President’s message Sept 2, 2022

Welcome back for another great hockey season!  We are happy to report that our numbers have bounced back as Covid-19 settles down.  We are back up to 29 teams in total.  Most of you know already that Robin Edwards has retired as our administrator, and Dean Pirozzini has agreed to take on this role.  He and I have been working together over the summer, and he is doing an outstanding job so far. 

Your executive has directed our officials to crack down on certain calls this fall.  Clutching, grabbing and stick work is a focus as always, but a special focus will be taken this year to call the “yapping” and “back talking” much more tightly than in the past.  If you are assessed a penalty, you may be allowed to vent for a few seconds, but any more than that will get you another penalty.  If you persist even after that, you will be headed to the showers.  I think we can all agree that verbal abuse of officials should not be tolerated at all. 

This brings me to my next point.  We are very short on officials.  Please spread the word on your teams and in the community. We are looking for referees as well as timekeepers.  Dean is the guy to contact (250-713-1292) if you know anyone or if you want to help out yourself.  We are currently so short that it is likely you may have games with one or NO referee.  If that happens, don’t be surprised, and the two teams can play a friendly scrimmage game.  I assure you it will be almost as much fun and the same amount of exercise.  

We always welcome your feedback, so please let us know if you observe an incident that you think needs to be addressed or have ideas on how to improve things.  This league belongs to all of us; let’s all work together to make this hockey season safe and fun for all!

Your President 

Jeff Boehm
On behalf of the NAHL executive