WCHA director of officials Sheppard

[AZSIOUX]

http://www.southwestreviewnews.com/main.as...amp;TM=39340.01

OR HERE http://dirtysdiatribe.blogspot.com/

what a guy....... no wonder parents cant say a damn thing anymore during games, everyone wants relive their glorydays through kids or grandkids

they must have forgot to mention he is the director of OFFICIALS in the WCHA

now only if he can use this anger towards his own officials and son when they screw up

Greg Shepherd, 58, a former West St. Paul city council member, apologized last week for offensive remarks made during a Little League baseball game.

The grandfather of eight, a former member of the city's Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, disrupted the 9- and 10-year-old boy's championship at the West St. Paul Sports Complex on Father's Day, June 17, when he yelled at an umpire.

"I got just a little carried away with my mouth to an umpire that made a call," Shepherd said. "I was embarrassed and I wanted to apologize to everybody. I said it was my fault, and I should know better."

Letter: 'Sorry' for rude ballfield behavior

To the editor:

I, Greg Shepherd, would like to apologize to all the parents and grandparents that were at the West St. Paul Complex for the ball game between the West St. Paul and Mendota Heights 9- and 10-year-olds. The was I acted was very uncalled for. To both teams' players and coaches I am truly sorry. You try to teach sportsmanship and here is myself acting like a complete idiot. And to the umpires I am very, very sorry for any remarks I made toward you. It was uncalled for. I am truly sorry.

Greg Shepherd

West St. Paul

[The Whistler]

What a jerk.

By the way, I checked the WCHA site and our Greg Sheppard was a West St Paul City Council member so we apparently they are one and the same.

[BigGreyAnt41]

And this happened over in the west metro just a couple weeks ago. (Ignore the giant picture at the top of the article)

http://www.startribune.com/467/story/1269301.html

[Diggler]

That was an awesome summary in the second link.

[The Whistler]

That was an awesome summary in the second link.

I don't know if I'd agree with that. I was having trouble telling if the author was a supporter of Greg "The Hack" Sheppard or a detractor.

[Diggler]

I don't know if I'd agree with that. I was having trouble telling if the author was a supporter of Greg "The Hack" Sheppard or a detractor.

That's why your opinion doesn't matter.

[sagard]

You have to admit Shep would know bad officiating when he sees it.

[The Whistler]

You have to admit Shep would know bad officiating when he sees it.

Well it is true that he's a bona fide expert in bad hockey officiating. But does that expertise apply to the game of baseball?

[Tsiouxnami]

Are you trying to say, it takes one to know one?

You have to admit Shep would know bad officiating when he sees it.

[Sioux_Hab-it]

The troops typically reflect the attitude and behaviour of their leadership. Need I say anything more about the sad state of WCHA officiating.

[The Whistler]

The reason why the officiating is so universally poor has to be because of the leadership.

[Goon]

The troops typically reflect the attitude and behaviour of their leadership. Need I say anything more about the sad state of WCHA officiating.

The reason why the officiating is so universally poor has to be because of the leadership.

Yes and Yes

[ScottM]

You have to admit Shep would know bad officiating when he sees it.

Or doesn't see it ...

[Goon]

Or doesn't see it ...

Now your going to have to officials not seeing anything clogging up the play on the ice...

I can't wait to see the list of incompetent officials they are going to have reffing a game.

[Jupiter]

I watched quite a few games last season with Shep sitting either next to me or two seats away....

I can tell you that the guy knows his stuff! I can also tell you that he is not always thrilled with the calls that his guys make. I saw him roll his eyes and shake his head many times this past season. One thing that is nice is that when a controversial call is made, he explains what is going on and why the ref made the call. Once your hear his explanation, the call usually makes very good sense. It's too bad that the general public never gets to hear this type of information.

[AZSIOUX]

I watched quite a few games last season with Shep sitting either next to me or two seats away....

I can tell you that the guy knows his stuff! I can also tell you that he is not always thrilled with the calls that his guys make. I saw him roll his eyes and shake his head many times this past season. One thing that is nice is that when a controversial call is made, he explains what is going on and why the ref made the call. Once your hear his explanation, the call usually makes very good sense. It's too bad that the general public never gets to hear this type of information.

its unrealistic to think the general population would ever get this unless like you say, you are 1 of 12,000 people in a arena to in his area when hes at a game. he should have a camera on him during the entire game he is at that night and then when a official makes a crappy call he can get on the jumbotron or for those arenas who dont have one he can get on the microphone and explain why that call was made he should shrug his shoulders and shake his head as there are always crappy calls with good calls and if he wasnt human or a robot i would expect him to do that... seriously, he is a major dumb ass for doing what he did at his g kids game, pathetic actually, i am at my 11 year old brothers games all the time here and there are always a few d-bags like shep, maybe don adam can become the sioux all time ref at the ralph and on the road.....that would be another great move by old man shep......

