A Port Alberni athlete is gaining a name for himself as a referee both on and off the ice.
Ryan White is both a hockey referee with the Western Hockey League as well as a lacrosse referee with the Western Lacrosse Association and National Lacrosse League. He got his start playing both sports in the Alberni Valley.
White was set to officiate the WLA game between Victoria Shamrocks and Burnaby Lakers that was scheduled for Port Alberni on Saturday, June 24. However, because Highway 4 was closed for an extended period due to the wildfire at Cameron Bluffs the game was moved to the Q-Centre in Victoria. White officiated that game as well as on in Nanaimo on June 25.
“Disappointing, for sure,” he said about the game being moved away from his hometown. White was excited to hear that hundreds of tickets had been sold for the game.
The last time the Western Lacrosse Association hosted a game in the Alberni Valley was about 15 years ago. White said the fact the league wanted to bring a game back to Port Alberni was “a huge deal,” both for the community and for himself personally.
“I never thought I would make it to this level in my officiating career,” he said. He was looking forward to promoting the game to local lacrosse players as an example of what they can achieve if they want to.
“Just because you’re from a small place doesn’t mean you can’t make it in a big place,” said White, who now lives and teaches in Victoria. His officiating resumé is extensive, both for hockey and lacrosse. In 2022 he was awarded the B.C. Lacrosse Association’s Spirit Award in recognition for going above and beyond the call of duty while promoting and celebrating the spirit of volunteerism. He was hired as a National Lacrosse League referee for exhibition games in Ontario in November 2022, has worked as a Canada West University Sports hockey official, officiated the Canada Summer Games in lacrosse in Niagara, Ont., in 2022 and refereed the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship preliminary games in 2019, to name a few.
White said he was 11 or 12 when he first started playing lacrosse. “I was already reffing hockey by then,” he said. He decided to officiate games as a way to learn the rules and become a better player.
‘I would have never anticipated it would take me to where it has,” he said.
When he was 19 a serious medical diagnosis and multiple surgeries kept him away from sports for his entire junior year. Getting back into officiating was more flexible for his post-secondary school schedule.
He sticks with it for the camaraderie with other officials and “the adrenaline of the big game.”
White continues to advance his career: he was recently accepted as one of three or four referees that will represent B.C. at the Junior B Founders Cup in Port Coquitlam in August.
White spent three years from 2015–18 as referee in chief in the Alberni Valley; when he left he had a crew of 14-15 officials. Now, he says there are four, and the league has to bring in officials from other communities in order to hold games. He hopes that will change. Bringing games such as the WLA match to the city will help raise the sport’s profile, he said.
“I’ve travelled the world due to the game,” he said. “It’s helped pay for my education. It’s helped me in so many ways.
“My next goals in the sport are to make it as a full-time, on-floor referee in the NLL and to be selected to referee in the 2028 Summer Olympic Games.”