KITCHENER -- A minor hockey player's dad who posted a video of a brawl involving players at his kid's game has been suspended.
Alliance Hockey confirmed that the parent has been given a five-game suspension for violating the governing body's social media policy.
The 35-second video shows a fight between players aged 13 and 14. In it, you can hear cheers from the crowd during the fight.
Two players from each team were suspended after the game. Further investigation from Alliance has also led to the suspension of a fifth player.
The two teams met again on Sunday for another game, at which time meetings were held with coaches and parents on both sides.
Tony Martindale of Alliance Hockey says they discussed how fighting is not acceptable and can't be encouraged.
In fact, there is no fighting at all allowed in minor hockey.
While some parents had raised concerns that they saw coaches high fiving their players after the fight, Martindale says they didn't find any evidence of coaches encouraging the fights.
Still, he says the incident is an important opportunity to teach the young players and show them how the game of hockey needs to change.
"What we really talked about was teachable moments, and there's lots of them in this situation," he says.
"The players coming off the ice waving their arms, feeling like they've really done something—whether they want to call it good. So that's a teachable moment, we can't condone that."
But while Alliance Hockey says they have dealt with the issue, not all parents are pleased with the outcome.
Some, like Karen Lochead, are raising concerns about the process and its effectiveness.
"I don't think that parents should feel scared to bring problems or issues they have with the game and what's going on on ice or off ice, to the attention of Alliance and I think right now a lot of parents afraid to do that," she says.
She's concerned that suspending parents who speak up will stop them from doing so in the future.
Tony Martindale says he feels the coaches have done a good job getting the message across to the players, pointing out that there was no violence on Sunday's game.
