High school senior already has three years of experience making calls
Josh Fletcher expects to get yelled at. It’s simply part of the job, he reasons. That doesn’t make it right, of course, nor does it make much sense for adults to vent misplaced frustrations toward a teenager, but that’s the state of competitive sports today.
Fletcher is a local ice hockey referee who officiated more than 150 games last season, including the USA Hockey-Chipotle National Championship for youth, USA vs. Czechia for an international Men’s Deaf Hockey game, and a National Development Camp for skaters under 18. Although he has worked for more than three years, his story is unique because Fletcher is only 17. As a senior at Lancaster High School, he is sometimes younger than the players he officiates.
Complaints, he has learned, arrive regularly from the ice, from the stands, or from the bench.
“There’s always someone yelling,” Fletcher said. “Honestly, I just don’t care. I’ve never really let much bother me. It’s not that big of a deal. You have to let that roll off your back. You have to have thick skin.”
It takes a certain personality to be a good referee: someone with an even temper, an understanding of rules and situations, and the ability to communicate well, while remaining calm amid the pressures of fiery emotions and competition.
Fletcher checks all the boxes.
Controlling a game
The son of John and Jamie Fletcher, Josh began playing ice hockey at age 8, late by youth hockey standards. By then, many kids around Western New York have been skating for years, where parents may have aspirations of future stardom for their little ones.
Fletcher had a different mindset. He wasn’t interested in playing college or junior hockey, or even making an NHL roster. Shortly after he began competing, he told his mother he might one day like to coach. By 10, his goal shifted to becoming a referee. His first step was to volunteer as a scorekeeper.
“I wanted a job and was always interested in being a ref,” Fletcher explained. “I took the course at 13, and started working a few weeks after I turned 14. I sucked for the first ten games, then started to like it.”
The refereeing course involves several modules of videos and quizzes, on-ice sessions, and an open book exam. There are four different levels, and every year, referees need to re-register and complete the modules, according to Fletcher.
“Josh has always been very independent and wanted to do things for himself,” said Josh’s mother, Jamie. “He never let anything bother him. When he was a little kid and we tried to discipline him, it didn’t matter what you did. Nothing upset him. As a referee, that’s a great trait. But for a parent, that can be difficult.”
Fletcher continues to play hockey (he’s a left-shooting defenseman), but prefers donning the black-and-white stripes to officiate.
“I like reffing better,” he said. “I have more control and can manage a game. It’s not all bad. Complaints come at me all the time, but I’d say once out of every ten games there is someone really going off.”
One of the memorable encounters occurred fifty games into his first season as a referee. Fletcher called a goal and skated to the scorekeeper’s box to identify the scorer. A giant man with tattoos across his face appeared on the bench, eyes bulging, spewing words your grandmother would not condone. Fletcher was 14 years old.
“I was terrified,” he admitted. “I didn’t know who he was. He’s screaming at me, so I told him to get off the bench. He just kind of stood there. My partner came over and asked if I had ever seen him before. He wasn’t a coach, so we didn’t know. I never had to yell at anyone before. Long story short, he got kicked out of the rink.”
Experiences like this often gave Jamie pause, especially when her son was younger. Before he was old enough to drive himself to games, she dropped him off at rinks when he worked. Depending on the schedule, she might stay to watch. There were times when her maternal instinct flared.
“One game was 12-year-old AAA players,” Jamie recalled. “It was heated, and people were targeting the refs. I wondered if I’d have to call the cops. You see stories on the news where people get violent with referees. They didn’t know that he was just a kid.”
She debated leaving the rink to sit in her car, but decided to wait near the locker room, serving as one more level of protection. Fortunately, there were no bad results that day.
“Knowing Josh’s personality gave me more comfort,” she said. “On the ride home, I asked if he was okay.”
He told his mom not to worry, and she has taken those words to heart. He’s older now, and she remains confident in her son’s maturity and decision-making skills.
“Refereeing is a hard job,” Fletcher admitted. “That’s why so many people leave. Mainly, it’s the abuse from parents, coaches, and as they get older, the players. There’s no filter on people anymore.”
Eighteen?
“We typically lose fifty percent of officials after their first year,” said Chris Karek, who assigns games to local referees. “They can’t deal with parents and coaches and threats from the stands. You put a 15- or 16-year-old kid in that predicament, where you’ve got parents waiting for them at the glass, and it’s intimidating. Kids would rather flip burgers for $15 per hour and not have to worry about it. It’s sad.”
Karek’s job is to match available referees with a nearby location. It makes no sense, he said, to send a referee from Niagara Falls to a game in West Seneca. There are also odd start times. Some games begin at 5 a.m. Others end at 1 in the morning. Pay per game varies — anywhere from $40 to $140 — depending on the level of play.
A referee himself, Karek, 59, first noticed Fletcher as a young player, then was impressed when he officiated alongside Fletcher.
“There are always individuals who stand out, whether they’re players or officials,” Karek said. “We look for people who hustle, who understand the game and can manage it. Josh does a fantastic job. He’s one of the rock stars of our organization.”
Fletcher’s age is noteworthy — last spring, at age 16, he has was profiled by USA Hockey’s website as a budding prodigy — but none of that would matter if he couldn’t perform the job properly.
“It’s surprising to others how I’ve risen so high in reffing in such a short time,” Fletcher said. “I’m not the youngest ref, but I don’t tell anyone my age. I think you lose credibility. If you make a bad call when you’re a kid, people are going to get on your case more than if you’re older.”
