Logan Marsh, a grade 11 student at Kimberley's Selkirk Secondary School, has been honoured with BC Hockey's Most Deserving Award, one of the Hockey Canada Officiating awards.
Marsh, who is the Referee in Chief for the Kimberley Minor Hockey Association (KMHA), said he was surprised and excited to win the award. By his best estimation, between KMHA and KIJHL games, he reffed or was a linesman at around 110 games last year and 100 this year.
He started playing hockey when he was five years old, and only just quit playing this year, saying the time commitment was getting to be too much, especially with how much refereeing he's been doing. He started reffing at the minimum starting age of 12, and is entering into his sixth season.
For Minor Hockey he refs in Kimberley and Cranbrook and has gone to Golden, Invermere, Creston and Fernie for KIJHL games. He'd like to go further afield to Grand Forks and Castlegar, and said he hopes to get more playoff experience. Last season he only got to do one round-one game.
When asked what he thinks makes a good hockey referee, Marsh replied "Consistency."
"I think people love consistency, the coaches love a consistent ref," Marsh said. "They also like a guy with standards, so if it’s a light standard, if it’s weak penalties all game, or if it’s barely calling any penalties, only calling super obvious penalties and you can tell when people know if that should have been a penalty or if it shouldn’t have.
"I think they also like when they’re communicative — let them know what’s going on, let the coaches know, let the players know — just be talkative. You’re a part of the game, you’re the third team on the ice, so you want to get along with everyone. It’s a good atmosphere factor in the games."
KMHA's Facebook post announcing the award garnered numerous comments with people congratulating Marsh and commending him for his hard work. Marsh said he'll absolutely be reffing again this coming season.
