Driving past the arena in Lucan, Ont., in November brings back bad memories. No, it has nothing to do with the Black Donnellys and Roman Catholic-Protestant relations.
It has to do with a hockey tournament.
It was my son's first tournament of the season in his minor peewee year. He was playing a step up from house league for the first time and I was the team's manager in charge of entering appropriate tournaments.
Tough task at that level, which could be called house league select or AE.
I had a lengthy conversation with the convener about whether or not our team would be a good fit and he assured me it would be, then happily took our hefty entry fee.
The opening game was a disaster, not just on the scoreboard. Organizers matched us with a major peewee team from a higher level league in Hamilton - kids who were bigger, faster and had a year of body checking under their belts.
Our team hardly got out of its own end all game. Worse, the trainer spent almost as much time on the ice as the kids. At one point, the trainer thought one of the players had been seriously injured. Other kids didn't want to take their shifts.
Long story short, we left the tournament before the end of the round robin. We were not the only team to do so that year.
It was the right - albeit expensive - thing to do. Keeping players safe and keeping hockey fun in well-matched games is paramount.
Some worried the coaching staff would be sanctioned, being bad sportsmanship not to stand up and take a beating. But nothing came of it.
When I tried to contact the convener afterwards to explain our withdrawal and concerns, there was no reply.
Just a cashed cheque.
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