New credit course aims to get more hockey officials on the ice in Saskatchewan

Yorkton Regional High School is piloting a new high school course aimed at hockey officiating.

‘Officiating 10L’ is a new credit course that will count as a credit towards graduation.

Students will learn on-ice skating skills, sports psychology, and nutrition, and are to get a chance to become a certified official with the Saskatchewan Hockey Association (SHA).

Yorkton Regional’s principal, Mike Haczkewicz, said the class will give students an opportunity to get an additional credit while hopefully getting more officials onto the ice.

“(It will) fill a void in our community, and I’m sure fill a void in most Saskatchewan communities where we see declining numbers of hockey officials,” he said. “Lots of kids are playing hockey, but not a lot of people are officiating.”

The course will still need the online module side of the certification course, and the registration as officials with the SHA.

The class will count as students’ off-ice clinic for the full certification.

Trent Cey, the SHA’s manager of officiating, said the class offers a unique way of getting more officials interested and on the ice.

“We just thought the more outlets we have for potential officials to be exposed to officiating hockey, the better,” Cey said.

Cey said the course has been mentioned by other schools, but never got off the ground until Yorkton Regional took the lead on the project.

Haczkewicz said the interest hasn’t been there yet, but that has a lot to do with the course being approved only in late July.

Organizers will be timetabling the course over the opening week of school, and Haczkewicz said they will likely try for the course to be delivered over lunch hours.

They are planning for a dual-credit course in the evening for students in the area to do online in a distance-learning setting.

The approval of the course by the Ministry of Education will allow any teacher in any high school in the province to teach the approved class.