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From the time she first laced up her skates, Sarah Buckner has experienced hockey at nearly every level.
Sarah Buckner began playing hockey at 4 in her hometown of Duluth, Minnesota. (Photo courtesy of Sarah Buckner)
As a player, she began like most young athletes in her hometown of Duluth, Minnesota: playing youth hockey at the Glen Avon outdoor hockey rinks, a popular neighborhood spot.
Buckner would go on to play in high school, for the Duluth Northern Stars, before becoming a college athlete at Augsburg, a Division III university in Minneapolis.
After Buckner graduated in 2016, a friend encouraged her to keep skating as an official. She started at the adult amateur level, followed by the college, professional and international ranks.
Next month, Buckner will skate at the world’s highest level as one of 10 linespersons and 22 total women’s hockey officials at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
Finding her voice at Augsburg
Buckner isn’t too proud to admit that she wasn’t the most outgoing person when she first arrived at Augsburg.
“I was very shy and introverted as a youth through middle school and high school,” she said. “It was like pulling teeth to get me to make a phone call to set up an appointment or talking to somebody on the phone that I didn’t know. So I think getting the fresh start at college with new people and then living on my own, I really kind of felt like I was able to come out of my shell,” she said.
It helped to have a familiar face around in her head coach, Michelle McAteer. McAteer, now the commissioner of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, played college hockey at Minnesota Duluth, where a young Buckner grew up attending numerous games and summer camps. Through her father, Bruce, who was heavily involved in Duluth’s women’s ice hockey community, Buckner had another connection to McAteer.
During her career on the ice, Buckner was proud to be a part of McAteer’s early recruiting classes at Augsburg and helped establish the culture of the team. The team gradually improved during her time there, making the conference playoffs her senior year for the first time in 11 years.
Buckner was a two-sport athlete at Augsburg, playing softball in addition to hockey. Though she had a dual workload athletically, she enjoyed having a routine to follow in both the winter and spring.
“I think being able to continue to play sports and have that structure, have that camaraderie of being a part of a team, two teams, was really important,” Buckner said. “I had two sets of groups to lean on and go through growing up into adulthood with. I think that was very beneficial in my development, in building confidence and just being more comfortable in my own skin and who I am as a person.”
Buckner played hockey and softball at Augsburg from 2012-16. (Photo courtesy of Augsburg)
A natural at officiating
Before stepping on the ice as an official, Buckner remembers being a bit apprehensive.
“I was not super sure about it, just because I didn’t want to be yelled at. I’m not a confrontational person,” Buckner said. “The prospect of a coach or parents yelling at me, I wanted nothing to do with that.”
Nevertheless, she said yes. The first league in which she officiated, the Women’s Hockey Association of Minnesota, turned out to be the best place for her to start.
“It’s a lot of adult women who are getting into hockey who maybe didn’t have the chance to play when they were growing up,” Buckner said. “So they’re learning the game, as well. But there’s not really many coaches on the bench. There’s not any crazy parents in the stands. So nobody was really yelling at me. I got to learn how to officiate and kind of figure out what I was doing without that added pressure, which I think was super beneficial for me.”
Buckner enjoyed her time as an official and attended a summer officiating camp to improve her skills in the offseason.Â
As Buckner continued to grow, colleagues who shared the ice with her began to see her potential and became mentors she could lean on. One of Buckner’s earliest mentors and now close friends is Krissy Langley, who served as a referee supervisor for WHAM when Buckner started there.
“Being on the ice with Sarah was great,” Langley said. “She was a sponge. She soaked up the information. She tried what we were talking about, and she picked it up super quickly. So it was easy to mentor her and communicate with her.”
Langley, currently the NCAA national coordinator of women’s ice hockey officiating, has been a reliable source of advice as Buckner has progressed in her career. Compared with most of her peers, Buckner has had a fast-paced career trajectory.Â
Within two years of her first season as an official, she was working games at the Division III level for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the same conference she played in at Augsburg. A year later, she earned her international officiating license from the International Ice Hockey Federation. By 2020, she was skating in her first international tournament before the COVID-19 pandemic paused things. She resumed international tournaments in 2022, and by 2023, she had made it to the women’s world championship level. In between international play, Buckner has officiated for every professional women’s hockey league, including the current Professional Women’s Hockey League.Â
To be selected as a linesperson for the Olympics, Buckner had to perform at the highest level. In a pool that began with 100 people, she made it through four rounds of cuts to be selected as one of the 10 linespersons.
“I don’t know if I cried or if she cried, but it was just pure joy,” Langley said, recalling the phone call she received from Buckner with the news. “It’s pure joy. It’s celebration. It’s smiling. It’s crying. It’s all the wonderful feelings. And then it’s, ‘Now what? What do you need to do to be successful between now and actually getting your body there?’ So, in the moment you can be happy, but then you have to put your mind towards what the next nine months look like.”
Buckner has reached out to several other mentors in her officiating community, including Kendall Hanley, Alicia Hanrahan and Evonne Fix, for advice on how to approach the Olympic level. All three have officiated in the Olympics.
“I’ve had a lot of really good influence and been fortunate to work with a lot of people who have worked high levels of hockey … and they have been able to help point me in the right direction.”
Buckner referees a hockey match during the 2024 NHL Rookie Showcase in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo courtesy of Sarah Buckner)
Inspiring others along the way
With all the success that Buckner has had so far in her officiating career, she already has begun influencing younger officials.
In 2024, she participated in the NHL’s Rookie Showcase with the Nashville Predators. Alongside her was Sydney Harris, another young official who had worked her way up to the IIHF and PWHL level.
In an article recapping the showcase, Harris recalled she had heard Buckner’s name several times before from other officials, saying, “She was one of those officials that when you’re going to all those camps to get your license, you hear about. She’s very good at what she does.”
Harris would go on to make her own mark later that year in the ECHL, a minor professional men’s hockey league, as the first female referee.Â
Still relatively early in her career herself, Buckner tries her best to be a resource to others.
“I try to be available and a good partner and take on more of a working coach role,” she said. “I know that I don’t have the capacity to spend that much time doing a bunch of extra stuff off the ice, but I still want to be a resource and available for officials as needed.”
Buckner’s dedication to keep growing and helping others makes Langley proud.
“A lot of women have reached (the Olympics) and just completely stepped away,” Langley said. “I’m really excited to know that Sarah wants to keep going … because those Olympians make the world of a difference for the next mentor, for the next mentee, for the next kid coming up.”