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Hockey's
Black Eye: Leagues Don't Condone Fighting, Don't Stop It Either
John Schneider, Lansing State Journal, November 13, 2005
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https://www.bridges4kids.org.
Mention amateur
hockey's professed zero tolerance for fighting to Ray McKenzie
and the hard-core hockey dad from Howell laughs out loud.
"Yeah - zero tolerance," McKenzie says, his blunt features
flushed in scorn. "That's why they let some Junior-level kids
fight three times before they get kicked out of a game."
It's hard to dispute McKenzie's claim that the rules of
high-level amateur hockey accommodate - embrace, some would say
- bare-knuckle brawls.
The amateur hockey establishment insists that tolerance of
fighting is part of hockey's past; the folks on the front lines
say that's pure denial.
Whether fighting belongs in hockey, at any level, is a matter of
passionate debate.
"Acknowledging fighting exists is admitting their failure to
control it," says Steven Duddy, the father of Sean Duddy, who
came to Lansing from Ann Arbor in his climb through the amateur
ranks.
Even some who police the game accept hand-to-hand combat on the
ice.
"If we have two willing combatants, fighting is acceptable,"
says Scott Brand, who trains referees for USA Hockey, the
governing body of amateur hockey.
In some Junior leagues, for those under age 20 bound for either
college or professional hockey, a player can go toe-to-toe with
opposing players twice before getting ejected; high-level Junior
leagues use National Hockey League rules, which allow a player
three fights before he gets tossed.
On Oct. 11 at The Summit ice arena, local teenage hockey players
one step down from the Junior leagues fought with each other -
just for practice - while their coaches and teammates looked on.
On Nov. 3 the Michigan Amateur Hockey Association suspended head
coach John Bowkus and assistants Ron Gay and Brandon Davis for
three games.
The governing body also put the coaches on two years of
probation, meaning that further infractions in that time period
could result in harsher penalties.
An investigation of the incident by the Michigan State Police
continues.
Bowkus is the leader of Capital Centre Pride Youth Hockey
Association's Midget Minor (16 and under) and Midget Major (18
and under) teams. The teams, made up of elite players, are one
notch down from the fight-tolerant Juniors.
Bowkus' supporters say the head coach was simply preparing his
teenage players for that reality.
Witnesses to the Oct. 11 practice said pairs of players
methodically dropped their gloves and helmets and went at each
other with bare fists.
Bowkus continues to decline comment on the matter, but his
supporters claim the coach was a victim of hypocrisy - a
sacrificial lamb caught between amateur hockey's game face and
reality.
Bowkus' detractors fall into two camps. Some - including many in
the hockey establishment - say fighting has no place in amateur
hockey or sports in general.
Others, while acknowledging that fighting is part of the game
and players must learn how to defend themselves, insist Bowkus
took that lesson too far.
Indeed, fighters are treated harshly in most ranks of amateur
hockey. For example, at the Midget level a player who fights is
expelled from that game and the next game.
That's also true at high school and college levels.
By all accounts, pugilism becomes part of amateur hockey, for
better or worse, in the Junior leagues, the top amateur level.
The Summit incident became an international story. The State
Journal's coverage drew hundreds of e-mails and phone calls -
from throughout the U.S. and Canada, and from as far away as
Santos, Brazil, and Krakow, Poland.
Hockey's Black Eye: Players Can Curb
Aggression
John Schneider, Lansing State Journal, November 14, 2005
Hockey minus fighting equals:
a) a better game.
b) an abomination.
c) the wave of the future.
d) an impossible dream.
You can find a hockey insider willing to go to battle for each
of those options.
For nine years, Larry Lauer studied aggression and violence in
hockey - amateur and professional. He's an advocate of "a" and
"c."
Lauer is director of coaching education and development at MSU's
Institute for the Study of Youth Sports.
He said an incident at The Summit ice arena Oct. 11, in which
teenage hockey players practiced their self-defense skills by
fighting each other while three coaches looked on, highlights a
"core issue" of youth hockey.
"There's pressure on young players," Lauer said, "to play
aggressive, even violent, hockey to move up the ranks."
The three coaches - John Bowkus, Ron Gay and Brandon Davis -
guide elite Midget teams (for ages 15-18) for the Capital Centre
Pride Youth Hockey Association.
On Nov. 3 they received three-game suspensions from the Michigan
Amateur Hockey Association. A criminal investigation continues.
While recognizing that aggression is tattooed, like the blue
line, into hockey culture and tradition, Lauer concluded his
study this way:
"Youth ice hockey players can be taught to manage their emotions
and reduce aggressive behavior."
And they should be, Lauer said.
"It goes to the essence of what we want sports to teach our
kids," he said. "Aggressive behavior taught and reinforced in
hockey may transfer to areas off the ice. Fighting in hockey
doesn't make sense any more."
Some would argue, however, that it makes perfect sense - and
that, in fact, fighting prevents worse violence on the ice.
Scott Brand, who trains referees for USA Hockey, calls fighting
a "self-policing" measure imposed against players who brandish
their sticks like spears.
Howell hockey dad Ray McKenzie puts it this way: "Fighting
eliminates a lot of cheap shots and stick work by lesser
individuals."
The hockey peacemakers point to hopeful signs. National Hockey
League Commissioner Gary Bettman recently announced that
attempts to emphasize skill over brute force in the NHL are
paying off. Fighting, he said, is down by a third this year from
the previous season.
Amateur league officials say that attitude is trickling down.
Stu Hackel of the North American Hockey League refers to
"ongoing discussions ... about whether players who fight (at any
level of amateur hockey) should be immediately ejected."
"At this time, that school of thought has not prevailed," he
said.
So, why not?
There's the culture, the tradition, the fighter-as-enforcer
argument - and one thing hockey people don't like to talk about:
Entertainment value.
Referee trainer Brand draws this bottom line: "In all my years
in hockey I have yet to see a hockey fan get up and walk out
during a fight."
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