Before I start, this is in no way a racially prejudiced post.
This weekend, I officiated seven games in the local annual youth native hockey tournament. Four games went without problems. There were a few scraps, but that's hockey in general.
One of the Midget teams was from Horse Lake. That's the same town where Theo Fleury is playing Senior hockey. In fact, Glen Watson (Senior team coach) was running the bench for the Midget team here this weekend. I was on the ice for their game against a small community from Northwestern BC. This Horse Lake team was 2 classes above the competition. The game ended 16-0, but all the other team wanted to do was fight and hurt the Horse Lake players. I understand being frustrated with getting beaten so badly, but why is there the need to try to hurt players who are showing class by refusing to respond to the cheap crap being pulled against them?
Today, my last two games were nothing less than gong shows. In the midget game, we had three Match Penalties. I've never seen three Matches in one game ever. One was a blatant headbutt when one player refused to fight (he also recieved a Gross Misconduct for his actions following), the next two were literally ripping the face mask off the helmet. The first was during a fight, but it was intentional, and the second facemask saw a player unwilling to fight have his cage ripped from his helmet and his glasses flung across the ice. That one also resulted in my hand getting cut and having blood get all over my brand new jersey.
My last game was the Bantam final. It was a decent contest, although the final was 6-1. However, one player was so bad that he alone made this game a gong show....
He started with my partner giving him an Unsportsmanlike minor for faking a baseball swing at a player's head. Next, he delivered a clean hit on the other team's female player (she's better than most of the guys), but proceeded to call her a b****. I gave him a minor for Unsportsmanlike, but looking back, I should have given a 10, but I was so tired (7 native games plus 4 high school games this weekend) I wasn't thinking as deep as I normally do. A few minutes later, I gave him a Roughing penalty, but I only saw the end of what happened. I thought he tackled his opponent, but it turns out he cross-checked him in the back of the head and landed on top of him. My partner didn't see it either. I was really upset about that one. All I could do was tell the other team I knew something worse happened and apologize that neither of us saw it....
With about five minutes left, he gave the goaltender a slight tap with his stick, then did it to the defenceman. I would never call it in any other game, but this player had to go. As soon as I gave him the penalty, he dropped his gloves, took his helmet off and was going to go after the defenceman, who skated right to his bench (SMART KID). I was right there, so I got in front of him right away. He kept coming towards me, so I had to grab him. He told me to get my f***ing hands off him, and then tried to throw me around. I ended up forgetting about the slashing I was calling because it wasn't needed. His team was already short with the Match and I would have felt like an ass slapping an extra two onto the rest of his team (they were all being good anyway). I gave this kid 10, Gross Misconduct (removing helmet to fight) and a Match (physical abuse of official).
I was asked to scorekeep the Midget final, so I did. Horse Lake was obviously in the final, and were up 6-0 with about 15 minutes left. All the last period was, was the other team trying to pick fights and injure the better and smarter Horse Lake players. Glen Watson was for the most part, quiet, as the referees were making all the calls that were earned. The other team's bench spent their time threatening the Horse Lake players and making some very obscene comments to the officials. Near the end, Watson was getting close to turning his players loose (at least in my opinion) after spending the entire tournament refusing to let his players retaliate. The other team ended up packing up and leaving the game with 15 minutes left. The game ended with a player trying to pick a fight with a Horse Lake player, and proceeding to punch the referee when he wouldn't let him beat the piss out of a player unwilling to fight.
The reason the title of this thread is "Native hockey", is because stuff like this never happens in any other minor hockey...at least not with this frequency. There are isolated such incidents in other minor hockey, but this is the same story year after year after year at the annual native tournament. Honestly, the only reason I worked games again this year was for the money.
Again, I mean no offence to any native people who might post on these boards. In fact, some of you might be able to help, and answer my question.... Why is this a consistant happening in native hockey?
PS: I would like to congratulate the Horse Lake Thunder. They showed nothing but class during the entire tournament by refusing to get goaded into the cheap hockey the other teams tried to get them into. Glen Watson (why, oh why did OCN fire him?) did a magnificent job controlling his players. The rest of his staff, and the players, were very nice people to talk with off the ice as well. To them, I say thank you for keeping my weekend from being one of total disgust. They showed some unbelievable skill and speed, as well as class on and off the ice.
