2024 USA Field Hockey National Umpire Award Winner: Benjamin Peters

Peters is coming off an exceptional year. Domestically, he concluded the NCAA season by officiating the Big Ten (B1G) Championship and NCAA Division I Championship. Internationally, he made his FIH Hockey Pro League debut in February, as part of the 2023-24 season in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He then went on to return to Argentina for his second Pro League season, this time traveling to Santiago del Estero for the 2024-25 iteration in December.

He also represented USA at the FIH Hockey Men’s Nations Cup in Gniezno, Poland, which took place this past June.

Peters got his start in field hockey early, playing at the age of 12 in his hometown of Sudbury, England. He joined a friend at a Level 1 umpiring clinic at age 15 to learn the game better, kicking off his officiating journey. In 2008, he moved to the United States where he continued his umpiring journey.

In 2012, Peters was awarded his International Badge, and he international resume steadily began to build from there. Following numerous tournaments and test series, his breakthrough highlights include the FIH Men’s Series Finals and Pan American Games in 2019, then the Pan American Cup and FIH Men’s Nations Cup in 2022. In 2023, Peters made the jump to the International Elite Panel, and that year officiated at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile and 2023 Men’s FIH Hockey Junior World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Other international travels have brought Peters to Australia to umpire in their Premier Division, as well as England for the England National League.

Active in the domestic sphere, Peters has been a consistent presence both at the NCAA level and at USA Field Hockey events. He has also been an umpire manager at multiple events, including the Junior & Senior Nexus Championship.

In addition to serving the field hockey community as an umpire, Peters also is a USA Field Hockey Level 2 certified coach. He is currently the club administrator and head coach for Pittsburgh Venom Field Hockey Club, located in Pittsburg, Pa.

“I am truly honored to receive this award,” said Peters. “I would like to thank every single person that has ever helped me on this path from club hockey all the way to the highest levels of international hockey. It takes years of hard work watching film, running on the track alone, doing sprints in hotel car parks and many, many miles on the road some days. Those are things you don’t see and without everyone’s support on and off the pitch I wouldn’t be the umpire I am today.”

Congratulations once again to Ben Peters for winning the 2024 USA Field Hockey National Umpire Award.