Rice First Female Official In BCHL:

This was in the Hockey Now Paper:

Female referee breaking boundaries

By Kristi Patton on November 22, 2014

Cydnie Rice first female official in BCHL

Referee Cydnie Rice never saw herself working on the officiating side of the game, but since she started six years ago she couldn't imagine doing anything else.
As a female hockey player, Cydnie Rice dreamed of playing at the highest level.
She couldn't even fathom she would one day be invited to hit the ice with the men's junior A British Columbia Hockey League. Part of an elite team of four, Rice skated not as a player but as an official. She swapped her stick for a whistle six years ago and has never looked back.

"I couldn't even imagine if you told me as a player that one day I would be officiating. I was one of the players that refs didn't like. I was always grumpy," said Rice. "Even the first time my dad signed me up for an officiating clinic I didn't want to go, but putting on that whistle completely changed my view of the game."

After a 17-year hockey career, which included playing for her regional U18 team in the Kootenays, she now finds herself climbing the ladder of success in hockey, just on a different path.

A linesman and referee in all levels of minor hockey in the Kootenays; she has also acted as a head official for male midget tier two, in several provincial tournaments, and CIS games at UBC, as a linesman at the U18 female nationals, Esso Cup, men's junior B, the B.C. Winter Games and is the referee in charge for Kimberley.

Getting the call to line a BCHL game was a moment she had long been waiting for.

"As a female pushing into male hockey, it isn't the easiest thing to do because there is so much competition in Vancouver and the Okanagan. I just kept pushing myself and now I am the first female to officiate a BCHL game. It is a big barrier jump for not only me, but female officials," she said.

Not sure what to expect at the junior A level, Rice admits she was more excited than anything. That is until she stepped out the dressing room full of nervous energy and headed to where the Coquitlam Express and Langley Rivermen were about to face off. A moment of brevity broke the ice, pun intended.

"I took my first step onto the ice and fell on the mat outside the door with the camera person behind me. I guess that is where the anthem singer stands and I didn't see it. My face went beet red and when I looked up there was my dad applauding me," she said, laughing as she recounts the fall.
As soon as the anthem started, Rice said her mind flipped a switch and she was in game mode. Those who have watched her polish her skills as an official expect nothing less.

"She is one of the more accomplished female elite officials in this province. The BCHL recognized an opportunity to give her the next step," said Sean Raphael, Referee in Chief with B.C. Hockey. "It is a bit of an unprecedented situation for a female in our province, and in fact, anywhere across the country that they get to this level. Cydnie has done a lot of the same things male officials do to establish themselves and she deserved it."

Rice said the BCHL is just one of the stepping stones to what she hopes to become a career.

"My goal is to take my officiating to an international level, as well as to continue to push my officiating on the male side as far as I can. That means continuing in the BCHL and I would like to one day get to the WHL," said Rice.

Prior to the BCHL games she was invited to line, Rice reffed the national women's hockey team in an exhibition match in Kamloops in the days leading up to the 4 Nations Cup. While the 25-year-old has goals of enduring in the BCHL, she also wants to ref a junior B game in the KIJHL, another female first in the province, and make her way to the 2018 Olympics in Korea on the women's side of the game.

"For me it is something I want to be successful at. It's more exciting for me to be an official and a harder challenge to be one of three or four on the ice than it is a 20-player roster," said Rice.

Just like a player moving through the ranks, Rice must keep in top shape. She trains in the offseason, as a player would, progressing her endurance, strength and power skating. Especially since she needs to get in the middle of guys twice her size to break up scrums, something she has no qualms about.

“In one my first-ever midget boys games there was a line brawl. I skated right into the middle of it, ripping guys off each other and holding them apart. I don't even think about it, I just do it," said Rice.

Even though Rice is making quite a name for herself in the officiating world, many know her only as the woman who sits behind a desk and sells insurance in Kimberley.

"There have been a couple of times people will be in the office and talking about the junior B team in town and they ask if I will be at the arena to watch the game too," said Rice. "I tell them I will be on the ice and they look at me strangely. Then it sinks in, 'oh, you are the female ref. We always wondered who that was.'"