Banned hockey coach speaks out

QMI Agency

Torontosun.com

The governing body for minor hockey in Ontario needs to have the guts to take a stand against racism, says a local house league coach who was suspended for the rest of the season for pulling his team from a game after a racial slur was hurled at one of his players.

Greg Walsh learned on Thursday that the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) had suspended him until April 10 for forfeiting a game on Nov. 15 when the player who uttered the racial slur was allowed to return to the ice in the third period.

The player who used the racial slur against one of Walsh's players was later given a three-game suspension.

Walsh compared the punishments.

"In the end, if you want to use the basics, is you have society saying it's only worth three games to hurl a racial slur at a fella... and if you want to stand up against that then you get suspended for the rest of the year," he said on Friday.

Despite the suspension, Walsh said he doesn't regret the actions he and his team took to protest the use of the N-word.

"This is not about one person, or one hockey team, or one guy. It's about that society needs to rid itself of behaviour like this," he said.

Walsh became most animated when he recalled watching McCullum apologize to him on a national news broadcast after the season-ending suspension had been handed down.

"It's absolutely disgusting that he should have to feel any remorse for what happened, and they created it. I'm just defending him," Walsh said.

Ontario Human Rights Commission Barbara Hall voiced her support of Walsh's actions in a letter to The Examiner on Friday.

Walsh bravely defended his player's right not to be the subject of racial slurs and led his team off the ice in protest, Hall states.

"His action was admirable," she states. "But the way he is being treated by the Ontario Minor Hockey Association -- a full-season suspension -- is not. All of us, on and off the ice, should stand up and say no to racist conduct." Sports organizations should be prohibiting, not sanctioning, racist conduct, Hall states. Hall couldn't be reached for an interview.

Walsh was immediately suspended following the game on Nov. 15. The OMHA held a hearing at its offices in Richmond Hill on Dec. 11 and on Thursday it issued its ruling. The incident happened during a game at the Kinsmen arena. The player hurled a racial slur at Andrew McCullum as the two players were in the penalty box after a confrontation on the ice near the end of the second period.

On-ice officials couldn't penalize the player because they didn't hear the slur, the OMHA states in a release issued on Thursday.

Walsh brought it to the attention of the officials and the opposing team's coach, but the player was back on the ice to start the third period. That's when the team forfeited the game in protest.

The coach of the opposing team is John Welsh, the president of the Peterborough Minor Hockey Association (PMHA).

The player who uttered the racial slur, the coach of the opposing team and an assistant coach of the opposing team were given three-game suspensions by the PMHA on Nov. 17. The PMHA is reviewing its internal policies and procedures as a result of the incident, the OMHA states in a release issued on Thursday.

Walsh is being penalized for pulling his team from the game. The PMHA has refused to comment at this time, but the OMHA stated that the PMHA supported Walsh throughout the hearing process. Walsh wouldn't comment on the level of support he has received from the PMHA or on reports that the PMHA lobbied the OMHA to immediately lift Walsh's suspension.

"I have no comment," he said. The OMHA focused on Hockey Canada regulations rather than considering the specifics of the situation, Walsh said. "The OMHA does not want to be involved. They do not want to help. They just want to blame somebody else for the problem. It's a Hockey Canada regulation," he said.

Students rally to support suspended soccer player

Amy Dempsey

thestar.com

Dozens of people cheered and chanted Friday outside Northern Secondary School in Toronto to support a student suspended for criticizing the school.

“Commended, not suspended,” the group of mostly students shouted.

Loud cheers broke out when the suspended student, Emil Cohen, read a speech he had been stopped from delivering at the school on Nov. 22.

“This is an issue of free speech, especially when the speech made was constructive,” said Harrison Jordan, one of the rally organizers. “It was the right time and the right place.”

The group is demanding the school apologize to Cohen, reinstate his physical education privileges, and wipe the suspension from his record.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has joined those urging Northern’s administration to rescind Cohen’s suspension.

