The Spire

Ben Lepper ’25

Visually Impaired

Anyone who was at last weekend’s hockey games against AIC could have seen this one coming – except the officials. In a recent press release from the Atlantic Hockey Association, it was revealed that the referees assigned to the three game set, in which Holy Cross was stymied by opposing goaltender Nils Wallstrom en route to a series loss, are under investigation for lying about their eyesight.

At several points throughout the contest, the officiating was at-best questionable. Obviously, hockey refs usually have money riding on one team or another, and thus, all of the calls are skewed in one team’s favor. This was not the case this time around – the allegations from AHA claims that all four referees on the ice for these games were “legally blind at best.” The following examples, provided by the AHA in their press release, prove why.

During game one, the referees called nothing and let the two teams play – an early giveaway that something was wrong with them. Atlantic Hockey is known for being an extremely aggressive conference in which 25-year old men beat up on each other constantly, and the game got out of hand quickly. The refs, of course, never saw this.

But, during game two, things took a turn for the worse. After realizing that maybe, just maybe, they should be doing their jobs, they randomly picked a scrum – specifically, a routine scrum in front of the AIC net in which a Holy Cross player moved his stick about two feet while at the bottom of a pile of players – to call a major penalty on. Immediately, the referees came under fire from fans in attendance. “I’d like to know how much money they were paid to make that call,” says one fan who wishes to remain anonymous. Indeed, it was a weak call, but far from their worst one.

Later in the game, the referees would miss several trips and crosschecks (on both teams) far more egregious than the major they actually called. And, not only that, but they missed an entire goal: after standing five feet away from the AIC goal and watching a puck cross the goal line during the third period, a referee waved the play dead. The replay, which clearly showed the puck crossing the line, would prove that the refs got this one wrong. Would this change anything in the long run? Maybe, maybe not. But it proved one thing: the refs needed glasses.

Even worse was the third game, when the refs decided to call anything and everything under the sun, including an embellishment call on a play in which a Holy Cross player was sent directly into the boards. I’d like to know how you can embellish being boarded – if that really was embellishment, that player should be switching his major to theater. It was, without question, some of the worst officiating ever seen, and the AHA will certainly continue to investigate. The conference claims that while lying about eyesight on a job application is a serious and finable offense, they will be supporting these four officials, regardless of the outcome of the investigation, by sponsoring free eye tests and potential LASIK procedures.

I reached out to the referees to get their reaction to these claims. Obviously, they never saw my message.

Copy edited by Colette Potter