STUPID

So Kamryn’s hockey team is doing extremely well this year. They are undefeated with 7 wins and 3 ties and sit at the top of the standings. We’re midway through the season and they have a good (but by no means certain) chance of finishing in first place. Yay kids! You’d think. Not so much. There are 13 teams in their division. Within that division 4 of the teams (including Kamryn’s) are from the same association. One of the teams is not doing as well as the others. They aren’t in last ploace (they’re 11th) but not all that hot either. That’s the way you’d figure it would be. Someone has to win and someone has to lose and I don’t know what they expect. Well actually I do – they expect everyone to win. In order to accomplish this – despite the fact that more than half the season is over – they want to take one of our top scorers and transfer them to the losing team. Ummm….

The losing team has done no fundraising. They are registered in no tournaments. The parents have demonstrated a spectacularly low level of support for the team (there isn't a real team manager, no assistant coaches, no one willing to organize fundraising etc.) They are good at one thing whining LOUDLY (well the parents are anyways; I suspect the kids are great). It's no surprise they are not winning games on the ice. They aren't a team. The association’s response to the whining though is to demand Kamryn's team give up a top scorer (or any other player for that matter regardless fo ability). Ummmm…. No.

We have a solid team. On and off the ice. They are really bonded. They are team mates and friends. They are 7 and 8 years old and aren't going to understand why they are being moved to a team that is inferior in every way (and I'm not talking about ability but rather attitude). It's just not fair to any of them. We’ve done a great deal of fundraising. We’ve taken team pictures; we’ve bought team jackets; we’ve played in a tournament; we’ve registered for two more. Tournament registration is closed – any player who joins our team now would not be eligible to play in those tournaments and the player we gave up would miss out despite the fact that the fundraising his parents contributed to is helping to pay for the tournament.

So the league asked for a player (the deadline for movements between teams was three weeks ago and had they asked then we would have whined and conceded we had no choice). The coaches said no. So the league, going against its own by-laws, is now trying to strong arm parents into having their child switch teams (on the mistaken assumption that some parents won’t realize their rights). It’s all gotten extremely heated and nasty and its just STUPID. These are little kids playing hockey. Let them play and stay out of it. No one is being hurt here but the kids. Leave them alone!