[redwing77]

I watched quite a few games last season with Shep sitting either next to me or two seats away....

I can tell you that the guy knows his stuff! I can also tell you that he is not always thrilled with the calls that his guys make. I saw him roll his eyes and shake his head many times this past season. One thing that is nice is that when a controversial call is made, he explains what is going on and why the ref made the call. Once your hear his explanation, the call usually makes very good sense. It's too bad that the general public never gets to hear this type of information.

That's all well and good. Good for you and great for him that he "knows the game." I'm one of the biggest detractors on Greg Shepherd and I don't think he needs to be fired because he "doesn't know the game." Don Adam doesn't know the game. The reasons why are simple:

1. As you mentioned, he doesn't always like what the guys call. Well, why doesn't he do something about it? Where's the accountability? We've had the same officials for years and they make bad call after bad call after bad call and NOTHING SEEMS TO BE DONE ABOUT IT! Ok, it nearly took Bina getting paralysed for an official to even get suspended!!!!!! Sorry, if you see bad officiating you try to improve it or you replace the offending employee. Evidence is nonexistant in either option thus far.

2. When things go to hell, you don't promote the leader, you replace him. George W. Bush didn't promote Brown (whatever the guy's name who was in charge of FEMA) after Katrina did he? McLeod promoted Greg from part time to full time. I guess that is as much for firing Bruce as it is for firing Greg.

3. Greg uses the same excuse year after year for failing to improve the state of officiating. "The coaches have no complaints." Blah blah blah. Well, perhaps. But the coaches know the officials and know what kind of crappy jobs they are going to do going into the game. If they call for wholesale changes this known becomes an unknown and, hence, the reluctance.

4. Greg finds assinine reasons to ignore rule crackdowns that are only made to benefit all involved. He says obstruction is down to a point where they don't need to emphasize it yet clutch and grab is alive and well. Diving isn't a problem in the WCHA (mostly because those who have done it the most have now either gone pro or graduated). He finds nothing wrong with the concept of situational officiating. In close games, or games that mean a lot, it's not all that uncommon to see officials swallow the whistle in the 3rd period only to see sure penalties go uncalled. And OT? It's remarkable there weren't injuries in OT last season as there were plenty of occasions where it was DEFINITELY possible.

Greg needs an accountability program and he needs to stress consistency. He needs to get rid of situational officiating and start taking NCAA mandates seriously. He needs to start monitoring official attitudes not towards the games themselves, but towards the players and teams in the league. And he needs to stop being "buddy buddy" and empathize with officials when they have bad games. Bad games happen, sure, but if they happen repeatedly, hard decisions must be made and they must be made swiftly and without remorse. I don't see Greg as capable of doing any of that.

[The Whistler]

What the WCHA needs is an objective system of rating the referees (not waiting to find out WHO is complaining.)

The WCHA also needs to let a little sunshine into the process of ranking the on-ice officials.

[Jupiter]

That's all well and good. Good for you and great for him that he "knows the game." I'm one of the biggest detractors on Greg Shepherd and I don't think he needs to be fired because he "doesn't know the game." Don Adam doesn't know the game. The reasons why are simple:

1. As you mentioned, he doesn't always like what the guys call. Well, why doesn't he do something about it? Where's the accountability? We've had the same officials for years and they make bad call after bad call after bad call and NOTHING SEEMS TO BE DONE ABOUT IT! Ok, it nearly took Bina getting paralysed for an official to even get suspended!!!!!! Sorry, if you see bad officiating you try to improve it or you replace the offending employee. Evidence is nonexistant in either option thus far.

2. When things go to hell, you don't promote the leader, you replace him. George W. Bush didn't promote Brown (whatever the guy's name who was in charge of FEMA) after Katrina did he? McLeod promoted Greg from part time to full time. I guess that is as much for firing Bruce as it is for firing Greg.

3. Greg uses the same excuse year after year for failing to improve the state of officiating. "The coaches have no complaints." Blah blah blah. Well, perhaps. But the coaches know the officials and know what kind of crappy jobs they are going to do going into the game. If they call for wholesale changes this known becomes an unknown and, hence, the reluctance.

