Another female official feels stonewalled in bid for AJHL
Erica Holmes feels she’s hit the glass ceiling as a hockey official in Alberta, echoing concerns by a female counterpart that she can’t advance to higher levels in the men’s game. Cassandra Gregory, an Edmonton linesman, had her name put forward by her regional referees committee to work Alberta Junior Hockey League games this season.
She would have been the first female official in the league. But Hockey Alberta, which assigns linesmen to AJHL games, did not give her any games. Holmes says she has more roadblocks in front of her than Gregory.
“I didn’t have the same experience Cassandra did, because I don’t feel I had the support she did in her zone,” Holmes told The Canadian Press. “Her name got put forward and mine never did.
“I’ve worked at everything I’ve been told. I’ve been passed by so many of my peers in the last two years and I’m especially frustrated this year seeing the people that have moved up and leapfrogged me to get into the league.” Former NHL linesman Mike Cvik, now a volunteer officials supervisor, feels both Holmes and Gregory deserve an AJHL tryout. “They can work this league and why they’re not, it’s not right,” he said.
Holmes, 31, is from Brandon, Man., but lives in Calgary. She is a Level 4 official, which is the second-highest qualification a female can achieve under Hockey Canada’s certification system. Hockey Canada introduced a Level 5 for women in 2014. Holmes worked the Alberta midget triple-A hockey league playoff finals three years ago as a linesman.
She recently refereed the men’s quarterfinals of the prestigious Mac’s midget triple-A tournament in Calgary.
But Holmes, who is five foot six and 150 pounds, wants to be a linesman again because that is the logical avenue to working in the AJHL.
“I would like to be a linesman in the league,” she said. “That would give me a really good feel for the league and I’ve expressed this to multiple people.
“I more or less asked why they haven’t moved me in as a linesman. I’m told I’m only seen as a referee. But apparently I did a good enough job linesing to make it to finals of the province.
“I feel they’re going to just pigeonhole me and use it as an excuse. At least two other gentlemen who did finals with me, they got moved up into the AJ and I did not.”