My first thoughts of U19's

About two years ago I heard some talk of two new championships, the world club championships which had the best local teams from Finland and Canada playing off in a championship, and the U19 championships which would have 2 teams from Canada (east and West) and 2 teams from Finland that are both U19 and Sweden and the US would send their national teams. The hope was to use it as a development opportunity. I felt I had just had a good showing at my 2nd nationals, and thought there might be an outside chance I might be able to get my game to a point of being asked to one of these events. I continued to hear little bits here and there about both events, but wasn't really sure of what the selection criteria was to get to these events. Over the next season I decided to just do my thing and do my best, and what will come will come. During that season, I heard an announcement that the world club championships would be held in Sault Ste Marie in November 2008. I still had some hopes that I might get asked, but wasn't sure of what the selection criteria was. I just continued to do my thing, and ref to the best of my abilities, and again felt I had a good nationals, which resulted in being asked to officiate the Belle gold game. As the next season came to a start, I hadn't heard anything about WCC's so figured there were others that were more highly ranked, that would do the event. I would just keep reffing my game, and giving my best day in and day out. I thought there was a very slim chance of u19's at this point as I hadn't got my level 5 after the last nationals so I had basically put it out of my head. I continued to ref my game and work on development for some of our younger officials as these were what was really important to me. Everything else will come with time, and I need to focus on what is in my control. So that is what I did.