A player and a referee: Trinity's Maher knows the rules of hockey

Key Highlights

• His dad, Ryan, was his partner for many of his early games. Ryan used to referee and decided to take it up again when his son started.
• He’d be at the games to drive Pat, after all.“It got to a point where he kind of started to pump my tires a little bit,” Pat Maher said.
• “He would start off conversations with coaches and be like, ‘This guy knows more than me so if you have questions just let him know.’ And after the game I’d be like, ‘Dad, really?’ But I love him, it’s OK.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNowadays, Maher referees mostly juniors and Independent School League varsity games on the weekends.
• He worked the U18 Tier I juniors New England championship game in November. NHIAA rules state that referees must be age 18 or older and have graduated from high school, so Maher cannot referee NHIAA games, he said. When he started, Maher said he took everything people said about and to him to heart.
• After about a year, he learned to tune out the noise from parents, players and coaches.“That’s usually the reason why most officials who start, (why) they quit," Maher said.