All Articles by Hal Tearse

Dad: You Love Hockey More than I Do! Don't Ruin It For Me!

The district playoffs are starting soon and for most teams the final periods are about to be played. The headline comments above were actually said by a son to his father/coach. It is interesting that a fifteen year old player is able to succinctly articulate his feelings and his anguish. In twelve words he expressed what so many have written in these pages and in youth sports publications for years.

Return to Play issues

Concussions continue to be a big problem in contact sports including ice hockey. Our research data confirms that girls have a higher incidence of concussion than boys and like the medical experts say, we do not know why at this point. Youth hockey coaches need to continually remind players that head contact is off limits, referees need to enforce the rules and coaches.parents need to support the officials. There is a multi generational attitude that ignores the long term consequences of concussions, especially multiple injuries to a single player. We tell our players that the players on the other team are just kids like themselves and nobody wants to get hurt. Play hard, play fair, and go home.