It was likely a thoughtless action, not intended to cause serious injury. But when a teenaged hockey player’s stick jabbed against opponent Austin Hoekstra’s stomach during a AA midget hockey match-up, it resulted in a bruised pancreas and emergency surgery to deal with a perforated bowel.
That likely thoughtless action also resulted in a judge handing down a finding last week that the accused hockey player was guilty of aggravated assault. Hoekstra testified during the trial that the player had tried to pick a fight with him during the game, but he had brushed the challenge off. After a play later stopped, the player skated up to him and his stick’s butt-end jabbed into Hoekstra’s abdomen, a hit that Youth Court Judge Geoffrey Ho believed was intentional.
Aggressive play is part of hockey, no doubt, but most spectators, players and coaching staff would likely agree that clean hits are one thing, and dirty, vicious and/or unprovoked attacks are another – one just has to remember the outrage over the Todd Bertuzzi sucker-punch that ended Colorado Avalanches player Steve Moore’s career back in 2004 to realize that people know the difference.
Unnecessary violence isn’t the norm at a minor hockey level, true, but it does happen, as the Hoekstra case demonstrates. And minor hockey is the best place to take a stand against unnecessary violence – coaches and referees need to draw a line, early in kids’ athletic careers, and make it clear that unwarranted violence is unacceptable. Kids need to know violent attacks can have serious consequences, both for the person attacking and the one getting attacked. It’s a lesson that holds true for sports and life, for physical and non-physical attacks alike.
Hopefully, decisions such as Judge Ho’s in this recent case have the intended effect of sending a message to kids that sportsmanlike conduct is as important, if not more important, as good, hard playing, aggressive competition and winning.
