On The Shoulders Of Giants

On The Shoulders of Giants

In 2021, Ringette Canada began an effort to revise the NOCP. This has not been a case of "out with the old, in with the new." We have made great strides in properly documenting our expectations of On-ice Officials through the new LTOD Matrix, and we have introduced new learning methodologies, ranks, evaluation forms, and material. However, the new Pathway learning, the new content, and the new material are all built upon the foundation of what came before.

Paul Shipman, NOCP Education Lead, has said,

"The material that I have been working on, the new content that I and the workgroups have created, is not new in and of itself. It is a distillation of the things I was taught as I navigated the ranks as an on-ice official. It represents the knowledge I gleaned from years of clinics, and it represents the ingenious insights of some of the best instructors and evaluators that have made our officiating community what it is."

 

Earlier versions of the NOCP acknowledged those who contributed to their documentation. We do not want to lose that history or forget those who came before and blazed this trail. This page serves as a home for those acknowledgements and an opportunity to acknowledge those who continue to contribute.

 

On-ice Official NOCP

The initial NOCP was largely based on a program concept developed by the Ontario Ringette Association, which generously provided it to Ringette Canada. This original material made a valuable contribution to the development of officiating in Ringette, and the assistance of the Ontario Ringette Association is gratefully acknowledged.

Under the purview of Ringette Canada, several dedicated volunteers have contributed to developing the NOCP and related resource materials. Ringette Canada's first "Officiating Task Force" was supported by the work of Herb Abrahams, Bruce Kettles, Bruce Heaslip, Jim Benning, Nicole Duhaime, and Doug MacQuarrie. In intervening years, revisions and contributions have been made by Leo McQuaid (1983), Karen White and Doug MacQuarrie (1990), Jane Larkworthy (1990  & 1993), Chris Bradt (1997), Ron Gallinger (1997), Teri Pottie and Laura Knowles (2000), Myles  Blahut and Robyn Schweitzer (2003), Benoit Ducharme and Sue Blacklock (2006), Tona Laerz and Trevor Sorrell (2008).

From 2008  - 2020, revisions to the material were made by Ringette Canada's Officiating Master Instructors, mostly in keeping with ongoing rule changes.

In 2021, two workgroups were formed to begin the revisions to the On-ice Official NOCP.

The LTOD Workgroup was established to develop the LTOD Matrix as a basis for understanding the stages of development for On-ice officials. This workgroup was led by Brent Bunting and included contributions from Paul Shipman, Lauren Koster, Amy Williams (Murray), Stephan Blackman, Chad Weatherall, Jacqueline Cote, and Iris Todd.

The Clinic Review Workgroup (now the On-ice Official Education Workgroup) was established to begin revising the On-ice Official NOCP clinics to accommodate online delivery in a pandemic/post-pandemic world. Led by Paul Shipman, this workgroup included contributions from Lauren Koster, Rob Drury, and Benoit Ducharme. As this group's mandate developed and changed, additional members contributed to the developments: Sylvie Bohemier, Michelle Vesey, Emmanuelle Bourbeau, Amy Williams (Murray), Bruce Hennebury, Aaron Armstrong, Blair MacGregor, Sylvie Dubois, Evan Sharp, Tamara Hyska, Danielle Neumann, Caroline Laroque, Marjorie Legros, Laureanne Cazabon, Monique Bohemier, Georges Cormier and Jacqueline Bohemier.

 

Evaluator NOCP

From 2003 and earlier, Ringette Canada acknowledged contributions to the Evaluator program: "Ringette Canada would like to thank all of its program volunteers, in particular Ron Leblanc, for the conception and development of this Evaluators’ Clinic program. We would also like to thank Pete Smit, Laura Knowles, Stephan Blackman, and the Ringette Canada Officiating Committee for their assistance in refining the Level 1 Evaluators Program."

In 2021, an Evaluation Review Workgroup was established by Ringette Canada. Led by Iris Todd, this workgroup included contributions from Karen Meek, Luc Melanson, Myles Blahut, and Pete Smit. Their efforts led to establishing new officiating Ranks (based on Level + age division. e.g. 3-U19) and resulted in the first draft of a new evaluation form.

In 2023, following the appointment of Paul Shipman as the NOCP Education Lead and other changes to available resources, this workgroup began rolling out the new ranking system, finalizing the new Evaluation form, and redesigning the learning material for Evaluator Levels 1 - 4 to be in step with new learning methodologies, the updated LTOD Matrix, and the new ranking system. Contributions from Brent Bunting, Lorie Grant, Denise Pelletier, Luc Melanson, and Iris Todd.

 

Off-Ice Official NOCP

The development of training material and evaluation systems for off-ice officials, such as Shot Clock Officials and Time & Score Keeping Officials, was homegrown and developed independently in many provinces. Using these examples as a basis for developing a national program, Ringette Canada established an Off-Ice Official Development workgroup in (xxxx). Contributors include: Sharon Smit, Nancy Desfonds, Mike Murphy, Karen Freund, Jamie Doerbecker, Judy Renneberg, and Paul Shipman.