Katie Howie shared her story about her appointment for the World Junior Championships in Chile earlier this week.
She was appointed in February 2025 and as you can imagine she has had a long time to prepare for this tournament. A lot of work goes into planning the tournament before anyone actually arrives. The referee group had meetings with referee managers and were online as a group trying to get to know each other to ensure consistency in approach. In September, a fitness program and ‘boot camps’ with video referees were offered, as many of the referees had little to no experience with video referees prior to this tournament.
Katie’s individual preparation included being appointed to the EHL in October alongside another European referee at this tournament, Ana Ortega from Spain. It was great to have the support of EuroHockey, who specifically appointed them in anticipation of Santiago. Domestically, she was a regular referee in the men’s premiership, and the Scottish U21 team invited her to practice with them in some of their training matches. Katie was also invited to England to referee matches in their women’s premiership, thanks to Scottish Hockey’s International Appointments Panel and the NPUA for organizing this.
She spent many hours with a personal trainer and sports psychologist and tried to fit this into a full-time job. Katie says: “There is so much more to refereeing at international level than people realize. The work off the field is just as important as those 60 minutes on the field.”
After all this fuss and hype, Katie’s trip went wrong. Her flight from Edinburgh was delayed and she missed the flight from London to Chile. So after an unexpected overnight stay in London and a detour via Madrid, Katie finally arrived in Santiago 35 hours after leaving the house in Edinburgh.
Fortunately, FIH arranged for the group to arrive a few days in advance, not only to acclimatize, but also for the referees to get to know each other. This is her first appointment outside Europe and it was great to get to know the different playing styles, not only as a referee, but also as a referee. Katie organized a ‘pub quiz’ during the official welcome dinner to share a piece of home.
Within the group there is a mix of first FIH appointments, through to some very experienced referees appointed for Olympic Games and Senior World Cups. It leads to a learning environment and positive discussions. “Despite there being 18 referees and 4 referee managers, the group is very interactive and close-knit, which also helps with sharing the laundry. As you can imagine, the referee’s equipment needs to be washed as often as the players’ equipment,” says Katie.
The scenery at the stadium is incredible and the weather is a little different to Scotland this time of year. Katie believes the highest temperature on the field so far has been almost 40 degrees. The atmosphere was great and Katie was lucky enough to be invited to Chile’s first match against the Netherlands on the first day of the tournament. That was a special moment. They walked onto the pitch with the size of the crowd, their enthusiasm and the atmosphere they created.
Katie commented: “It was a very surreal moment, the first time I looked up and saw myself on the stadium screen and thought you didn’t think this would happen when you picked up that whistle fifteen years ago”.
At the time of writing, they still had one day of pool matches remaining before progressing to the knockout stages and ranking matches. Katie hoped to continue to have the opportunity to perform in some capacity during the remainder of this Junior World Cup tournament in Santiago, Chile.
Katie would like to reiterate her thanks to the Scottish Hockey International Appointments Panel, her mentor Jean Duncan and all her referee colleagues for their support. Without them she couldn’t be there and perform at this level.
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