http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/juniorho...ract-to-limit-player-?urn=juniorhockey-299352
Lawyer draws up contract to limit 12-year-old's ice time — player quits team
By Neate Sager
Minor hockey has the seldom surpassed knack for turning respectable members of society who appear sane do things which are insane. The latest case in point came courtesy of a Toronto lawyer who actually tried to limit the ice time of a 12-year-old player on his son's peewee A team — the second-lowest level of competitive play — as the Toronto Star's Robert Cribb chronicled it.
Going to that extreme at a level of youth hockey one step above a rec league is on a higher level of fail than — wait for it — the player being female. Oh, and she ultimately had to quit the team:
"The controversy that seized the Toronto Ice Dogs PeeWee A club ... emerged last month at a parents’ meeting called by George Atis, who has a child on the team, but is not part of the coaching staff.
"The Thornhill lawyer drafted the agenda which included this item: 'Kayla Watkins — Player Ability Limitations and Suggested Options.'
" 'It is now 14 games into the season and I have noticed that Kayla’s play has not improved,' the agenda reads. 'It is at the point where many of the team members do not want to play on this team if this situation is not addressed.'
"Atis then details two possible options for consideration, either moving Kayla from defence to forward and keeping her off of power plays and penalty kills, or playing her every second shift on defence and again keeping her off special teams 'until her skating and shooting improves.'
" 'If Kayla is NOT amenable to the above options, the coach should find Kayla a new team to play on — commensurate to her skill level — for the balance of the season,' the agenda reads.
"Atis also raised concerns about Kayla changing in the same locker-room as the boys, " stating, 'there have been many "near miss' incidents where the boys have almost been exposed to Kayla.' " (Toronto Star)
Bruuuuu-tal. Atis' asininity would be just as out of line if the player he singled out was male. Twelve years old is a tough age for either gender. This is a level of hockey which really isn't about turning out the next Colton Orr, let alone Bobby Orr. Above The Law (via Greg Wyshynski) had an epic takedown, albeit with a lot of gratuitous name-calling:
"I don't buy into this weak hippie crap that says people shouldn’t even keep score at children's sporting matches. As [football coach] Herm Edwards is fond of saying, 'You play to win the game.' But the beauty of having children play sports is that they learn how to handle winning and losing. 'Everyone picks each other up' is the lesson kids are supposed to be getting out of tough losses.
"Evidently, that’s a lesson George Atis never learned. All he learned how to do was sit in the stands, nitpick, and bully little kids. He must feel like a big important man now. But really, he should pull himself out of the line-up and leave the cheering to other parents." (Above The Law)
It just boggles the mind — actually, it does not in the slightest — that a parent lost perspective so badly. This isn't a gender issue, although at some point you would think Atis would have realized that people would wonder about discrimination. It is a who-is-the-adult-here, have-you-no-shame-sir issue.
The kicker was Atis' post-hoc backpedal. Clearly realizing (as the old lawyer joke goes) he was up to his neck in cement, he tried to pin Kayla finding out on her mother and grandmother. From the Star:
"Kayla found out about everything when she spotted a copy of the agenda in her mom’s email.
" 'I was very upset. I do think parents can be over the edge,' she said.
"Atis said he never intended Kayla to see the agenda.
" 'As a parent, my heart goes out to her. If Kayla truly read this agenda by accident, it is very unfortunate ... I am mortified that Vanessa or Sheree or whoever shared this agenda with Kayla would actually do so ... I believe Kayla’s feelings could have been spared. That, to me, is the great shame in this process that Kayla would feel as she did.' "
No doubt he can't help but feel partly responsible. The great shame is he won't say it.
So it goes. Perhaps this is par for a society which has too many law school graduates and not enough people taking a skilled trade. Plumbers and electricians only stoop low in the literal sense. That is a little beyond a sports blog, though.
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.
Lawyer draws up contract to limit 12-year-old's ice time — player quits team
By Neate Sager
Minor hockey has the seldom surpassed knack for turning respectable members of society who appear sane do things which are insane. The latest case in point came courtesy of a Toronto lawyer who actually tried to limit the ice time of a 12-year-old player on his son's peewee A team — the second-lowest level of competitive play — as the Toronto Star's Robert Cribb chronicled it.
Going to that extreme at a level of youth hockey one step above a rec league is on a higher level of fail than — wait for it — the player being female. Oh, and she ultimately had to quit the team:
"The controversy that seized the Toronto Ice Dogs PeeWee A club ... emerged last month at a parents’ meeting called by George Atis, who has a child on the team, but is not part of the coaching staff.
"The Thornhill lawyer drafted the agenda which included this item: 'Kayla Watkins — Player Ability Limitations and Suggested Options.'
" 'It is now 14 games into the season and I have noticed that Kayla’s play has not improved,' the agenda reads. 'It is at the point where many of the team members do not want to play on this team if this situation is not addressed.'
"Atis then details two possible options for consideration, either moving Kayla from defence to forward and keeping her off of power plays and penalty kills, or playing her every second shift on defence and again keeping her off special teams 'until her skating and shooting improves.'
" 'If Kayla is NOT amenable to the above options, the coach should find Kayla a new team to play on — commensurate to her skill level — for the balance of the season,' the agenda reads.
"Atis also raised concerns about Kayla changing in the same locker-room as the boys, " stating, 'there have been many "near miss' incidents where the boys have almost been exposed to Kayla.' " (Toronto Star)
Bruuuuu-tal. Atis' asininity would be just as out of line if the player he singled out was male. Twelve years old is a tough age for either gender. This is a level of hockey which really isn't about turning out the next Colton Orr, let alone Bobby Orr. Above The Law (via Greg Wyshynski) had an epic takedown, albeit with a lot of gratuitous name-calling:
"I don't buy into this weak hippie crap that says people shouldn’t even keep score at children's sporting matches. As [football coach] Herm Edwards is fond of saying, 'You play to win the game.' But the beauty of having children play sports is that they learn how to handle winning and losing. 'Everyone picks each other up' is the lesson kids are supposed to be getting out of tough losses.
"Evidently, that’s a lesson George Atis never learned. All he learned how to do was sit in the stands, nitpick, and bully little kids. He must feel like a big important man now. But really, he should pull himself out of the line-up and leave the cheering to other parents." (Above The Law)
It just boggles the mind — actually, it does not in the slightest — that a parent lost perspective so badly. This isn't a gender issue, although at some point you would think Atis would have realized that people would wonder about discrimination. It is a who-is-the-adult-here, have-you-no-shame-sir issue.
The kicker was Atis' post-hoc backpedal. Clearly realizing (as the old lawyer joke goes) he was up to his neck in cement, he tried to pin Kayla finding out on her mother and grandmother. From the Star:
"Kayla found out about everything when she spotted a copy of the agenda in her mom’s email.
" 'I was very upset. I do think parents can be over the edge,' she said.
"Atis said he never intended Kayla to see the agenda.
" 'As a parent, my heart goes out to her. If Kayla truly read this agenda by accident, it is very unfortunate ... I am mortified that Vanessa or Sheree or whoever shared this agenda with Kayla would actually do so ... I believe Kayla’s feelings could have been spared. That, to me, is the great shame in this process that Kayla would feel as she did.' "
No doubt he can't help but feel partly responsible. The great shame is he won't say it.
So it goes. Perhaps this is par for a society which has too many law school graduates and not enough people taking a skilled trade. Plumbers and electricians only stoop low in the literal sense. That is a little beyond a sports blog, though.
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.
