A West Vancouver-based spring hockey club is winning praise for taking a stand against what they called “rough and dangerous play” during encounters with another team of 11-year-old players.
In late April the BC Spartans posted a notice on their website indicating that they would no longer play games against a Langley-based spring hockey program. Accompanying the statement was a penalty summary from a recent game that showed the opposing team racking up 60 minutes in penalties, including four roughing infractions, a four-minute penalty for contact to the head, an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and three ejections. The statement also indicated that there were verbal and physical threats by opposing parents against Spartans parents and coaches, and that this was not an isolated incident in dealing with this particular club.
“I just said enough is enough,” Spartans director James Wall said during an interview with CKNW soon after releasing the statement. “I believe they felt like they could beat us by scaring us. That, to me, just got worrisome. I’m sending my kids out there, and these are 11-year-olds, and what if one of them gets really hurt. I knew that there was a possibility of that.”
Wall said he has received a lot of positive feedback since releasing the statement.
“It’s been overwhelmingly supportive from across the hockey world – not just our local community but far-reaching,” Wall told the North Shore News. “All across B.C., teams that have poor experiences with other teams were just thanking us and just taking a stand against it and promoting fun and safety and fair play in hockey. I think there are a lot of people who view it the way we do – it’s meant to be fun.”
North Vancouver’s Matt Young, an advocate for healthy youth sport, gave kudos to Wall and the Spartans for taking a stand.
“You look at a lot of coaches who would have taken that opportunity and said, ‘Well, next time we’re going to smash ‘em up!’ That guy was saying, ‘No, this is ridiculous,’” said Young, who was featured in a TedX talk on youth sports and consults with sports organizations on the Long-Term Athlete Development program endorsed by the federally funded Sport for Life Society. “It’s great that James actually had the confidence to tell the story and share the story and say ‘This is not acceptable and we’re not going to continue under these circumstances.’ That takes a lot of courage to do and stand up and say that.”
Five days after their initial statement, the Spartans posted a follow-up message indicating that the two clubs had agreed to work together to resolve issues related to sportsmanship and fair play, with the two clubs resuming play against each other on all levels except for the teams involved in the penalty-filled game that led to the dispute.
The “adultification” of sport
According to Young, the incident highlights a growing problem that stems from what he calls the “adultification” of youth sport. A hockey game between 11-year-old players should never devolve into a spectacle of parents arguing in the stands and kids getting ejected.
“That doesn’t come from an 11-year-old kid thinking that they’re going to go to the rink and compile 60 minutes in penalties and get thrown out of the game,” said Young. “You only get thrown out if you’re doing something that is a) very malicious or b) very dangerous. That doesn’t come from a kid contriving to do that. That comes with poor quality coaching, ill-informed coaching. That comes from parents in the stands.”
The dustup and its aftermath also shone a spotlight on the concept of spring hockey, a burgeoning industry that operates outside of the confines of Hockey Canada and its minor associations. In essence, anyone can start a spring hockey club or team and run it however they see fit, with most programs based around a series of tournaments held after the end of the winter hockey season and before the end of the school year. Programs range from loose groups of friends looking to get in a few extra games to hard-core clubs with heavy practice schedules and championship goals. The whole concept of tacking on another season of hockey to an already long winter season goes against prevailing evidence that shows that a well-rounded, mutli-sport approach is more beneficial for an athlete’s long-term development, said Young.
“Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr … nobody back in the day played spring hockey,” said Young. “A lot of times you’ll hear parents say, ‘well, my kid loves hockey. He or she wants to play spring hockey. If they don’t play, they’re not going to make that team next year. I’m doing it to improve their skills for next year.’ What they are not understanding is the realities and the evidence that is showing single-sport injury – both psychological injury and physical injury. They’re doing the same patterns over and over and over again.”
Young indicated that a faulty turning point for many parents in terms of long-term athlete development came when Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book that said you need to spend 10,000 hours practicing something to become an expert at it.
“So then parents said, ‘Go! You’ve got to get 10,000 hours!’ That’s not what he was referring to, but everyone took it out of context and now we’re trying to get in 10,000 hours before we’re 12. That doesn’t create an athlete, that creates a robot that’s burned out. And psychologically, what is community all about? It’s about meeting new people, and going to baseball and trying new skills, creating new experiences.”
