IMPORTANT DATES
NOVEMBER
22 - 25 - AHA Turkey Shoutout house tournament at Boeke and Dempsey-Anderson rinks
22 - 25 - Southcentral Alaska Hockey Association
Thanksgiving comp team tournament at Subway Centre.
30 - Last day to be certified for the 2007-08 season.
DECEMBER
10 - AHO Board of Directors meeting, 6 p.m. , Radio Espresso at the corner of Northern Lights Boulevard and Boniface Parkway.
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STRAMP LOGS LONG HOURS TO ORGANIZE 2007 AHA TURKEY SHOOTOUT TOURNAMENT
Anchorage Hockey Association President Martha Stramp settled in for an all-nighter on a recent mid-November night to prepare a printed program for the 2007 AHA Thanksgiving Turkey Shootout tournament. Adult players were finishing their game at about 11 o'clock on the ice beneath AHA's corner office at Ben Boeke Arena. Sounds of skates slicing the ice, referees' whistles and pucks slapping off sticks echoed through the arena's empty corridors.
Long and late hours at the AHA office have been routine for Stramp lately.
She's been organizing Alaska's largest single-weekend hockey tournament and setting up teams for the state's biggest youth hockey organization.
Stramp took a break from stuffing envelopes to talk about the effort involved in organizing the Turkey Shootout and to discuss her role as president for AHA. STORY CONTINUES
$239,000 PAID OUT; 4,274 GAMES SCHEDULED
AHO scheduled more than 4,200 games and processed payments totaling almost $240,000 paid to officials and employees for the 2006-07 season. Impressive numbers, eh? Play your own version of AHO trivia with these statistics below and amaze your fellow referees with your wealth of knowledge during game breaks in the locker room.
• AHO had 157 certified officials last year, making it the state's largest ice hockey officials association. As of mid-November this year, AHO had 125 members (certification closes at the end of the month).
• AHO schedules officials for all USA Hockey and NFHS (high school) sanctioned games in the Anchorage area.
• 2,190 of the games scheduled by AHO were for youth games, 2,084 were for adults.
• AHO scheduled 1,240 regular season games for the Anchorage Adult Hockey League – the most games for any league or association.
• The top 10 officials who worked the most games last year officiated 72 percent of those 4,274 games scheduled by AHO. Guess which official worked the most games last season (answer in next month's newsletter).
CHOPPING PENALTIES?
No, USA Hockey hasn't created a new penalty for chopping, but scorekeepers who don't know hand signals may think that's the penalty referees are signaling when they chop their hands across their wrists to signal slashing. Do you know of teams with rookie parents in the scorekeeper's box who need to learn the difference between a slash and a misconduct penalty? AHO can help. Contact Connie Hardwick at 337-5303 or akregistrar@yahoo.com to arrange a free training session.
HELP AHO MENTOR NEW REFEREES
Thomas Huling is seeking veteran referees who are interested in helping mentor new officials. This involves working with Huling to schedule lower level games with new officials. Contact Huling at thulling@hotmail.com for details.
For comments or questions about this newsletter, contact newsletter editor Ben Harris at bharris2@acsalaska.net.
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BEHIND THE STRIPES
Referee profile
WILL MORAN
AGE: 24
YEARS OFFICIATING: 11
OCCUPATION: Project Manager for a construction company/general contractor. Also, full time student finishing construction management degree at UAA.
Q. Many of us see you officiating Alaska Aces games and higher level games. Tell us a little about the types of games you work.
A. This is my third season as an official in the ECHL, which is the league the Aces play in. This is my second season as an NCAA official in the CCHA, which is the league the University of Alaska Fairbanks plays in.
This is my fifth season being a part of the USA Hockey Officials Development Program, third season as a referee. The development program is designed to give younger officials experience to build skills to move up to higher levels of hockey. I just returned from a trip to Minnesota and Wisconsin to referee games that were part of the program
This is my sixth season as a NFHS official, which is the governing body of high school hockey in Alaska. And last, definitely not least, this is my eleventh season as a USA Hockey official, and my seventh as a level 4.
Q. How did you first get involved in hockey?
A. I started playing organized hockey when I was in seventh grade. I was a goalie. My senior year in high school was my last season playing.
Q. Why did you become a referee?
A. I started refereeing for the same reason most eighth-graders would, the money. As I got older and I realized that playing wasn't in my future, I started refereeing more. As I moved up through the ranks, I discovered there are many opportunities in the world of hockey refereeing and have tried to pursue them.
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