Fletcher doesn’t share his age, although this story may blow his cover. When someone in hockey asks, he says that he’s 18, just so his abilities aren’t questioned.
Fletcher admits that he has made wrong decisions. Referees are human, after all. Once his hand snaps into the air to call a penalty, he remains committed. When a mistake is made, he believes the best thing to do is own it.
“I go over to the the bench and say, ‘Hey, that wasn’t my best call.’ You’d rather be honest than be wrong all the time. At least the coach knows I made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. If you keep making them, that’s a problem.”
Part of Fletcher’s routine is to introduce himself to coaches before a game and learn the history between the teams. There have been times when he has arrived at a rink, ready to officiate, only to discover the game was a hotly contested playoff match.
“I just try to build credibility before the game starts,” he said. “Most of the time, it works.”
Depending on the game and level of competition, referees work in two- or four-person crews. Most local games, Fletcher said, are two-person teams, where each referee acts as both a linesman and calls penalties. Those games are more challenging than having four officials on the ice.
“With a four-man team, you’re less likely to make a mistake or miss something,” he said. “There is another guy out there doing the same job as you, so there is less to worry about. With only two refs, it’s almost impossible to be in perfect position all the time.”
Part of every referee’s training focuses on positioning. They are taught to be on the outside, or “determining edge,” when a puck crosses the blue line, and also to navigate corners, especially in the goalie triangle. Like most referees, Fletcher hopes to remain largely invisible when he manages a game.
“If you don’t notice us, that’s good,” he said.
At times, however, positioning can unwillingly affect the flow of play.
“During Nationals, I was a linesman and this defenseman was coming out of his zone. I was skating up the wall with him and he was behind me and there was nowhere for me to go. He wound up to take a slap shot, and I got up on the wall to get out of the way. The puck hit a stanchion, kicked out, and hit me in the back. Sometimes you can’t help it.”
The future
Karek, from Lancaster, is affiliated with the Western New York Hockey Officials Association. As an assigner, organizations contact him to schedule officials for their upcoming games. Karek sends out requests to more than 300 area referees, listing dates and times that people can work.
Referees apply for individual games using an app.
“We just set our availability then go in and click games we want,” Fletcher explained. “I get a notification that I’ve been accepted. I can’t see who else accepts, but because of this job, I’ve met so many people. In three years, I’ve probably worked with 100 different people. I try to learn something from everyone that I work with.”
Karek noted that Fletcher is always seeking to improve.
“Josh is a student of the game who is always trying to learn more and get better,” he said. “He’s got a level head on his shoulders. I’ve seen him handle situations that officials with more experience might not be able to handle. None of us have a horse in the race, but there’s always a parent or coach who thinks you’re biased, and that you’re calling the game against them. Josh doesn’t let it bother him. After the whistle, he’s ready for the next play.”
Despite his youth, Fletcher has already experienced challenging situations. He has thrown coaches out of games. He’s argued with former Buffalo Sabres enforcer Andrew Peters, who was coaching a squirt team and questioned whether the opposing team had scored.
“It was a close call, but it was absolutely a goal,” Fletcher said. “He starts screaming. But he was all the way on the other side of the ice, and I was on the goal line. There’s no way he saw anything. I told him, ‘another word and you get a bench minor.’ That calmed him down.”
There is humor in the ordinary as well. On the final night of a national tournament, Fletcher was officiating at the Northtown Center. All the referees who had officiated earlier that day were watching the game, when Fletcher’s partner behind the net lost his footing. There is an unwritten code among referees that you should never fall, even when someone collides with you.
Fletcher skated over to ask if his partner was okay. He was, so with exaggerated moves, Fletcher began brushing snow from his partner’s butt.
“He’s saying, ‘Don’t touch me,’” Fletcher recalled. “All the other refs were dying laughing.”
Away from the rink, it’s not all hockey. Last summer, Fletcher worked at an uncle’s auto service shop, changing tires, working brake lines and changing oil — “wrenching,” he called it. Math is his favorite class at Lancaster High School, and he is considering studying electrical engineering at the University at Buffalo next fall. He also volunteers at the Twin District Fire Company as junior firefighter.
Could Fletcher one day ascend to being an NHL referee? Maybe, but for a teenager, that seems a long way away.
“I don’t like talking about the future,” Fletcher said. “I think it’s bad luck. The next opportunity for me will come when I turn 18. That will allow me to referee college club and high school games and travel around the Northeast.”
Karek has provided Fletcher with advice about moving up the refereeing ladder. There are camps he can attend, and more people to meet. Karek believes that the only thing preventing Fletcher from working games at a higher level now is his age.
“He’s on USA Hockey’s radar,” Karek said. “He’ll go as far as he wants to. He has the ability to be a really good referee.”
text © 2024 by Jeff Schober
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Jeff Schober has a journalism degree from Bowling Green State University and a master’s degree in English and History from the University at Buffalo. He retired from teaching English and Journalism at Frontier High School and is the best-selling author of ten books, including the true crime book Bike Path Rapist with Det. Dennis Delano, and the Buffalo Crime Fiction Quartet. Visit his website at www.jeffschober.com.
Steve Desmond is an award-winning photographer. With his son, Francis, he is the author of A Life With A Purpose which raises money for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy research. To view more of Steve's work, search Facebook under "Steve Desmond" and "Desmond's PrimeFocus Photography," or on Instagram at "Stevedesmond9."
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Wow, what an awesome kid. All the best to you Josh in your reffing career!