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Youth Hockey - Parent vs. Coach

From Brian:

I'm the president of a recently founded hockey association(4 years). We have a parent who is upset with the coaching of his son. In hockey it is common for player to advance levels, months ago, the parent continually requested for his son to play up so there was greater competition, in addition, the next level was short a back up goalie at the time. So a decision was made to allow the youth to play up one level as back up goalie. Meanwhile, another youth in the correct age group starting showing up to practice on a regular basis, goalie as well.

We recently, made plans to travel to a town 500 miles away (we live in a very rural part of Alaska) to play a number of games. Yes, we intended on taking all 3 goalies, as we wanted to incorporate the younger goalie (3rd string). Then, 2 days before the trip, our 2nd string goalie, suffered a concussion, advancing the youngest to 2nd string (back up goalie). This morning, I received a call from the younger goalie's father, upset. He explained that his child did not get to play goalie for our team. However, the child did play goalie for the other team, that was short a goalie. I do not know the circumstances as to why the other team did not have a goalie, but, we traveled over 500 miles to play, and we were not going to let the fact that we had 2 goalies, and they had none, stop us from playing.

I find my self with the dilemma of an upset parent who did not like the decision of our coach, for his son to play for the other team. Although, he acknowledges that his child did get to play, he is upset that the coach did not alternate the goalies. In the games, they played against teams with goalies, his child did not play.

Other factors:

The father is a retired football coach, who has coached in various organized leagues, collegiate and abroad. He acknowledges he knows nothing of hockey, but states, he knows coaching and our coach is a liar, unfair, and is requesting we do something about it.

The coach, he is a 27, played hockey most of his life, but this is his first time coaching. We are very limited in coaches and even players, as a whole our association is only 150 people, mostly youth.

Our structure as an association, is to provide a alternate sport for the youth of the community. We are what you would call a "house" league, that normally, practices and scrimmages within. Once a year, we make the costly trip south to play a couple of games with real organizations, in real rinks, with real refs, etc.

The parent, is requesting a hearing, he wants to vocalize his concerns as a parent to the entire association, I'm not sure of his full intentions, I feel, he wants to say that we are screwed up, don't know what we are doing, and if he was in charge, things would be handled differently, I also feel that we have already lost the volunteer coach, because of what the parent has already said.

As the president, I have tried to stay out of the coaches means and methods, involving myself when necessary, to provide previous history, comments, and to ensure that when problems arise, the issues are handled in the best manner possible. I appreciate any information, references, or comments you may have to assist me in my situation.

Answer: The difficult situation you've described is something that occurs frequently in highly competitive organized sports which involve traveling teams, players playing up and coaches who are intensely focused on winning.

You indicated that yours was a "house" league, i.e. teams are all within the local organization. I favor this type of competition for kids because the league officials can control the extent of competitiveness and can make sure that the kids best interest is foremost in any decisions.

I run a large football program that focuses on kids playing, having fun and learning fundamentals and I go to great lengths to see that kids come first:

	Teams are made up weekly for games to insure competitive balance.
	Team rosters are kept small so that kids play a lot.
	During practice, coaches are required to coach all kids, not just the better ones.
	All kids get a chance to learn and play the skill positions.
	During games, coaches are assigned to coach either offense or defense not both (a coach works with both teams on either offense or defense in that assignment).

By doing this, winning is not an issue for coaches. This is a "house" league operating in its simplest and most beneficial form.

Even though yours was considered a house league type organization, the problems that arose from kids playing up and traveling to distant games for competition with young kids were not avoided. I'll talk about "playing up" in a minute but first lets look at the situation with the backup goalie on the 500 mile road trip.

I believe you (or your coach) did the right thing by having your backup goalie play for the team that was missing their goalie. The boy got a chance to play and the game did not have to be cancelled so that all players benefited.

But a mistake was made when, in the other games, the backup goalie did not play at all. He made the trip (500 miles is a long trip for kids in any circumstance) as a part of your team but had to sit on the bench and watch. That was a shame! I assume he did not play because the coach wanted to use the "first string" goalie to increase the chances of winning those games.

I'm sorry but I believe the coach should have used both his goalies in those other games. Winning should not have been more important than having all the players participate. That happens in college and pro sports but it should
not happen in kids sports!!

Also, just because an adult has played a sport does not mean he knows how to coach children. This coach clearly did not have the best interests of all the kids in mind with his decision to not play the backup goalie in the other games. A bad coach is not better than no coach! Try to find an adult/parent (even one who knows nothing about hockey) who believes sports are for kids to play and enjoy and then have that individual be the head coach/supervisor and let the former hockey player work with the head coach to teach fundamentals.

Now back to "playing up". If the backup goalie was "not good enough" to play for his new team, why was he moved up?? This happens so often on competitive traveling teams - players are assigned to teams so that coaches have enough kids to practice their first units against. Most times those backups never get a chance to play in a game or if they do, it is very sparingly. They are practice fodder. None of this has a place in kids sports. Kids should play, not sit on the bench. If the player (backup goalie) wasn't good enough to start and play a significant amount in games, he should never have been moved up.

Furthermore, if players are moved up, there must be an understanding between the parents, coaches and league officials involved of what that will mean to the youngster's playing time. I doubt that the father would have agreed to or pushed for the move if he knew his son was moving up to be a non-playing backup goalie and he would only play if the first string goalie was injured.

I am siding with the father of the back up goalie and agree that the coach should have used him in the other games (i.e. rotate the 2 goalies) however I don't agree with that father in pressing to have the boy play up. None of this would have happened if the backup goalie had stayed within his original group. Perhaps the worst that might have happened is that the boy might have been a standout player in that group. Wouldn't that have been better than having him (and his father) suffer the disappointment of not being allowed to play in the team's major road trip games?

I hope this helps give you another point of view for the future.

February, 2003