What do you think of the Novice situation in Ontario? Has our emotional attachment to hockey gone way too far?

Question

I am beginning to fall out of love with hockey. I llike the sport and play whenever I can but as a parent of a 11 year old playing peewee hockey I am beginning to care less if my son wants to quit.

He is also involved in soccer where the emphasis is on fun and it is an utterly enjoyable experience.

But the seriousness of hockey is taking the fun completely out of it for me. It is way too bureaucratic, costs way too much money (those parents at the AAA novice game probably spent $5K or more for the year with 10% or more on frivilous team paraphenelia), it too tied to the ego of those involved, and has very little emphasis on sportsmanship.

When I played growing up, jerseys were shared, the 20 people who watched came in for free, and you only got a team jacket if you won something.

I think that as a country, we really got to take a deep breath and let kids play and have fun because I think there are other activities that will develop our children more effectively.

Answer 1

You can't compare AAA to what happens in house league. I don't think the "brawl" was a good thing, but as I recall I did the same sort of thing when I played minor hockey in Dartmouth many years ago. I think a lot of the absurd situations like the guy building an extension to his house in order to qualify his kid to play for a different team in "The Tournament" are "funny because it's true".

One problem now is that the kids who could be on travel teams are in house league either for financial reasons or just because either the kids or their parents don't want the competitive pressure. The kids who are really good but in house league end up just discouraging the mediocre players. Maybe the elite teams will eventually tone it down in order to encourage those would be elite players in house league to try out for their teams.

I agree with you that hockey should be a joy. I went from house league, to university intramurals, to beer league, but I have always enjoyed hockey. However, if I had a kid I might not be so upset if he skipped directly to curling as a winter sport. It's a given that there are fewer asshats at the curling rink than the hockey rink. It's also obvious a lot of negative stuff happens in major minor hockey, just look at David Frost.

Answer 2

What needs to happen is all provincial hockey branches need to adopt the Hockey Canada Development Stream. In that model there is no AA / AAA hockey until Bantam. Players can be tiered into teams to play against similar skilled kids, but there are no 'elite teams' or 'travel teams'. Once you reach Bantam then you are allowed to try out for AA / AAA.

In Calgary there are three levels of hockey. Rec (non contact house), Community (full contact tiered), and Quadrant (full contact elite - starting at Bantam). This allows for kids of any ability or commitment level to play on a competitive team.

The OMHA and other hockey associations create these problems by turning the fun / development years, into competitive years. In the end all players suffer, as only a handful of players get top level coaching and they normally quit due to the pressure at such a young age.

Answer 3

I am 30 and when I was about 10-11, or 12 I tried out for a travel team, made it but because my parents weren't in the social circle everyone else was, when spring season came I got cut. I didn't like that so I quit playing hockey. Then my good friend talked me into playing a season later, it was house but it was a lot more fun. Yeah the talent wasn't what it was playing travel, but having fun over sitting the bench because your coach didn't like your parents, was a lot better. I played 5-6 years more, and in my last year we ended up winning the state title after maknig it to the state tourny 5 out of 6 years. So it all turned out good.

Answer 4

Hockey needs to reevaluate its priorities. It was bad enough when the state championship game for my high school team turned into a huge brawl because we were getting our butts kicked. It should make everyone sick that the NHL is sending a message that it is ok to brawl, to the point that 8 year olds are getting into fights during games. the Nhl needs to get a clue and start sending the message that a fight is never the answer. I mean hell we are to the point where pregame warmups will need refs on the ice to avoid brawls.