There are few things we take as seriously in this country as the great game of hockey, but just one weekend at the arena might show you some people take it way too seriously.
Joe Becigneul, the Referee in Chief of the St. Albert Minor Hockey Association, has been wearing the stripes for 19 years. He has seen his fair share of the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between, including in the days before he ever thought of officiating.
“I started out as a hockey dad. I got into reffing because I could do better,” he said. “I learned very quickly that I could not.”
While the kind of negative behaviour that belongs in a Slap Shot movie instead of at a pee wee hockey game does still take place, it has been significantly reduced in St. Albert over the last couple of years. Becigneul attributes that change in no small part to the Respect in Sport online course that parents are now required to take, and which will soon be rolled out for referees and coaches as well.
Much of the anger that arises at hockey games is directed at the on-ice officials. Becigneul said every time you make a call on the ice, you must be aware that half the people on the ice and in the stands will be angry with you. For some, the anger can even go beyond words and get physical.
Becigneul said he himself has never worried about a physical confrontation, since he’s willing to stand up for himself and won’t be intimidated, but some of the younger referees in the league have had problems.
“We’ve had instances where the kids have locked themselves in the dressing room and called for a parent or called for help to get out of there,” he said. “We’ve had instances, even one this year, where a parent was suspended for a number of games for knocking on the referee’s door and getting in the referee’s face at the conclusion of the game.”
This kind of behaviour, on top of making the perpetrator look like a jerk, can have a significant negative impact on the league itself because it contributes to high turnover of referees. Typically, about two thirds of first-year referees don’t return for a second year.
To help address the problem, Becigneul said the St. Albert Minor Hockey Association has begun a much more in-depth training for new referees, with several months of mentoring both on-ice and from the stands.
Carter Reid, 13, decided earlier this year to take the referee course and start officiating, and he said in the 30 games he’s reffed so far this year he hasn’t had any concerns.
“Everybody in the stands has been good,” he said. “People have wondered (about calls) but they haven’t been a problem.”
He has a lot of experience on the ice as a player as well, and has seen some people yelling or shouting, but said it’s fairly rare. When it does happen, though, he said it makes the game less fun for everyone on the ice.
At a pee wee game at Servus Credit Union Place last Saturday afternoon, there was plenty of shouting from the stands but nothing that anyone would be embarrassed about: “Good work,” “Way to go,” and “Skate hard,” but nothing that couldn’t be printed in a newspaper.
Parent Michelle Veran said from what she sees, everyone is pretty well behaved and isn’t a cause for concern.
“We have a really great group of parents and coaching staff,” she said.
Jeff Lesanko, who has been watching his three kids from the stands for eight seasons, said it’s rare to see people getting out of hand, but it occasionally does happen.
“I think it just embarrasses them and the fans around them,” he said.
Since Respect in Sport was introduced several years ago, instances of bad behaviour have been reduced if only because it makes people more self-aware.
“If anything it reminds people at the beginning of the season to mind themselves,” he said.
For Becigneul, parents who get too intense about the children’s hockey games need to ask themselves why they’re doing it. For some, it could be an effort to relive their own childhood dreams of getting to the NHL through their children, which may run contrary to the whole point of minor hockey.
“For 90 per cent of the kids playing hockey in St. Albert, the fundamental job of the coach and the parents is to make sure the kids have fun,” he said.
Odds are about one in a thousand that a minor hockey player will go on to play at a professional level, even among the higher-skilled rep teams, so hearing parents yelling at the referees during an atom game, for example, is just perplexing.
“I don’t know what satisfaction they find in sitting up in the stands yelling at a 13-year-old kid that he missed an offside, when he might be out there for the first time ever,” Becigneul said.
“Somebody needs to be over there filming and letting them actually see themselves and the way they go off.”
