YOUTH SPORTS: Rough Play On Ice

While the jury is very much out on the question of checking in hockey, there is near unanimous agreement that the sport in general has become too violent. I don't care what the NHL chooses to do. Those guys get paid big bucks to bash each other around.

If the NHL wants to become the WWF on ice (except with real blood and sticks, not the fake chairs and props), then so be it.

What happens to our youth, however, is another matter.

As a former hockey parent, I have an intimate knowledge of the sport first hand. Fortunately, most of our games this past year were well played and officiated.

But there were those few games, those few referees, those few teams, the combination of which created a very dangerous situation on the ice. The referees would not call penalties and the rough play would escalate--by our team as well as the opponents.

Suffice it to say that by midseason I had grown tired and frustrated of seeing nice kids being forced out of games--in some cases bleeding, in other cases dazed--because of illegal hits.

That's really crazy, especially for 11-and 12-year-olds!

Hockey is a great sport. I'm just afraid that if we don't do something about the violence and the increasing possibility of injury, it will soon be relegated to the same category as ancient Roman gladiatorial combat--an oddity found only in history books.