Fellow IHOA Officials,

The 2024/2025 season is already in full swing! I'd like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the 55 IHOA members who volunteered their time to instruct at 26 USA Hockey seminars and 5 on-ice Level One instructional sessions offered by IHOA this year. Without the dedicated support of these individuals and our Registrar, Anthony Friorito, we could not have provided such a range of seminars to our members.

You must register with USA Hockey by today for the 2024/2025 season. If you haven’t yet completed your requirements, or know someone interested in officiating, please visit ihoa.com/registration for details.

For our new officials, I strongly encourage you to take advantage of the Mentor Program. We’ve found that officials who participate in this program have a richer, more supportive experience as they begin their officiating careers. For more information, please visit ihoa.com/mentor-program. Please note today is the last day to register with USA Hockey.

Thank you for your commitment to IHOA and to continuing excellence in officiating.

Warm regards,

Brian Fisher

President, IHOA

*What is holding up your Card/Crest from being sent out*

October 31st (Halloween), last day to register with USA Hockey.

First and foremost, best of luck to all our officials participating in the largest youth tournament in the world. We know that time away from family and friends is never easy, but we are united in this for all the right reasons. We love the game, value fair competition, and enjoy every moment on the ice!

Full rules can be found on here: CCM World Invite Rules

All games will follow USA Hockey rules and penalties: Minor Penalties are 1:30, Major Penalties are 4:00, and Misconduct Penalties are 8:00. Coaches are responsible for reviewing the score sheet after each game and ensuring that any suspended players are notified and do not participate in the next game.

The defensive team attempts to clear the puck from their defensive zone, the puck deflects off of a defensive team player outside their defensive zone and re-enters the zone with attacking players still in the zone. Is this an on-side or off-side situation?

Let's review some tips from a 10U game here in Illinois that will help newer officials grow their in-game awareness and build their credibility by taking advantage of the tips in this video.

This is a supplemental training video that uses examples from our games here in Illinois to review the four criteria that should always result in a penalty.

This is just a reminder to be prepared at all times. In this video we have a checking from behind penalty that occurs 2:30 into the first period. The incident went uncalled and would have been a great [first] penalty to communicate to everyone what is and is not acceptable early in this game.

This is a checking from behind incident that is penalized, it occurs during the middle of the first period and allows the crew to effectively communicate what is and is not acceptable. This is a punishing hit that occurs without any attempt to gain possession of the puck.

AHAI assigns supervisors to 5-10% of games to support officials in improving their on-ice skills. Games are selected either at random or upon request by officials or administrators. All IHOA officials are eligible for supervision, and every Supervisor is a seasoned official with an extensive officiating background. Our program's purpose is to educate officials who have completed mentorship and seminar training. Our goals are to provide valuable feedback, help officials enhance their performance, and allow administrators to document each official's abilities. We consider our evaluators to be "coaches" for our officials.

If you’re aiming to be considered for higher-level games, it is strongly recommended that you request an evaluation.