SMHA offside for making son play no-contact hockey, mom says
Scott Larson | CBC | Posted: October 3, 2018 8:15 PM | Last Updated: October 3, 2018
Teen wants to play contact hockey but has been put in a tier where there is no body checking
A hockey parent is facing off against the Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association (SMHA) after her son was placed in a bantam division that does not allow body checking.
Tammy Robert says her 14-year-old son signed up to play in a contact league and now is being told he must play in a bantam division with no body checking allowed.
"It was a real blow to my son and to a number players in his age group when they were shunted down to non-contact hockey at the ages of 14 and 15 years old," Robert told CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning.
In the SMHA's bantam age group, players are streamed into three tiers depending on their ability. Tiers A and B allow body checking while tier C does not, a decision made prior to the 2017-2018 season.
Since her son was placed in tier C, he had no choice but to play non-contact hockey.
But the SMHA's executive director Kelly Boes says there are a number of factors to stickhandle around when it comes to this issue.
"Our thinking is to try and give the kids a place to play in a safer environment where they can improve their skills," Boes said.
He added there have been many examples of kids moving up the next year to play in a body checking division.
But Robert says which tier her son was placed in is not the problem — it's that he has no choice.
"I've invested thousands of dollars in my kids minor hockey career over the last decade and thousands of hours," she said.
"My kid's not going to the NHL and he's not going to get a scholarship, but he does want to play the game he loves and what he loves is a contact sport."
If he wanted to play non-contact, he would have signed up for that, she said.
"The Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association has zero business inflicting an entirely different game that kids don't want to play on kids who have signed up to play contact hockey," she said.
"It is absurd."
No contact at certain levels not uncommon
Boes said what the SMHA has done is what minor hockey associations in every major city across the country have done and that is having a ban on body checking at certain levels in bantam and midget hockey. Body checking is not allowed in all pee wee and younger divisions.
Boes said the SMHA has 28 teams in bantam this year and only seven will play in tier C. That works out to be about 28 per cent of the players.
It's a far lower percentage of players in non body checking leagues than other cities like Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary, said Boes.
And no body checking doesn't mean there isn't any contact, Boes added.
"There is contact in all hockey, whether it is female, novice, atom, peewee — whether or not there is body checking."
Robert said she will continue to push for her son to play in a body checking league. Forcing kids to play non-contact hockey shouldn't be his only choice, she added.
"It is not what my kid wants to play."
Boes said he hasn't heard a lot of pushback on this issue from other parents.
"[But] our board is always open to reviewing any decision they have made in the past," he said.