Tuesday, February 27
bad blood
This is what happened.
As some of you may know, my brother has been playing hockey this season for the Lumby Fighting Saints of the new WHA junior league. The league is basically the equivalent of the KIJHL. Earlier, I was going to post about the awesome playoff run these boys are having. But I'll save that for later.
On Friday when I got off work (yes, I have a new job--part time and temporary, as a receptionist) Josh and I drove out to Lumby for the second game in the Saints' series against the New Westminster Whalers. The series is for the western league championship.
These two teams have hated each other pretty much from day one. In their first game of the season against each other, the Saints won 10-2. This game was a lot closer. 4-3 to be exact. In the Whalers' favour. There was a bit of rough stuff on the ice during the game. But it was what happened after that this is really about.
The Whalers left the ice at the far gate to go to their dressing room, while the Lumby players left the ice on the side where most of the crowd sits to go to their own dressing room. The Whalers basically had to run the gauntlet of a lot of young fans to get to their room. The fans were all kids--ranging from about age 6 to high schoolers. And all of them were shouting various taunts at the players, who responded with taunting and cheering of their own. One kid, standing almost right next to us (we were at that end of the ice), was about six years old. He was yelling some things and squirted some water in their direction. A New West player broke from the line and took a swing at him. As I was stepping toward him, yelling "You can't do that!", one of the last Lumby players leaving the ice came flying in, having seen the incident, and went after the New West player. Then Josh jumped between them, trying to separate them, and a bunch of fans and New West players jumped into the fray. Josh's mom followed, trying to separate people, while both Lumby and New West's coaches jumped in, and more people started coming from other parts of the arena, either to watch or join in. I was watching the Lumby dressing room, making sure no more players were about to come out and join, since there were already a lot of New West players out there. One girl, about fifteen, was standing behind me, still yelling and taunting the New West players. I told her to shut up and she had a bit of a hissy fit. Another guy we know came down and was pulling the Lumby coach away, and the cops got there (they were already at the game somewhere) and eventually the whole thing got broken up. I was pissed off at the whole display and stomped off to wait in the stands. Josh's mom gave a statement to the police about what happened and they told her nothing was going to come of it. It was over.
So we went home and had pizza and rehashed the entire thing for the rest of the night.
Those kids should not have been there when the New West players were leaving the ice. They should have been cleared out. It was clear to me before the entire thing happened, having seen what can happen on previous occasions in other places. The New West player should have known better than to take a swing at a little kid. Neither coach should have been involved, and there should have been better security present.
And I nearly forgot, Josh and I went to pick up the pizza. A woman from out of town who came to watch her kids play for Lumby that weekend was there also. We'd been there a few minutes when the WHA bus pulled up and New West's coach came in, expecting them to have instant pizza ready to go on the bus. He got all pissed off because it was going to take twenty minutes, and they left.
So that's what happened that night. I was standing right there. Saw it all with my own eyes. In retrospect, the coaches actually jumped in for a slightly different reason that I'll have to go into later because I don't have all the details, but it didn't have much to do with the original brouhaha at all. Suffice to say, there is more WHA news which is an entirely different rant altogether.
~Currently playing: Traveling Wilburies-Handle With Care; U2&Greenday-The Saints Are Coming; Tone Loc-Funky Cold Medina~
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As some of you may know, my brother has been playing hockey this season for the Lumby Fighting Saints of the new WHA junior league. The league is basically the equivalent of the KIJHL. Earlier, I was going to post about the awesome playoff run these boys are having. But I'll save that for later.
On Friday when I got off work (yes, I have a new job--part time and temporary, as a receptionist) Josh and I drove out to Lumby for the second game in the Saints' series against the New Westminster Whalers. The series is for the western league championship.
These two teams have hated each other pretty much from day one. In their first game of the season against each other, the Saints won 10-2. This game was a lot closer. 4-3 to be exact. In the Whalers' favour. There was a bit of rough stuff on the ice during the game. But it was what happened after that this is really about.
The Whalers left the ice at the far gate to go to their dressing room, while the Lumby players left the ice on the side where most of the crowd sits to go to their own dressing room. The Whalers basically had to run the gauntlet of a lot of young fans to get to their room. The fans were all kids--ranging from about age 6 to high schoolers. And all of them were shouting various taunts at the players, who responded with taunting and cheering of their own. One kid, standing almost right next to us (we were at that end of the ice), was about six years old. He was yelling some things and squirted some water in their direction. A New West player broke from the line and took a swing at him. As I was stepping toward him, yelling "You can't do that!", one of the last Lumby players leaving the ice came flying in, having seen the incident, and went after the New West player. Then Josh jumped between them, trying to separate them, and a bunch of fans and New West players jumped into the fray. Josh's mom followed, trying to separate people, while both Lumby and New West's coaches jumped in, and more people started coming from other parts of the arena, either to watch or join in. I was watching the Lumby dressing room, making sure no more players were about to come out and join, since there were already a lot of New West players out there. One girl, about fifteen, was standing behind me, still yelling and taunting the New West players. I told her to shut up and she had a bit of a hissy fit. Another guy we know came down and was pulling the Lumby coach away, and the cops got there (they were already at the game somewhere) and eventually the whole thing got broken up. I was pissed off at the whole display and stomped off to wait in the stands. Josh's mom gave a statement to the police about what happened and they told her nothing was going to come of it. It was over.
So we went home and had pizza and rehashed the entire thing for the rest of the night.
Those kids should not have been there when the New West players were leaving the ice. They should have been cleared out. It was clear to me before the entire thing happened, having seen what can happen on previous occasions in other places. The New West player should have known better than to take a swing at a little kid. Neither coach should have been involved, and there should have been better security present.
And I nearly forgot, Josh and I went to pick up the pizza. A woman from out of town who came to watch her kids play for Lumby that weekend was there also. We'd been there a few minutes when the WHA bus pulled up and New West's coach came in, expecting them to have instant pizza ready to go on the bus. He got all pissed off because it was going to take twenty minutes, and they left.
So that's what happened that night. I was standing right there. Saw it all with my own eyes. In retrospect, the coaches actually jumped in for a slightly different reason that I'll have to go into later because I don't have all the details, but it didn't have much to do with the original brouhaha at all. Suffice to say, there is more WHA news which is an entirely different rant altogether.
~Currently playing: Traveling Wilburies-Handle With Care; U2&Greenday-The Saints Are Coming; Tone Loc-Funky Cold Medina~
Labels: saints
