PUT ACCOUNTABILITY INTO
MINOR HOCKEY Editorial by A Parent (Almost) Silenced
In response to the "Coach of the Year - Gone"
article, Evan Wittrup, Director for the North Toronto Hockey Association,
points out that the kids' best interests should be the most important
criteria in any decision making process involving Minor Hockey. Robert
Kirwan, Publisher, After The Whistle, suggests that the BLOMHA executive
has dug themselves a hole out of which it will be hard to escape unscathed
since it appears as though the kids best interests were not considered.
Unfortunately, the BLOMHA executive will likely escape unscathed.
Why? Because, as the directors of a local Minor Hockey organization, they
are accountable to nobody. And that's the major problem with Minor Hockey
today. The decision makers are answerable only to themselves.
But how could this be? We have so many levels of hockey
"government": national, provincial, regional and local. Each
level has policies and procedures to govern their members from above. From
below, we have parents to act as check balances. The way the system is
structured, shouldn't every hockey organization have to act in the kids'
best interests?
Unfortunately, there is very little power that any "external"
entity can invoke to ensure local organizations act responsibly. From
above, a governing organization can only revoke a member's charter.
Although this threat could have real ramifications at high levels, this is
hardly a problem at the local level. There are simply too many
"regional" organizations with overlapping geographic boundaries,
each vying for precious membership fees, to risk losing a current local
member. Even without the opportunity to join another regional
organization, a local organization could simply become a
"renegade" and operate independently, albeit with a little more
difficulty for their teams.
From below, parents have been easily silenced. After all, if a parent is
tagged as a "trouble-maker", the opportunity for their child to
play hockey can easily be taken away (especially at the Rep/Travel
levels), or the child's experience can be made miserable. Under residency
rules dictated by the "home town hockey" scheme adopted by most
Canadian hockey organizations today, parents or players who find
themselves "on the outside" cannot leave their local hockey
organization in search of a better one.
So why don't parents band together and vote for new, more responsible
directors to run their local organization? Because the risk is too great.
If the attempt fails, these parents again find themselves "on
the outside".
Likewise, local volunteers are at risk. Since coaches, etc. are appointed
positions by the current executive, there are very few who will "bite
the hand that feeds them". Like Coach Hobly, a volunteer can easily
discover that a "more qualified candidate" was chosen for their
position if they do not support their executive.
So what can we do about this lack of accountability in Minor Hockey?
As a parent, nothing. You can only quietly endure any problems until your
child decides that he/she is no longer having fun and decides to quit, or
a new hockey opportunity arises, such as high school hockey. "You
just can't fight City Hall." Even as a non-decision-making volunteer,
there is little you can do to "buck the system".
But at the national and provincial levels of hockey, the answer is simple.
Find ways to make all levels of hockey more responsible to their ultimate
customers - the kids and their parents.
To start with, and most importantly, give players and parents
"Freedom of Choice". This is the 21st century afterall.
Residential requirements should no longer be considered a cornerstone of
the minor hockey program in Canada. What right does any hockey
organization have to "own" a child? If a parent is unhappy with
their local organization, why shouldn't they be free to join another -
especially if they are prepared to travel any extra distances?
This "Freedom of Choice" approach seems to work well within the
GTHL (Greater Toronto Hockey League), a regional organization and also the
largest single amateur hockey league in the world. Within the GTHL,
players up to and including Peewee are deemed "free agents" at
the conclusion of each season, and as such, are free to register with any
club/organization in the league for the ensuing season. From Minor Bantam
and beyond, players require a written release in order to register with a
different club in the following season. Additionally, all GTHL teams must
have a minimum of 15 legitimate players registered.
As Mr. Wittrup wrote, his local GTHL organization always puts the
interests of kids first. If they didn't, they would soon find themselves
with insufficient players to form teams and their organization would cease
to exist.
Burlington is situated just to the west of Toronto. Their local hockey
organization, BLOMHA, does not belong to the GTHL, nor does it appear to
be accountable to their customers/players.
There are likely many other ways that hockey organizations could be made
accountable from above. And it is important to find these means. Too
often, the national and provincial hockey organizations seem to "talk
the talk", rather than ensure their member organizations "walk
the walk".
For example, there are many well-intentioned programs geared towards
improving hockey: S.T.O.P., Speak Out, Team First, Play S.M.A.R.T.,
P.A.T.H., Goodsport, Chevrolet Safe & Fun Hockey, etc. But a good idea
is not enough to improve hockey for our kids. Every organization must be
held accountable for the proper implementation and on-going support of
these programs. For instance, it's not enough that organizations place
S.T.O.P. signs on the back of players' jerseys or helmets. Every
organization should have to show yearly written proof that proper on-going
education is occurring. Similarly, it's not enough to require a coach to
simply take a coaching clinic at the start of his/her "career".
Organizations should be required to show written documentation of
season-long monitoring and training of each and every coach, perhaps
through Coach Mentoring programs.
But accountability is not just required of our local hockey organizations.
Accountability should be required of all participants in hockey. For
example, coaches should be accountable for their players. A coach should
be removed if his players continually take cheap shots and attempt to
injure other players. After all, it is his job to teach his players how to
play properly and with good sportsmanship. This is easily monitored from
the game sheets. A maximum acceptable penalty minutes/game limit should be
set. Each coach should be required to decrease his/her team metric as
the season progresses.
Freedom of Choice will solve most of these problems. Players won't return
to a poor coach. Parents, coaches and other volunteers won't return to a
poor organization. How many more children would still be playing and
enjoying hockey if they had Freedom of Choice? How many problems could
have been avoided or minimized with Freedom of Choice?
Let's hope our hockey leaders see the wisdom in putting accountability
into hockey. Let's hope they take the first big step by giving parents and
players Freedom of Choice.