This weekend, I officiated seven games in the local annual youth native hockey tournament. Four games went without problems. There were a few scraps, but that's hockey in general.
One of the Midget teams was from Horse Lake. That's the same town where Theo Fleury is playing Senior hockey. In fact, Glen Watson (Senior team coach) was running the bench for the Midget team here this weekend. I was on the ice for their game against a small community from Northwestern BC. This Horse Lake team was 2 classes above the competition. The game ended 16-0, but all the other team wanted to do was fight and hurt the Horse Lake players. I understand being frustrated with getting beaten so badly, but why is there the need to try to hurt players who are showing class by refusing to respond to the cheap crap being pulled against them?
Today, my last two games were nothing less than gong shows. In the midget game, we had three Match Penalties. I've never seen three Matches in one game ever. One was a blatant headbutt when one player refused to fight (he also recieved a Gross Misconduct for his actions following), the next two were literally ripping the face mask off the helmet. The first was during a fight, but it was intentional, and the second facemask saw a player unwilling to fight have his cage ripped from his helmet and his glasses flung across the ice. That one also resulted in my hand getting cut and having blood get all over my brand new jersey.
My last game was the Bantam final. It was a decent contest, although the final was 6-1. However, one player was so bad that he alone made this game a gong show....
He started with my partner giving him an Unsportsmanlike minor for faking a baseball swing at a player's head. Next, he delivered a clean hit on the other team's female player (she's better than most of the guys), but proceeded to call her a b****. I gave him a minor for Unsportsmanlike, but looking back, I should have given a 10, but I was so tired (7 native games plus 4 high school games this weekend) I wasn't thinking as deep as I normally do. A few minutes later, I gave him a Roughing penalty, but I only saw the end of what happened. I thought he tackled his opponent, but it turns out he cross-checked him in the back of the head and landed on top of him. My partner didn't see it either. I was really upset about that one. All I could do was tell the other team I knew something worse happened and apologize that neither of us saw it....
With about five minutes left, he gave the goaltender a slight tap with his stick, then did it to the defenceman. I would never call it in any other game, but this player had to go. As soon as I gave him the penalty, he dropped his gloves, took his helmet off and was going to go after the defenceman, who skated right to his bench (SMART KID). I was right there, so I got in front of him right away. He kept coming towards me, so I had to grab him. He told me to get my f***ing hands off him, and then tried to throw me around. I ended up forgetting about the slashing I was calling because it wasn't needed. His team was already short with the Match and I would have felt like an ass slapping an extra two onto the rest of his team (they were all being good anyway). I gave this kid 10, Gross Misconduct (removing helmet to fight) and a Match (physical abuse of official).
I was asked to scorekeep the Midget final, so I did. Horse Lake was obviously in the final, and were up 6-0 with about 15 minutes left. All the last period was, was the other team trying to pick fights and injure the better and smarter Horse Lake players. Glen Watson was for the most part, quiet, as the referees were making all the calls that were earned. The other team's bench spent their time threatening the Horse Lake players and making some very obscene comments to the officials. Near the end, Watson was getting close to turning his players loose (at least in my opinion) after spending the entire tournament refusing to let his players retaliate. The other team ended up packing up and leaving the game with 15 minutes left. The game ended with a player trying to pick a fight with a Horse Lake player, and proceeding to punch the referee when he wouldn't let him beat the piss out of a player unwilling to fight.
The reason the title of this thread is "Native hockey", is because stuff like this never happens in any other minor hockey...at least not with this frequency. There are isolated such incidents in other minor hockey, but this is the same story year after year after year at the annual native tournament. Honestly, the only reason I worked games again this year was for the money.
Again, I mean no offence to any native people who might post on these boards. In fact, some of you might be able to help, and answer my question.... Why is this a consistant happening in native hockey?
PS: I would like to congratulate the Horse Lake Thunder. They showed nothing but class during the entire tournament by refusing to get goaded into the cheap hockey the other teams tried to get them into. Glen Watson (why, oh why did OCN fire him?) did a magnificent job controlling his players. The rest of his staff, and the players, were very nice people to talk with off the ice as well. To them, I say thank you for keeping my weekend from being one of total disgust. They showed some unbelievable skill and speed, as well as class on and off the ice.
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