As a grampa of 4 grans who play minor hockey (2 Rep,2 HL). I have to say I am astounded at the behaviour of a lot of the parents during the games. Now these are U14 U11 Rep U8, U9 HL.kids Not elite AAA players.
Its pretty much the Rep divisions I see this in A Division basically the Town team that plays against other towns in the area. The verbal and almost physical abuse towards other teams,referee's IMO has elevated now the point Police had to be called to a few games, to protect the Refs one parent on our team has been ejected from at least 5 games that I know of by the ref. There are games where the 2 teams dislike each other and you KNOW whats going to happen. I coached years ago and yeah there was yelling from the stands etc but nothing like it is now. but considering the time it seemed bad.
We had a team,parent meeting one night,the parents were NOT told what for. When the 13 year old Captain rose to address the meeting and tell the parents WHY we were there you could have heard a pin drop. Because of my job I had access to video gear which we used to tape the games.I asked the video guy to film the parents during a game. That tape was shown at the meeting and the parents were shocked at their behaviour because they never thought about it during the game. After that meeting the parents were more positive during games except the 2 assholes who said I paid to watch my kid play I'll do what the fuck I want.(Every team has one of those). The Captain said 'We dont hear you yelling at us from the stands,we are focused on the game! Now this was 12-13 Peewee Select team not AAA.
Its at the point I just sit away from the crowd cheer on my grandsons and just shake my head. If they get that riled up at a kids hockey game what are they like in the real world????
Its pretty much the Rep divisions I see this in A Division basically the Town team that plays against other towns in the area. The verbal and almost physical abuse towards other teams,referee's IMO has elevated now the point Police had to be called to a few games, to protect the Refs one parent on our team has been ejected from at least 5 games that I know of by the ref. There are games where the 2 teams dislike each other and you KNOW whats going to happen. I coached years ago and yeah there was yelling from the stands etc but nothing like it is now. but considering the time it seemed bad.
We had a team,parent meeting one night,the parents were NOT told what for. When the 13 year old Captain rose to address the meeting and tell the parents WHY we were there you could have heard a pin drop. Because of my job I had access to video gear which we used to tape the games.I asked the video guy to film the parents during a game. That tape was shown at the meeting and the parents were shocked at their behaviour because they never thought about it during the game. After that meeting the parents were more positive during games except the 2 assholes who said I paid to watch my kid play I'll do what the fuck I want.(Every team has one of those). The Captain said 'We dont hear you yelling at us from the stands,we are focused on the game! Now this was 12-13 Peewee Select team not AAA.
Its at the point I just sit away from the crowd cheer on my grandsons and just shake my head. If they get that riled up at a kids hockey game what are they like in the real world????
