Colorado Springs, Colo. – Late in the hockey season, teams and players will toss their gloves in the air, as they claim District championships across the country, celebrating the honor of earning a spot in the Chipotle-USA Hockey National Championships.

As teams prepare to make their way to Chipotle-USA Hockey National Championships sites, other preparations have already begun to assign the officials to work all of the games.

Danny Schleichert (Columbus, Ohio) was one of those officials who received a call that he would be officiating Nationals for the first time, as he was selected to officiate the High School tournaments in Omaha, Neb.

Each district referee-in-chief (RIC) will work with their support staff to gather a list of candidates for their district to send to the National Championships. Those lists are then sent to USA Hockey’s National Office where a team compiles the complete roster and assigns officials to events.

“The district RICs will give us a list of candidates. For the most part, it will be Level Four officials,” said BJ Ringrose, USA Hockey’s manager of the officiating education program. “The skillset has to be there. The experience level has to be there. They are officials that the RICs feel are going to represent their district well at an event.”

When Schleichert made it to Omaha, he was thrown right into the fire in his first game. He felt a since of nostalgia being on the national stage, and wanted to make sure he did his best to call the game well. Though there were nerves, those quickly went away and he got right into the action.

“Every game is supervised,” said Ringrose. “We never want to miss an opportunity to develop and train officials. So, you know, when a mistake is made, we discuss it. When something good happens, we discuss it. And ultimately, we want to turn every little mistake into a learning opportunity so the official can get better.

“These officials are really competitive. They really, really care, and they want to do the best job they can.”

The journey to Nationals was a long one on the ice for Schleichert, and didn’t start with him officiating at a young age. Growing up, he was on the other side of things as a goaltender in hockey and picked up officiating once his competitive playing career came to an end.

Schleichert starting playing in an adult league, and thought he might take up officiating as a hobby and to make a little extra money. Since then, it has grown into a passion.

“I’m going to officiate until they tell me I can’t anymore,” said Schleichert. “I love what I do. I love being out on the ice, teaching them the game and helping them know what officials expect and are going to be looking for so that they can have a better experience on the ice.”

Schleichert’s experience at Nationals will carry with him throughout the rest of his career, and he hopes to be selected in the future as well. For now, he’ll take what he has learned as an official and apply it to his everyday life. He also offered some advice to anyone looking to get into the officiating realm.

“[Officiating] provides an opportunity to grow life skills like time management, scheduling and organizing,” he said. “My conflict management skills have gone through the roof, and that’s applied to my teaching.

“Anyone that’s looking to officiate will benefit from what it has to offer more than just the pay and being on the ice. There’s a lot of great skills that you can acquire as an official and take with you to other aspects of your life.”