With far fewer regulations than are in place for minor hockey associations, parents also need to know what they are signing up for when they put their kid in a spring hockey program, said Young.
“(It’s) buyer beware, 100 per cent,” he said. “I understand the business of it. … It’s something that’s become expected, and somebody will fulfill it. So then it comes down to, who do we want fulfilling it? (Someone) who is going to take 60 minutes in penalties, or a guy who is going to look after his team and say this isn’t acceptable?”
A different kind of hockey
While spring hockey does have its drawbacks, there is a lot to like about the format as well, said West Vancouver’s Tom Oberti, who runs a spring league team for one of his sons. Oberti is also the president of the West Vancouver Minor Hockey Association where he works with James Wall, who is the association’s director of hockey.
Both Oberti and Wall see the value that a spring team can bring.
“Spring hockey has a lot of advantages because of the fact that it is not regulated,” said Oberti. “For example, I was able to put a team together for my son with his friends from Vancouver – we used to live in Vancouver – friends from North Vancouver, friends from West Vancouver. This is not possible in winter. … There are a lot of positives in that he can play with his friends, they play a few tournaments. They compete hard but they don’t take things super seriously.”
Wall added that all of the players in his organization are encouraged to pursue multiple sports.
“We always say there are going to be no punishments for missed ice times,” he said. “If you’ve got a baseball game or track and field event, we want you to go.”
Oberti acknowledged that there can be problems with some spring clubs, but added that the incident with the Spartans proved that disputes can be resolved, sometimes in a much more efficient fashion than would occur in a more formal minor hockey association.
“I don’t want to make it sound as if spring hockey is the wild west in a bad way. Like anything, it has its benefits and its detractions,” he said. “I was impressed that (the BC Spartans) would make such a stand. … It made a positive change. The hockey landscape, if I can speak in broad brushes, is changing. It’s not the ’70s, it’s not the Don Cherry conception of sport anymore. I’d say the vast majority of parents aren’t interested in rough and intimidation-type tactics. There are exceptions, of course, but I get the feeling that parents are looking for life experiences for their kids.”
Spring hockey also provides an opportunity for some elite players to compete at a level that they can’t get in their local minor hockey association, said Oberti, adding that the positive benefits of spring hockey show up when a parent, player and club are all on the same page about what the experience should be like.
“You’ve got to do your due diligence and ask questions like what’s the program’s philosophy, what are they built on, what are their core values, what’s important to them,” added Wall. “You’ll see real quick where you align and if it’s going to be a good fit for you.”
Get informed
An important part of youth sport of any kind is having parents that are involved and informed, said Young, adding that a lot of programs will try to sell young players and their parents on the importance of signing up to maintain an edge over the competition or to keep their position on winter teams in the future. Those hard sells can be tough to say no to, but parents need to weigh an athlete’s long-term development with every choice that they make, said Young.
“Parents have to inform themselves,” he said. “All parents want to do is be good friends with their kids. They need to be parents, role models, and they need to be informed authority figures and make quality, long-term decisions.”
In an unregulated world like spring hockey, Young takes solace in the fact that there are many coaches, parents and officials out there like James Wall who make decisions with the best interests of the athletes in mind.
“It’s great that people are finally taking a stance and taking action and saying, ‘You know what? If that’s the way this is going to roll, we’re not interested. We’re not going to put our teams in that situation,’” he said. “On one hand it’s really sad to hear the story about this West Vancouver spring team, on the other hand it’s really great to see someone step up and say, ‘You know what, that’s not what we’re all about. That’s not part of the game here, we’re not interested.’”
As for Wall, he said he hopes his club’s actions might lead to positive change for other hockey clubs across B.C. and beyond.
“I think other programs who maybe have had similar incidents, they may be quicker now to step up and say ‘Hey, we’re not going to just roll over and let this happen anymore either,’” he said. “We’re going to do something about it.”
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For more information about Sport For Life and Long-Term Athlete Development visit sportforlife.ca/qualitysport/stages/.
