Recent News

LAHOA would like to congratulate James Parker on his retirement from professional hockey. James, a former LAHOA board member and president, worked his final professional game Friday, May 7th in Irvine. 14 months after it has actually been scheduled. James was originally set to retire at the end of the last season but the COVID-19 pandemic postponed his game. James skating a game between the San Diego Gulls and the Ontario Reign. Basically the Kings vs the Ducks. The game featured a few fights but no fans. Well, almost no fans. James’ wife and kids were made special exemptions and were allowed to attend the game. Skating along side James was fellow LAHOA official, Michael McBain.

James’ career started right here in Southern California when he was 16. He attended California Referee School where camp director Michel Voyer took notice. When he was 18, he picked up a job as a linesman in a inline hockey league called, Roller Hockey International (RHI). The Anaheim Bullfrogs and the LA Blades played in this league with home games at the Honda Center, formerly the Arrowhead Pond, and the Forum, formerly the Great Western Forum. Michel, who had helped James get a spot in the RHI then called Derek Martin who was with the International Hockey League (IHL) which was the main feeder in to the NHL at the time. At the age of 19, James worked as a linesman in the the IHL. A few years later, James found himself moving over to be a referee. He began refereeing games in the IHL and the West Coast Hockey League (WCHL) now the ECHL. The Long Beach Ice Dogs played in that league. James’ path to success continued when Bryan Lewis, with the NHL came calling. The NHL had a program called the Officials Trainee Program. They would send James all over the country and even Canada to work games in various leagues such as the QMJHL, OHL and the WHL to name a few.

I’ve told this to countless people but only 80 something people in the world are able to be NHL officials. Different factors can come into play as to why an official makes the NHL or not. James, while pursuing the NHL, graduated college and become a teacher, married and had children. He continued to work professional hockey locally. He also served as the president of LAHOA! James has work a number of finals and playoffs but last season, James and fellow LAHOA official, Brent Tubbs, worked the AHL All-Star game in Ontario.

James will continue to serve as one of the Anaheim Ducks video replay coordinators for home games and you will for sure see him teaching seminars and skating SCAHA, CAHA, ADHSHL, etc. games in an effort to help the next generation of LAHOA officials get to higher levels of hockey and maybe the NHL!

Congratulation on a great career, James!

The LAHOA Board of Directors would like to congratulate Rebecca McFarland, Jordan Watt, Dylan Freed and Brea Benedict on their selection to work the 2021 Pacific District Championship Tournament! The tournament was held April 8-11 in the Phoenix, AZ metro area with the games being played in Scottsdale and Chandler. The officials represented themselves and LAHOA well! Dylan worked the lines of the Boy’s 15u AAA Championship. Rebecca refereed the Girl’s 14u AAA Championship. Brea lined the Girl’s 14u AA Championship and Jordan was selected to referee the Boy’s 14u AAA Championship! Great job officials!

The LAHOA Board of Directors would like to congratulate Dylan Freed on his selection to work the NA3HL playoffs! What is the NA3HL? It is the Tier 3 league for the NAHL! Hence the 3… Dylan has worked 28 games this season in the NA3HL. Having refereed 19 and lined 9. He has been assigned to the semifinals in the Frontier division. The best-of-3 game series will feature the #2 seed Great Falls Americans vs the #3 seed Gillette Wild. Game 1 will be played in Gillette, WY on Thursday, April 1st, and will continue in Great Falls, MT for games 2 and 3. Dylan has been assigned to line game 1 and will referee game 2 and the if necessary game 3! The winner of the series will move on to the division finals with a chance to advance to the Fraser Cup which is the championships for the NA3HL. Dylan, perhaps, is in the running for that as well! In talking to Dylan, he is very humbled by this selection, as this season was his first in the league. This season has been a HUGE learning experience for him, given the circumstances. He said he will do his best to represent LAHOA well!

Congrats to Dylan on his playoff assignments!

The LAHOA Board of Directors approved a motion to not collect LAHOA dues for the 2020-21 season in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is how it will work:

• If you were a registered LAHOA member for the 2019-20 season, your dues expiration date is being moved to August 31, 2021.
• If you have already paid your dues for the 2020-21 season, your dues expiration date will be moved to August 31, 2022.

Please note that USA Hockey is moving their expiration dates for officials, coaches and players to occur on August 31st of each year, instead of November 30th, starting in 2021.

To be current in our scheduling system, Time To Score, you will need to have completed your registration requirements for USA Hockey for the 2020-21 season. Once you have completed your USA Hockey requirements, you can use the link below to confirm your registration.

Confirm Your 2020-21 Registration

Lastly, to vote in the upcoming board member election, you must be a “member in good standing” to vote. Meaning you must be fully registered with LAHOA.

The LAHOA Board of Directors would like to congratulate Trevor Wohlford on receiving his first assignment in the ECHL! Trevor, originally from Burbank, CA, has been living in Indianapolis for the past few seasons refereeing in the SPHL and the USHL.

Trevor, wearing number 38, worked the Indy Fuel vs Wheeling Nailers in Indianapolis on Wednesday February 10th. The players welcomed Trevor into the league in typical ECHL fashion by fighting seven minutes in and scrumming after a player was boarded towards the end of the first. Then, one minute into the second, there was a fight with a game misconducts for an aggressor assessed. Due diligence paid off for Trevor. In a close game, the teams played hockey in the third in a game that of course went to OT! I guess they weren’t going to let him off that easy in his first go. Luckily, the home team buried the game winning goal two minutes into OT.

Congratulations to Trevor on his first of many ECHL games!

