now I realize, I was an a**hole when I was playing,'” Martin said.

With Lake Placid slated to host more than 20 youth to adult-level hockey tournaments during the upcoming season, Martin is looking for all the help he can get.

“You can make $500 a weekend with all of our tournaments here,” Martin said. “It’s definitely worth the while. We have a lot of fun. You stay with the game and you’re with a bunch of good guys and gals that enjoy the game and go to work every weekend.”

To become an official, you have to be 14 years or older. Martin said that age doesn’t matter and that he is looking for anyone who wants to stick with the game of hockey.

“We’ve got so many games here, somebody can jump right in and make some money over the weekend while enjoying the game they’ve grown up with,” Martin said.

Martin said in the past, the process of becoming a hockey official was intense.

Anyone interested in becoming an official would have to be screened by USA Hockey while completing multiple modules, tests and seminars.

“We would lose people because of that,” Martin said. “They have cut that back some, it’s a little bit better than it was.”

First year officials can now attend a seminar amongst their peers, according to Martin, who teaches the seminar with other experienced officials. Then the applicant completes a test, along with some paperwork, to become a level one official.

“The young ones would stay in the Tri-Lakes area until they’ve got experience,” Martin said. “Sometimes there is a 15-year-old that might blossom right away, where I could say Potsdam needs you to go up for the weekend so go out and get some experience up there. But that’s rare, you pretty much have to have a season under your belt to be at that level because it gets pretty intense.”

Martin said he tries to match up the officials with the least amount of experience with the veterans to make them more comfortable and confident before moving them up the ladder.

“Lately, it’s been faster than what some people may want,” Martin joked.

Anyone interested in becoming an official can contact any current official or Butch Martin at butchmartin9@gmail.com. For more information, visit www.usahockey.com/officialsmembership.