What tickles your pickle

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One of the hockey teams I coach has a couple girls on it. High school age. They're small and light. To some assholes this paints a target on their back. Last night a player on the opposing team decided he was going to try to make them not want to play hockey any more. He lit up the girls on every shift. After they played the puck, behind the refs, every single opportunity. I tried to put the girls out when he wasn't on the ice, but he always managed to get out there when the girls were out. Our team captain, who is captain for a reason, asked for a time out, got everyone together, told them this guy was targeting the girls, and said "if you're on the ice, take care of it."

Well, every single one of my players took that to heart. Any time this guy took a shift on the ice he got absolutely lit up. All legal, but any time he touched the puck he got instantly nailed. Hard. Over and over. By the end of the second period the coach just kept him on the bench. He didn't play third period at all.

And here's the best part. The opposing coach found me after the game. He said this kid has been a problem for a long time, I asked him why he continued to play the kid, he said the kid's parents paid the hockey fees of the whole team. That's nearly 100,000$. Totally bought their son's participation. The kid is a good player, but a spoiled brat asshole. I asked the coach if I could do anything, but he said no. This little shit was going to dress for every game, but sit on the bench 100% of the time. He also said he's going to share all of this with all the coaches. This kid will never see another minute of play time in high school.

So, let's recap. Asshole kid picking on smaller players with a habit of doing that. The players rally around the girls, beat the crap out of the guy in a way that is acceptable in this sport. The coach acknowledged what was going on, and is benching the player.

This is the way it should happen to spoiled little fucking brats.
While I applaud the "handle it yourself" nature of this story and think everything worked out just fine, there should be rules that allow the refs to stop this type of intimidation and abuse. If it's something that is "clearly out of bounds" to the point that you need to get people on your team to handle it, then rules should be changed to stop what they had to handle in the first place.

If every player on the team can see it and the refs can't, thats a ref issue. Good job protecting your kids.
 

lurkingdirk

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While I applaud the "handle it yourself" nature of this story and think everything worked out just fine, there should be rules that allow the refs to stop this type of intimidation and abuse. If it's something that is "clearly out of bounds" to the point that you need to get people on your team to handle it, then rules should be changed to stop what they had to handle in the first place.

If every player on the team can see it and the refs can't, thats a ref issue. Good job protecting your kids.

I appreciate your sentiment, but there's a lot of ice, and the refs can't see it all. The refs try pretty hard, but they have to follow the puck, and if you're 100 feet in the other direction it can be hard. Hockey players are known for having their heads up and knowing where people are on the ice. That includes the refs.
 

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I appreciate your sentiment, but there's a lot of ice, and the refs can't see it all. The refs try pretty hard, but they have to follow the puck, and if you're 100 feet in the other direction it can be hard. Hockey players are known for having their heads up and knowing where people are on the ice. That includes the refs.
I don't understand how you and the other coach and all of your players could see it clear as day but the refs can't, but then again I don't play hockey. Hard checking and fights seem to be part of the culture of hockey, are you sure the refs weren't well aware and just thought its part of the game?
 

lurkingdirk

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I don't understand how you and the other coach and all of your players could see it clear as day but the refs can't, but then again I don't play hockey. Hard checking and fights seem to be part of the culture of hockey, are you sure the refs weren't well aware and just thought its part of the game?

Refs weren't aware. To be honest, when this sort of shit starts happening, I, as coach, tend to start watching behind the play. The other players who are behind the play see it, and communicate it to their team mates. This is also part of the culture of hockey, and it can be bad (as in this case) or good. It can be good to get players to stop harassing someone by getting a punch in the head with gloves on (doesn't hurt) and being told to smarten up. Players clean up a lot of shitty activity this way. The refs knows this happens, but they're not watching. That's the job of the coaches - we keep it under control.

Hockey is a wicked fast game, and the refs work pretty hard. These were good refs, people I know (and the other coach knows, too), and they were relying on us to keep the behind the play shit under control.
 
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