4. Greg finds assinine reasons to ignore rule crackdowns that are only made to benefit all involved. He says obstruction is down to a point where they don't need to emphasize it yet clutch and grab is alive and well. Diving isn't a problem in the WCHA (mostly because those who have done it the most have now either gone pro or graduated). He finds nothing wrong with the concept of situational officiating. In close games, or games that mean a lot, it's not all that uncommon to see officials swallow the whistle in the 3rd period only to see sure penalties go uncalled. And OT? It's remarkable there weren't injuries in OT last season as there were plenty of occasions where it was DEFINITELY possible.

Greg needs an accountability program and he needs to stress consistency. He needs to get rid of situational officiating and start taking NCAA mandates seriously. He needs to start monitoring official attitudes not towards the games themselves, but towards the players and teams in the league. And he needs to stop being "buddy buddy" and empathize with officials when they have bad games. Bad games happen, sure, but if they happen repeatedly, hard decisions must be made and they must be made swiftly and without remorse. I don't see Greg as capable of doing any of that.

Are you kidding me? Do you watch hockey at all? NO league is consistent with the way they call games. From youth to adult hockey. From college to the NHL. Nothing is consistent. You can't just go around firing people left and right because they make HUMAN mistakes in a game that is extremely fast and you must make a judgement call in an instant. But man is it easy to "ref" a game from the stands or from your couch wearing whatever color glasses that fits your team.

Also.... If you don't think the coaches have input on how they want the league to be officiated as a whole, you are pretty clueless. They have tremendous influence.

As a side note.......

The WCHA is getting new blood when it comes to refs. Thul and Albers are two new guys that come to mind. There will be another new ref this year with Bill Mason being pushed out. So change is happening, it just takes time.

[Goon]

Also.... If you don't think the coaches have input on how they want the league to be officiated as a whole, you are pretty clueless. They have tremendous influence.

That is basically what sheppard told me when I emailed him.

[Goon]

I watched quite a few games last season with Shep sitting either next to me or two seats away....

I can tell you that the guy knows his stuff! I can also tell you that he is not always thrilled with the calls that his guys make. I saw him roll his eyes and shake his head many times this past season. One thing that is nice is that when a controversial call is made, he explains what is going on and why the ref made the call. Once your hear his explanation, the call usually makes very good sense. It's too bad that the general public never gets to hear this type of information.

So he must be at Marriucci most of the time?

[Jupiter]

So he must be at Marriucci most of the time?

He is there often since he lives in the cities, but he also frequents St. Cloud, Duluth and Mankato because of the close proximity. He also works a lot with the womens WCHA games as well.

[The Sicatoka]

Mr. Shepherd's public mistreatment of officials, even if of a different sport, and even though he apologized, should disqualify him from continuing in his role as head of officials of the WCHA.

[Riverman]

Mr. Shepherd's public mistreatment of officials, even if of a different sport, and even though he apologized, should disqualify him from continuing in his role as head of officials of the WCHA.

Maybe a poll should be done?

[redwing77]

Are you kidding me? Do you watch hockey at all? NO league is consistent with the way they call games. From youth to adult hockey. From college to the NHL. Nothing is consistent. You can't just go around firing people left and right because they make HUMAN mistakes in a game that is extremely fast and you must make a judgement call in an instant. But man is it easy to "ref" a game from the stands or from your couch wearing whatever color glasses that fits your team.

Also.... If you don't think the coaches have input on how they want the league to be officiated as a whole, you are pretty clueless. They have tremendous influence.

As a side note.......

The WCHA is getting new blood when it comes to refs. Thul and Albers are two new guys that come to mind. There will be another new ref this year with Bill Mason being pushed out. So change is happening, it just takes time.

You are right. No league is consistent with the way they call games. Which is why I think Greg needs to work harder to make it so. It can't be a penalty one minute for one team and not be a penalty another minute on either the same or the other team. Situational officiating is a problem, period. I did not mean to imply that the WCHA is the only league that has this problem. The WCHA is the only league I care about really.

I know it is tough to be a ref and that it is easier to ref from the stands, but there have been too many game changing bad calls in the past few years, blatent ignorance of NCAA crackdowns, and games in which the safety of the players was placed in dire jeopardy and VERY LITTLE has been done to remedy it.

I don't think all the officials should be fired, or that an official should be fired if they have a bad game here and there. However, there are officials who CONSISTENTLY have bad games and THOSE are the ones that should be fired. In my opinion, Greg has failed time and again to take ANY sort of action to remedy this.

Mason's dismissal is news to me. And I think change needs to happen faster rather than "wait and see."