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ECHL Officials Hold Preseason Training Camps

September 19, 2006 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. - The ECHL announced that it will hold its annual On-Ice Officials Training Camp on Oct. 6-8 at the Sovereign Center in Reading, Pa. and Oct. 13-15 at the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield, Calif.

The ECHL will open its 19th season on Oct. 20 with 25 teams in 15 states and one Canadian province and welcomes both the Cincinnati Cyclones and the Texas Wildcatters back to the ice in 2006-07.

The ECHL has invited all referees and a number of linesmen to the camps. Training camps will be supervised by ECHL Vice President of Hockey Operations Rod Pasma and conducted by ECHL Director of Officiating Gord Broseker, who worked almost 30 years as a linesman in the National Hockey League and ECHL Officiating Consultant Bryan Lewis, who was Director of Officiating and an on-ice official for the NHL. Also in attendance will be ECHL Officiating Supervisors Jim Doyle, Mark Faucette, Jerry Pateman, Mark Rudolph and Ken Wheler.

"This will be an exciting and challenging year for our officiating department. We want our officials heading into the 2006-07 season with the mindset of 'New Standard, New Vision, New Game'" said Broseker, who is in his second season with the ECHL. "Having two training camps allows our management team and supervisory staff to bring more of a hands-on approach in educating and preparing our on-ice staff for the upcoming season."

Both camps will be attended by officiating representatives from the NHL as it continues to work with the ECHL in adopting the new standard of rules enforcement. The NHL has assisted in the development of a video presentation that outlines the new standard of officiating specifically addressing its utilization under the one-man referee system.

The officials in Reading will spend time speaking with Royals head coach Karl Taylor and off-ice official crew chief Jasin Garner while the officials in Bakersfield will meet with Condors head coach Marty Raymond as well as the head of the off-ice officials, Fred Olague.

Sixteen former ECHL officials will be in the NHL in 2006-07 with Chris Ciamaga, Mike Leggo, Wes McCauley, Dean Morton, Dan O'Rourke, Brian Pochmara, Kevin Pollock, Chris Rooney, Justin St. Pierre, Ian Walsh and Dean Warren working as referees and Steve Barton, Brian Mach, Tim Nowak, Jay Sharrers and Mark Wheler working as linesmen.

ECHL

The league officially changed its name to ECHL on May 19, 2003.

The Premier 'AA' Hockey League, the ECHL has affiliations with 23 of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League in 2006-07. There have been 303 former ECHL players who have gone on to play in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, including a record 47 in 2005-06. There have been 158 players who have played in the NHL after the ECHL in the past five seasons and there were 13 former ECHL coaches behind the benches of NHL teams in 2005-06.

The ECHL has affiliations with 22 of the 27 teams in the American Hockey League in 2006-07 and for the past 17 years there has been an ECHL player on the Calder Cup Champion. The ECHL has had more players called up to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined each of the past four seasons with 1,646 call ups involving almost 1,000 players.

The ECHL raised its average attendance for the third straight year in 2005-06 drawing 3,934,794 for 900 games which is an average of 4,372 per game, an increase of more than nine percent from 2004-05 and the largest per-game average since 1999-2000. Six teams surpassed 200,000 and nine teams averaged 5,000 per game for the first time since 1999-2000 as the league welcomed 39 sellout crowds and 13 of the 22 returning teams raised their average attendance from a year ago.

Further information on the ECHL is available from its website at www.ECHL.com.

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