In a letter to Principal Varla Abrams, the organization said it has “significant concerns” about a school policy that allows staff to “effectively censor students by receiving any speeches they intend to deliver in advance or prevent them from voicing their complaints.”

“Emil stood up for what he thought was right,” said Henry Lee Hienonen, a 16-year-old Grade 12 student who was also a rally organizer.

The principal’s decision to suspend Cohen, 17, was one Northern’s principal made with a “heavy heart,” said Supt. Ian Allison.

“The issue here is not the speech itself,” he said. “The issue is there was a process and he didn’t follow through.”

Another crowd of students heckled the rally from across the street, yelling “Find a real cause.”

“I'm upset because it shows the school in the wrong light,” said Grade 12 student Daniel Sorek.

Rugby and football player Lucas Valverde, also a Grade 12 student, shouted back at the rally: “Who is we? The school's over here, not over there.”

Cohen was suspended after he was cut off delivering a speech at an athletics assembly at the north Toronto high school that criticized the way the soccer team had been treated.

The school didn’t try hard enough to find his soccer team a teacher-coach last year, which meant they had to sit the season out, he said.

Cohen has said he made his speech more positive after exchanging emails the night before with his teacher. The school has countered that the speech he read wasn’t an approved version and he disobeyed his teacher.

“I’ve been taught that if you are treated poorly you should do something about it,” Cohen told the Star earlier this week.

Children as young as 3 enrolling in mixed martial arts (MMA) classes

Alex Horkay
thestar.com

It’s 5 p.m. and a dozen children have hit the mat at a Toronto club, training to be fierce combatants in one of the most brutal sports around — mixed martial arts.

But nobody’s getting their head jammed through the floor. To Tally Bodenstein-Kales, a child psychologist watching her 8-year-old son, Noah, learn the sport, it’s all good.

“What they see on TV is certainly the ugly side of the sport, the side that doesn’t appeal to many women, for sure,” she said. “But in reality when they actually go into these classes, it’s nothing like that. It’s very gentle and very elegant.

“And I think it’s been really good for his self-esteem,” she added.

Mixed martial arts are exploding in popularity due to ferocious Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts shown on pay-per-view TV. The McGuinty government’s decision in August to allow professional MMA fights in Ontario is also fuelling their popularity.

“And wait till it happens next year that there’s an event. Just wait. That’s going to be huge. We haven’t seen anything yet,” said Joel Gerson, president of Revolution MMA, which operates clubs in North York and Thornhill.

But gentle? Elegant? Mixed martial arts?

“The kids’ MMA that we do is very controlled. There’s very little contact to the face and to the head. It’s much more focused on the art and the self-discipline and the confidence,” said Gerson, whose club offers courses for children as young as 3.

“It’s not always about making the other kid tap out and squeegeeing blood off the mat.”

Joey de Los Reyes, an owner of the Kombat Arts Training Academy in Mississauga, agrees. “We really pride ourselves in teaching kids the other aspects of martial arts, things like discipline, focus being civil to people, humility, all that kind of stuff.”

Meanwhile, most adults interested in MMA are there for the fitness aspects.

“The reason is that people see these fighters and they’re in the best shape of any athlete,” Gerson said. “The fitness systems that these MMA athletes are using will get you in the best shape the fastest.

“I can come... not get punched in the face … and get in great shape and I’m not stuck on a treadmill staring at red dots for 45 minutes watching Seinfeld.”

People who want serious MMA training need to be careful because now a lot of fitness gyms and karate schools are offering MMA-type classes, Gerson warned.

“There’s probably just a handful of clubs that have the coaching, facilities and bodies enough to get someone to a level where they can be competitive and it’s not going to be your mom-and-pop karate shop.

“And the big thing is the safety,” he said. “You just can’t get just anybody (as an instructor) in there.”

