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Behind the Whistle

Keely Dunn's "How I Lost My Swagger"
By Keely Dunn
Dec 6, 2006 - 8:00:00 AM

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Keely Dunn officiating at the 2005 Junior World Cup in Chile. China has just scored.
Keely Dunn, a Canadian FIH hockey umpire, describes her officiating experiences at the 2005 Junior World Cup and a six-month development tour in the United Kingdom. How I Lost My Swagger is the first in an engaging two-part series. Below is an excerpt and link to Keely's blog.

How I Lost My Swagger
By Keely Dunn

No surprises here, I had all kinds of good intentions of diarizing every game I umpire here in the UK.... but I'm just so way behind. There's also that little matter of boredom—I wasn't even interested in writing about each game, which is a good sign not to do so.

What I will talk about, almost 5 weeks into my 6-month secondment, is that I think I've turned the corner. Understanding how this bend came to be in my path takes a little bit of background reading, so I'll try to set it out here in part one of a two-part series, never to be titled: "How Keely Got Her Whistle Back."

There have been two watershed events in my umpiring career over the past year or so. The first was the Junior World Cup in September 2005. I worked hard at the test matches that came my way and arranged to join the Canadian U21s in Argentina the week prior to Chile to help in my preparation. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that although the odds were seriously against me, being one of only 2 umpires at the bottom of the totem pole status-wise, I could at least make a good impression.

In hindsight, I can say the JWC went well given the approach that the powers-that-be took with appointments. Rather than using it to develop younger and less experienced umpires with promise, they used the elite World Panel and Development Panel umpires heavily and for the most part did all of the significant games - including the 9th-place match being staffed by the same two umpires who did the final the next day. I did 5 games, 3 of which were "upper-tier", the last 2 between "Group G" (bottom four) teams.

The second watershed event was the main catalyst to embark on......


To read Keely's full account, please click here.

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