JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. – Chris Woodworth of Rochester, New York, has a passion for officiating and the education and development of other officials. The five year veteran of the American Hockey League, who has worked over the past 16 years at all of the minor pro leagues in the USA, in NCAA Collegiate D-1 level hockey, as well as the Junior Tier One United States Hockey League and Tier Two North American Hockey League, recently converted his passion into a web site devoted specifically to the ongoing education and development of ice hockey officials. Woodworth’s effort known as ROCofficiating.com went live, after he worked with a cadre of experienced officials to design an approach that will be useful day-in and day-out as an educational tool. Woodworth said, “While the [web] site will have a number of categories around officiating, I wanted to feature the heavy use of game and training videos to show various scenarios and provide instruction around each presented video.” He provided examples such as, What was or should have been the call? Was it a penalty or no-call? What should have been the positioning on the play for the officials involved? His initiative grew out of a conviction that officials, especially those working in entry level games, do not get enough opportunities for supervision, coaching and continuing education, especially during the season. Woodworth said, “The summer is frequently used by many officials to attend officiating camps and preseason camps are offered by USA Hockey, various hockey leagues and by local officials associations. However once the season starts, most officials only occasionally get the chance to meet with groups of other officials to discuss the game situations and issues they have experienced during the season.” He went on to point out how even more experienced officials are so busy with game schedules and travel that except for occasional conference calls, meetings with supervisors and other communications, they don’t have the benefit of forums devoted specifically to the education and development of officials. As Vice President in his own local ice hockey officials association in Rochester, New York, and as a supervisor for USA Hockey in the organization’s Officiating Development Program, Woodworth has been providing coaching and training to younger officials for the past seven years. In that span of time, he has taught 15 USA Hockey officiating seminars, supervised and coached hundreds of officials and attempted to pass on what he has learned in his career to promising young officials. In addition to using his own experience, he has set up a network of experienced professional and collegiate officials, who will contribute materials, game videos, training tips, answer questions and experiences via electronic news letter that will be sent to officials who sign up for the web site. Access to the site is open to all without charge. Woodworth summed up his approach and commitment. “The current generation is wired into the web as well as social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. Our initiative will use all of these channels as a way of helping improve the game of hockey and to teach both our younger and experienced officials.” Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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