With the start of the professional hockey season approaching, the LAHOA Board of Directors would like to recognize the LAHOA officials who will be working the America Hockey League (AHL) this season. Also, a big congratulations to the officials selected to be linesman in the Las Vegas area which has a new AHL team in Henderson, NV. Those officials are, Gordon Lawes Jr., Dan Leavitt, Ryan Townsend, Adam Hendren and Jason Mandroc.

Adam Bell

Linesman

Reseda, CA

AHL

Steven Berry

Linesman

Huntington Beach, CA

AHL

Neil Campbell

Linesman

Aliso Viejo, CA

AHL

Niko Diehr

Linesman

Fullerton, CA

AHL

Jacob Fraser

Linesman

Long Beach, CA

AHL

Brett Martin

Linesman

Los Alamitos, CA

AHL

Mike McBain

Linesman

Placentia, CA

AHL

Eric McDonald

Linesman

Bakersfield, CA

AHL

JM McNulty

Linesman

Huntington Beach, CA

AHL

Tanner Nua

Linesman

Irvine, CA

AHL

James Parker

Linesman

Irvine, CA

AHL

Alec Rounds

Linesman

Newport Beach, CA

AHL

Steve Walsh

Linesman

Temecula, CA

AHL

Andrew Wilk

Referee

Camarillo, CA

AHL, ECHL, DEL, IIHF

The LAHOA Executive Board and the Board of Directors would like to congratulate Andrew Wilk and Trevor Wohlford who will be working in the ECHL and Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) for the 2020-21 season!

With the season finally getting under way for these two leagues, strict COVID procedures will be in place. In the ECHL, each official will be tested before they enter the building for all games and they must have had a negative test to be allowed in to work. Coaches, bench personnel and back up goaltenders will also be required to wear masks on the bench at all times during games. Officials will have masks to wear in between stoppages when communicating with officials, players and coaches. Similar protocols are in place in the SPHL. No one is allowed in the locker room with the exception of the officials. Masks must be worn at all times in the building. Communication with the coaches while on the ice should be kept to a minimum! How about that? Coach, “Hey, can we talk about that call?” Official, “I’m sorry coach but I am not supposed to!”

Trevor started his season in the SPHL Saturday, December 26th in Birmingham. Andrew will be officiating in Orlando December 29th and 30th.

Last season, Trevor worked full time in the USHL. This season he is getting the call up to work full time in the SPHL while working games in the ECHL too! He will continue to work USHL games throughout this season as well.

Andrew Wilk starts his 9th year as a referee in the ECHL. He worked the Kelly Cup Finals in 2019 and Conference Finals in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019. Andrew will work the AHL as well once that season starts. It is tentatively scheduled to start February 5th.

Congratulations to our LAHOA officials working pro hockey!

The LAHOA Executive Board and Board of Directors would like to congratulate our four LAHOA officials who will be working in the USA Hockey Officiating Development Program (ODP). Most of these officials will be heading out to cities in the Midwest to work full-time schedules in the NAHL and USHL!

Caleb Andrade, 28, originally from Ontario, CA, lived in Amarillo, TX last season working a full-time schedule as a referee in the NAHL. Caleb got to work his first USHL game too! This season, Caleb will be living in Des Moines, IA and working full-time as a referee in the USHL. Caleb looks to work his first pro game as a referee this season!

Tyler Hascall, 24, originally from Corona, CA, lived in Chicago, IL last season and worked full-time as a referee in the NAHL. This season, Tyler will be living in Des Moines, IA and working full-time as a referee in the USHL! Tyler hopes to work his first pro game this season!

Philip Kasko, 22, originally from Irvine, CA will be living in St. Paul, MN this season working games in multiple Jr and College leagues with his primary focus on refereeing in the NAHL. Last season, Phil made two trips to the Midwest with one being a month long stent in MN. This will be his first full time season in the ODP.

John Lindner, 26, originally from Bonsall, CA, lived in Des Moines, IA last season working full-time as a referee in the USHL. This year, John is heading back to Des Moines to work full-time in the USHL and hopes to get his first pro game!

Dylan Freed, 19, originally from Simi Valley, CA and currently attending Cal State Fullerton to attain a Major in Business with a Minor in Entrepreneurship, will be working part-time while he finishes up his degree. Dylan will be making monthly trips throughout the season to work the NAPHL.

LAHOA would like to congratulate the newly appointed California Referee-In-Chief, Thi Tran! Thi takes over for Alex Morrison who joined the CAHA Board of Directors this summer. Congratulates from all of us at LAHOA, Thi!

From LAHOA President, Louis Magnifico:

LAHOA hosted it’s annual board meeting Saturday, June 27th. First I want to tip my hat to all of you who took the time to have their voice heard in our election! We had 5 officials trying to secure one of the 4 board positions open. The results are: Andrew Wilk @ 24%, Michael Pecolar @ 23%, Art Kitano @ 22%, Sara Paras @ 21% and Zack Davis @ 10%.

I want to thank Skip Crovo for serving on the board for several terms! He was a very valuable board member and always put LAHOA first. I would also like to thank Zack Davis for stepping up to run for the board.

After the new board was seated the following board members were elected to the Executive Board:

President – Louis Magnifico

Vice President  – Brett Martin

Treasurer – Sara Paras

Registrar – Scott Workman

Secretary – Michael Pecolar

I would like to take a moment to thank Steve Appley for all his contributions as Vice President this past season, I can tell you without him I would have not had any chance of success. He was at every seminar including Cal Camp and Arthur Kitano’s High School/ACHA/Junior camp. He supervised at one rink for every CAHA weekend and ran the High School State Finals to highlight a few of the assignments and tireless hours he put in to our association for you the members. 

We are still in a time of flux and many things are still not stable but we must continue on and prepare for next season. What is in our control is how we each prepare for the season when it does start. We have the power to make this our best season ever regardless of when we start.