Ian Hofmann has traded in his sweater for stripes, and he’s never been happier.
The 2018 Union High School graduate, a former junior and college hockey player, is now a professional hockey official.
This fall, Hofmann will begin his first season officiating games in the Southern Professional Hockey League.
“I love this,” Hofmann said of officiating. “This is what I want to do. …
“But if you had told me at age 20, when I was starting college, that I would be a professional (official) instead of a professional hockey player at 24, I would have said you were insane.”
A skating family
Hofmann was born into a skating family. His father, David, was a semipro player in Idaho, and his mother, Valerie Stensland, is a former professional figure skater and a longtime skating coach.
“My mom likes to tell the story of when I was born, and the doctor, who knew our family says ‘He’s missing something,’ ” Hofmann said. “And of course, my mom is like ‘you’re kidding!’ And the doctor replies ‘Yeah. He doesn’t have any skates.’ ”
Skates would soon find their way onto Hofmann’s feet.
“I think about three days after I started walking, I wanted to be on the ice,” Hoffmann said.
He said he spent most of his childhood at Mountain View Ice Arena in Vancouver while his mother led coaching sessions.
Years of youth hockey led to him playing one season of junior hockey with the Vancouver Rangers in 2016-17. Then he spent three seasons playing junior hockey in Richmond, Va., managing to graduate from Union around his hockey playing.
He spent one year playing at Becker College, an NCAA Division III program in Worcester, Mass., followed by an injury-filled season at Worcester State University.
But during a preseason physical prior to his junior season at Worcester State, Hofmann got some surprising news.
“We found out I had played my entire sophomore season with a concussion that went under that radar,” Hofmann said. “That, to me, was scary. I mean, I had gotten hit pretty hard, but nothing that ever made me feel any different. No sensitivity to light, no loss of balance, no nausea.
“It went under the radar until we did that brain scan. My neurologist goes ‘You see that dark spot in this section of your brain? That’s in your motor function, and that’s a dead spot.’ … And then my neurologist says ‘if you get one more, I can’t promise that you’re not going to be in a wheelchair.’ ”
A different route
Hofmann had already begun to wonder if he wanted to continue to play and deal with reoccurring injuries. But that sobering report from his neurologist really cemented things for Hofmann.
“This has got to be a sign to just go a different route,” Hofmann said.
Hofmann got into officiating youth and men’s league games as a teenager in Vancouver. He continued to officiate to make extra money while in college.
But now, he was ready to commit to officiating full time. That was last December 2022.
“My first college game was up in Burlington, Vermont, between Saint Anselm and Saint Michael’s,” Hofmann said. “And I was terrified. These kids were huge. … I had played against kids like that, but never have I been out on the ice with them with so little padding.”
Hofmann quickly adapted and spent the past two seasons officiating junior and college hockey games in New England while also completing his studies online with Worcester State. He is pursuing a degree in communications with a concentration in media production.
Even though he is no longer playing hockey, that doesn’t mean he still doesn’t get hockey injuries. He suffered a separated shoulder in a game last season.
Hofmann jumped onto the boards by the bench to get out of the way of a player, when that player was checked hard by another player right into Hofmann. Hofmann crunched into the turnbuckle, which is a partition between the two benches.
“It’s just a piece a metal with some padding on it,” Hofmann said. “I kind of got crushed into that, and I dropped. I’m like ‘This is the worst pain I have ever felt.’ ”
Just another painful lesson in his development as a hockey official.
“When I got back from that, I was like ‘OK, we’ve got to get out of the way a little bit faster,’ ” he said. “The biggest thing is the game gets so fast and these players are so good that all you can do is communicate. … It’s a lot of ‘hey, I’m here. I’m here. Stripes here. Heads up.’ Anything to get them to pick their heads up a little.”
Promotion to SPHL
Hofmann received a big pickup when he was notified earlier this summer that he was selected to work games in the Southern Professional Hockey League, an independent league with teams in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Illinois and Indiana.
“The SPHL, that’s a whole other animal,” Hofmann said. “You’re dealing with grown men, guys whose jobs are on the line. If you have an off night, you can probably screw somebody out of a job.”
And then there is the on-ice fighting, which is more prevalent at the pro level than junior or college hockey.
“At a kids game, you can grab a kid by the shoulder pad and pull him out of the pile,” Hofmann said. “I’m not pulling some guy who is 6-foot-5, 230 pounds. I’m six-foot, 195 pounds. I mean, that’s a bit scary.
“But it’s also exciting to me, being able to take it that next level and the challenges that come with it.”
And like the players he shares the ice with, Hofmann has bigger dreams for his officiating career.
“I’m just like everybody else,” he said. “I’d love to work in the NHL.
“I’d love to have a really good year down there (in the SPHL). They send six people to work the NHL combine every year. I’m hoping to have a good enough year that they go ‘OK, he’s ready.’ I just hope I catch someone’s attention.”
Coming home
Hofmann was back in the Pacific Northwest to officiate games at the Neely Cup, the preseason camp for the Portland Winterhawks, where he got the chance to work alongside officials who have worked in the NHL.
“I’m hoping they get to see what I can bring to the table and maybe get in somebody’s ear,” Hofmann said.
But it was also a chance to reunite with old friends. Hofmann grew up attending Winterhawks games, he played in the team’s youth leagues and his father spent a couple of seasons as Tomahawk, the Winterhawks mascot.
When Hofmann told his parents of his decision to become an official, they were both fully supportive.
“My mom was super happy that I just found something that was going to make me happy,” Hofmann said. “My dad was supportive of it, but in a very different way.”
Hofmann said his father knew that Hofmann had probably gone as far as he could as a player. But he couldn’t tell his son that.
“He said I had to figure that out for myself,” Hofmann said. “And thinking back, I owe a lot of my success, especially with what I’m doing now, to my parents.”
Hofmann also uses his social media channels to encourage others to consider becoming an official.
“I know of lot of kids wonder if it’s worth going out and getting yelled at,” Hofmann said. “I think a lot of people expect officials to be robots. But we’re not. We’re human, and we make mistakes.
“My best advice is: give it a year. If you are still unhappy after a year, then don’t try to push through it. But if you get through that first year, you tend to grow a bit thicker skin. You get your legs under you and think ‘yeah, I can do this.’ ”
It worked for Hofmann.
