IHOA Board Bios – Illinois Hockey Officials Association

IHOA Board Elections will take place on Monday, May 8th at Naperville Marriot

Elections will begin at 6PM

1801 N Naper Blvd. Naperville, IL 60563

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Canidates for the 2023-24 Season Election

Brad Baumruck

Brad Baumruck will be entering his 25th year of officiating this season. He was a participant in the AHAI/IHOA Advanced Development Program at the age of 19 for 3 seasons. The Development Program afforded him the opportunity to advance his officiating career beyond the local levels. Brad now chairs the committee for AHAI/IHOA in a dual effort to make officiating better overall for all participants. Over the years, Brad has participated as an evaluator, mentor, PED committee
investigator, and as certified instructor to officials in Illinois. Brad has served the past 6 years as an IHOA Board member. Brad had the honor of serving as the Referee in Chief of Illinois in his first season starting in 2022.

Samantha Cebulski

After taking a short hiatus to focus on the birth of my daughter, I am honored to be nominated for a second term on the IHOA board of directors. I previously served as secretary as well as currently assisting seminar coordination for the upcoming 2023-2024 season. Along with my previous term serving on the board of directors, I am also a certified seminar instructor and received the Mike Zyburt award for Assistant Instructor of the year in 2016. I also mentor new officials and supervise throughout the season.

In my second term, I hope to focus on retention and development of officials, especially females. Teaching and coaching have been a long-time passion of mine and I hope to share that with current and upcoming officials in Illinois.

I started officiating in 2014 and have had many incredible opportunities thus far, with many thanks to some incredible people in Illinois. One of these opportunities was attending USA Hockey’s Women’s Futures Camp in 2018. I have worked a wide range of games, from mite through high school, as well as USPHL and NCAA DIII. I was also selected to referee the Girl’s High School State Championship game at the United Center in both 2018 and 2022 and have been selected to officiate USA Hockey Nationals every year since 2019.

Erika Greenen

I have served on the board for the past four years, 3 of them being the Secretary. Over those years I have instructed in multiple seminars a year and most recently, serving as the NIHL representative for IHOA this past season. It is my hope in being reelected that I can continue to help grow officiating across the state using all of my experiences through USA hockey to bring back to Illinois. I have instructed at USAH futures camp as well as instructed seminars through the national office. On top of that, I am licensed as an IIHF linesman and most recently named the Female Development Coordinator for the Central District.

Geoff Schlender

In 1993, Geoff began officiating along with his various coaching duties. Geoff contributes his success in officiating to understanding that players, coaches, officials, and administrators all need to work together to achieve a fun, safe, and competitive environment by respecting the roles of each other.

Fellow inductee Bill Green pursued and recruited Geoff shortly thereafter and asked him to run for election to the IHOA Board of Directors. Geoff has served as Treasurer of IHOA since 1994 and was also deemed “Treasurer for Life” by Don Allord (IHHOF 2008).

In addition to his role as Treasurer, Geoff has been a Certified USA Hockey Referee Instructor and alsoreceived the Tom Osiol Award as IHOA Instructor of the year in 2011. Along with Sjoukje Brown (IHHOF 2014), they started the IHOA Performance Education and Development Program. He also worked with the mentoring, supervisor, and evaluation programs throughout the years.

Geoff has officiated many games at all levels from Mite to College throughout his career. He has worked USA Hockey National Championships, Chicago Showcases, and even the High School State Championship at the United Center in 2021. He continues to officiate a light schedule as his son Jonathan, a Freshman at Providence Catholic, is currently a Level 2 official and also a Junior Coach with the Chicago Blackhawks Special Hockey program.

Geoff resides in Homer Glen with his loving wife Angela of over twenty years and practices as a CPA in Joliet. To Geoff, being elected to the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame is quite a humbling achievement and certainly an honor to be in the company of fellow inductees and those who have been inducted in the past.

Brett Straley

After taking many years off from officiating ice hockey to raise a family I returned to the officiating ranks during the 2018-2019 season after reuniting and spending time with several officiating friends from my past. During this reunion I realized something had been missing from my life - officiating. Hockey had changed a lot during my absence; I immediately became a student of officiating the modern game and this passion continues to this day.

It was during the 2021-2022 season I began to assist with the instruction of the IHOA/USA Hockey seminars as well as volunteer to help with the IHOA/AHAI Advanced Development Program, I quickly discovered another passion, official development in Illinois. Early in 2022 I received an appointment to the IHOA Board of Directors due a resignation and quickly stepped in as Chairman of the Performance, Education, & Development Committee. Following my passion for development I attended the USA Hockey Seminar Instructor Certification Camp in May of 2022 in preparation for the upcoming season. During the 22-23 season I continued as the chair of the Performance, Education, & Development Committee addition to instructing numerous USA Hockey Seminars and again assisting with the IHOA/AHAI Advanced Development Program.

I continue to make myself available to all officials in Illinois with the objective of doing what is right forour game and for our official’s development. I want nothing more than to see Illinois continue to produce great officials and I pledge to do my part to make sure this happens. The words I like to live by when it comes to officiating are simple: The most important game of your officiating career is the game you are assigned to at that very moment, all games are important to someone, and we should all act like it.