Speaking as an amateur hockey referee, coach, and parent, the conduct of this coach is ridiculous and should not be tolerated.
This guy should not be in charge of any team. This is not what the game is about
ping
Um... this is hockey, not golf, we're talking about?
Another article on the same story:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1505713/posts
I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of YOUTH hockey but the pros should be allowed to mix it up. Not allowing them to fight almost always leads to stickwork or other nasty behavior.
The "next level". The next circle of Hell?
How low are we going to go?
The only time there should be fighting in hockey practice is if fighting is in the league rules - and then it should be practiced by the appropiate players. I don't think most coaches want the Yzermans on the team fighting and off the ice for five minutes. They send the McCartys out there to fight, to protect the Yzermans.
The question I have here is whether it is the Capital Center Pride LEAGUE or TEAM. The Capital Center Pride TEAM is in the NAHL, which is a junior hockey league(Junior A?). Eric Lindros used to play in it for Detroit Compuware before he went to the OHL, so this is a fairly bigtime league. There may be fighting allowed in it. It's considered amateur, but it's probably closer to semi-pro.
Now if it's a local league with "no fighting" rules, that's another story.
How about the kids standby while the parents brutalize each other.
Went to a fight the other evening and a hockey game broke out.
Rome had it's gladiators, we have hockey. This kind of love for violence is the sign of a sick society in danger of collapse.
ITA, it makes me physically ill. My 14 year old son plays bantam travel hockey. he is team capt and has a couple of thugs on his team, that he is trying to rein in, as it hurts the entire team. The coach is benching the kids that get misconduct penalties. this past weekend, the worst offender was told by the coach not to show up for sunday's game. the refs in this league are adopting zero tolerance for it, and i am all for that.
I don't want to get into the whole "fighting in hockey" debate, but I'll agree that a youth hockey coach who orchestrates fights in practice has no place behind the bench
Ned Braden: What are you doing?
Jeff Hanson: Puttin' on the foil!
Steve Hanson: Every game!
Jack Hanson: Want some?
Maybe Shanny or Chelios should dance with this jerk at center ice so he can show what a tough guy he really is.
I'm sure that more than a few hockey people would pay to see that.
Any coach who instructs a 17 year old to fight should not be a coach!
"Ordered the kids to drop their gloves and helmets."One player suffered a concussion?I hope this "coach" has lots of liability insurance.
I'm a big proponent of fighting in hockey, it's a natural outcome of the intensity of the game and the only way to truly get rid of it is to drop the intensity and make the sport itself less interesting. That being said it has no place in youth hockey, and seriously has no place in practice especially not ordered by the coach, part of the idea of practice is developing team unity and having the team fight each other isn't generally good for team unity.
They'll be doing it as soon as they get to college (if they go), which last I checked is still amateur.
I have no problem with a coach teaching kids the do's and don'ts of hockey fighting, as long as it's done appropriately. Think boxing, wrestling, kung fu. I don't think "okay, you two pair up and wail on each other" is a good way to go about it.
Why didn't one of the parents beat the crap out of this coach?