Training for MMA can also be costly. Not much equipment is needed, but the lessons are very specialized, Gerson said.

“You’re looking at between $1,000 and $2,000 for your kid for a year typically.”

It’s worth it for Bodenstein-Kales. Her son gets exercise and help with listening through MMA classes.

“It helps him with his memory as well because he has to remember these certain moves that he’s doing. So it’s been great on many fronts,” she said.

Hockey parents onside with sportsmanship program

Coaches hit hard in wake of ball brawl

Kevin Barrett

Telegraph-Journal

SAINT JOHN - The manager of the Saint John Little League All-Stars says he was never contacted by anyone during an investigation into a wild brawl during the Canadian Senior championship at Memorial Field in August.

And Tom Galbraith plans to appeal his indefinite suspension handed down by a Little League International Tournament Committee that also suspended Saint John coaches Richard Snow and Chris Bartlett as well as the coaches and managers of Les Elites des Valleyfield indefinitely as the result of melee between the teams.

"For anybody who is being disciplined, they should have the right to voice their opinion," Galbraith said Tuesday. "I was never contacted by anybody - not the tournament committee, not by Little League Canada, not by Little League International. Not one person called me, the manager of the team, to ask me what my opinion was, what I saw, what I thought."

None of the players on either team received any disciplinary actions by the committee, which is based in Williamsport, Pa., and rules on all matters relating to any Little League tournament.
In addition, Saint John is prohibited from serving as host of any national Little League championship until major safety and security improvements are made.

The ruling comes almost two months after the incident and following several calls to all parties to forward information in the process, says Little League Canada president Roy Bergerman.
"We never got any kind of a report back from any of those teams, even though we requested it. ?...?We needed to reach a decision," Bergerman said, adding the ruling is open to appeal.
"The indefinite means forever, until they make the next move."

But Galbraith says he was never contacted during any phase of the probe.
"For an individual discipline, I think my right has been kind of violated. No one asked me my opinion," Galbraith said. "For them to suspend me without even contacting me, in my opinion, is wrong."

He said it was not his responsibility to seek out those investigating the incident.
"Someone should have had the gumption to call me and ask me what my opinion was," Galbraith said. "I didn't feel it was my duty to go and find out who I was supposed to contact to voice my opinion. I assumed that would come to me."

The incident followed Saint's John's loss to Edmonton in the playoff round, a tight 1-0 contest where members of the Valleyfield team sat in the stands and heckled the host squad throughout the game.

The Valleyfield team celebrated Edmonton's victory and serenaded the Saint John team during the handshakes afterward. Almost immediately after that, several Saint John players went into the stands and the fight ensured.

That continued a conflict that arose when the teams met earlier in the tournament. The Valleyfield coaching staff was irate after the contest was suspended in the bottom of the fifth inning while they batted in foggy conditions. In clear conditions the next day, Saint John scored three runs to rally from a two-run deficit and earn the victory.

The friction ignited then and carried throughout the tournament, finally exploding with the fights in the stands.

During the brawl, a 70-year-old woman was trampled and taken to the Saint John Regional Hospital wearing a neck brace. She was later released.

"The issue there is training and a little bit of leadership that was lacking," Bergerman said. "You are dealing with a lot of volunteers, who may or may not have any expertise here. Leadership is critical, and that may have been lacking," he said.

He said that training includes the coaching staffs and tournament officials.

"Even though they are 14, 15 and 16, they are still minors and I think the general feeling there was if the adults had taken control of the situation and the coaches led the team like they were supposed to, none of this would have happened."

Hockey parents, GTHL settle suit

Lois Kalchman

thestar.com


Two sets of parents who sued the Greater Toronto Hockey League, one of its clubs and four team officials for $25,000 each when their sons were cut during spring tryouts have reached a settlement.

Abusive sports parents rage on Canada’s fields and rinks - Parentcentral.ca

Leafs losing young fans to video games