Strathmore ref adds to his resume

Laurence Heinen

Times Contributor

 

For the third straight year, Strathmore was represented in the final of the Mac’s Midget AAA Hockey Tournament on New Year’s Day.

Just hours after the UFA Bisons lost 4-3 in quarterfinal action to the Edmonton SSAC BP Athletics, Strathmore native Clayton Hall found out he was chosen to officiate in the tournament final at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

“I got the phone call around 6:30 (p.m.) saying I’ll be skating in the Mac’s final at the Saddledome as a referee,” said Hall, who previously worked as a linesman in the Mac’s final two years ago as well. “This is probably the biggest assignment on my referee resume right now working as a referee in the Mac’s final at the Saddledome. It’s a pretty good experience.”

Hall had his hands full calling penalties during the final, which Edmonton won 3-2 over the Saskatoon Contacts despite the fact that the Athletics took 11 minor penalties to three by Saskatoon.

“One team was a little rougher than the other,” Hall pointed out after the game. “The team that got penalized more came out with the win.”

Linesmen Tyler Jensen, of Drumheller, and Jon Wiens, of Calgary, joined Hall to officiate in the Mac’s final after being selected for the honour by the tournament committee. Local referees Justin Geeraert and Dallas Ducheminsky also took part in the weeklong tournament.

“It’s an important job,” noted Mac’s tournament chairman Neil Robertson. “Obviously we can’t play the game without the three on-ice officials. For our tournament we try to make sure we have the best officials here that we can. It’s a very important job that they do and we really do try to get the best of the best here just like the players.”

Robertson explained that the officials are all supervised and evaluated during the preliminary round of the tournament before a decision is made as to who will work the final game.

“It’s a big deal,” Robertson said. “For an official to make the final games, male or female division, is a big feather in their cap. They had a great week and they deserved to be here. Congratulations to them.”

Jensen, who does quite a bit of officiating in Strathmore at the minor hockey, Junior B and senior women’s levels, referred to his selection as a great honour.

“They just supervised us and judged us based on our overall performance throughout the week,” said Jensen, who also worked as a linesman in last year’s final. “All the guys here worked hard, but it was just great to be able to come out here and skate in the final.”

Hall played hockey in Strathmore until his early teens when he decided to take up officiating.

“I played minor hockey up to Bantam and then I didn’t grow as quick as everyone else, so I decided to throw on the stripes and brave the hockey still,” said Hall, who worked his way up through the minor hockey ranks until landing a job as a referee in the Alberta Midget Hockey League two seasons ago.

Hall, who also works as a linesman in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, has aspirations of eventually working his way into the Western Hockey League.

“I’d love to work in the Western League,” said the 29-year-old, who now lives in Calgary. “That’s my ideal goal, absolutely.”

He would also like to land some more high-profile events with Hockey Alberta or Hockey Canada and perhaps eventually work an event like the World Junior Hockey Championships.

“World Juniors would be great,” Hall said. “Next year, it’s in Calgary. The likelihood of me getting it with my age and my experience isn’t very good, but yeah, absolutely, that would be a dream.”