Officials Take Next Step in Career
August 21, 2008

A number of referees that have worked in the Atlantic Youth League, Atlantic Junior Hockey League and Metropolitan Junior Hockey League have been rewarded after a successful 07-08 season.

All of these officials have been working for the JODP (Junior Officiating Development Program), a program designed to help young officials who want to make a career of refereeing professional hockey.

These officials have been either hired by a professional hockey league or have worked in pro hockey and have now accepted a position in the hockey world.  Chris Allman, the Director of Officials for the AMHL is highlighted in this article.

The USA Hockey Officiating Development Program and its member leagues are pleased to announce that several program officials have accepted positions with several high level leagues for the 2008-09 season. Eugene Binda (Boston, MA), Jarrod Ragusin (Chicago, IL), and Joe Sullivan (St. Louis, MO) will be joining the ECHL on a full-time basis. Joining them in the ECHL will be Steve Berry (Los Angles, CA) and Kevin Graber (Albany, NY). The Central Hockey League has also hired two program officials Mike McCreary (Guelph, ONT) and Tom Steinel (Rutherford, NJ). Justin Lyle (Anchorage, AK) has left officiating to join the Indiana Ice of the United States Hockey League as an assistant coach while Chris Allman (Detroit, MI) has taken a job with the Atlantic Junior Hockey League and Metropolitan Junior Hockey League as the Development Coordinator working in conjunction with the USA Hockey Officiating Development Program.

“This was a great season for our guys and seeing them develop into higher level leagues just reinforces our success and direction of our program. The great support of USA
Hockey and the tremendous support of the member leagues have made this possible. We are just as excited for Justin Lyle who will be working with Indiana and Chris Allman who is stepping into a development position and will take on a huge work load reinforcing our development model on the East Coast. We believe that this just the beginning of several more development announcements, as we have about 10 officials attending the WCHA and CCHA officials camp. We also believe that we are going to add some officials to some higher level professional leagues very soon. This could be one of our biggest seasons for development”, said Scott Brand, the USA Hockey Officiating Development Coordinator.

The USA Hockey Officiating Development Program is beginning its 12th season and has advanced over 250 officials into higher level hockey. Currently the United States Hockey League, North American Hockey League, Southern Professional Hockey League, Minnesota Junior Hockey League, Central States Hockey League, Central States
Collegiate Hockey League, Great Lakes Hockey League, Upper Midwest High School Elite Hockey League, Atlantic Junior Hockey League and the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League are all program members. The USA Hockey JODP will be holding one of their camps at Champions Skating Rink in Cromwell, CT on August 22-24.