A relentless worker and volunteer, Wayne Mercer made very valuable contributions to hockey at the local and provincial levels during a career that lasted nearly 35 years. Unselfish and dedicated, his efforts were of great value to a large number of hockey individuals and certainly made the sport better within Newfoundland and Labrador.

His hockey career began with playing minor and high school hockey and he devoted some time to organizing and administrating minor hockey but Wayne Mercer’s major contributions to the sport came with the officiating aspect of the game. It included on-ice performances, founding officiating organizations, instructing, evaluating and administrating. For 31 years he played a major role in the improvement and expansion of hockey officiating within the province.

In 1973 he first became involved with officiating when he spearheaded the establishment of a hockey officials organization in Conception Bay South and that group grew from four to more than 30. He served as the group’s referee-in-chief and arranged for a local referee clinic so that ample qualified officiating was available when CBS Stadium opened in 1976 and he remained with the CBS group until 1980.

That year he joined the St. John’s Metro referees Association and gradually became deeply involved in instructing young officials. During the next ten years he progressed to a level five referee and took on a more active role within the provincial branch as a referee instructor.

While serving on the St. John’s organization’s executive he became actively involved in the evaluation aspect of officiating and filled the position of evaluation coordinator for four years. This required him to maintain an accurate account of all the officials who were evaluated provincially.

He moved into the position of Branch Supervisor of Officials in 1986 and played an important part during a 13-year effort devoted to developing the maximum capabilities of local officials. This required attendance at numerous Canadian Hockey Association seminars and ten national meetings of provincial referees-in-chief.

Wayne Mercer’s on ice officiating covered 25 years and every level of hockey from minor to games with the national teams of countries like Russia, the USA and Sweden. He was the referee for a great many provincial senior hockey games and playoffs for the Herder Memorial Trophy.

Extremely well respected by players, coaches, fans and especially other officials, he has been honoured several times by the provincial and national hockey associations for his valuable contributions. These awards include the prestigious Gold Stick award. In addition, he has been appointed to several important boards and committees responsible for settling disputes and appeals. These results are the result of the manner in which he has handled his officiating responsibilities.