A Message From The President Of The GMHA
Submitted By Jason Shedden on Wed 11 05, 14
Dear GMHA Members,
I would like to personally congratulate all of our Rep & Local
League teams for the tremendous success we have had in the early stages of the
season. We are currently holding an
impressive record of 93-56-16! That
success is made possible through the hard work of the players, coaches and
tireless parents! With success comes expectations and emotions, which sometimes can run high. I want to remind our membership that EVERYONE participates in this sport for one reason, to have fun watching, coaching or playing the game we all have grown to love. If at any time you find yourself not having fun, please remove yourself from the arena so you don’t prevent others from doing so.
We are all participating and spending countless hours on this sport because we have fun being involved and watching the children in our community enjoy playing this great game. Everyone has a bad day; coaches, officials, time keepers and yes, even you…..just ask your employer. But that doesn’t give anyone the right to harass, bully or embarrass others because you think they’re wrong. This is Minor Hockey, we are doing this for MINORS, please remember that the next time you want to voice a strong opinion.
Little eyes are watching you, little ears are listening to you.
Within the last week, we have had a rash of incidents that WILL NOT be tolerated. These actions have come from all levels; coaches, parents and family members directing comments towards referees, time keepers, opposing coaches and even players. We have been receiving negative feedback regarding the behavior of our coaching staffs; both Rep and Local League, as well our fans have also garnered the reputation as being one of the worst in Southern Counties. It saddens me to have to address this issue with the entire membership, but this MUST stop immediately.
Glanbrook Minor Hockey will not tolerate this behavior and as a collective, we all know this is unacceptable! Every family took the Respect in Sports Parent Program. All our coaches should have handed out a copy of our Parents Code of Conduct. Every coach has taken Respect in Sports and has been given the Coaches Code of Conduct. Quite simply, there is no excuse to act in any other way than being gracious in both victory and defeat.
If you have not seen these forms, please contact me and I will make sure you get a copy. If you wish, please review our By-Laws in our “Online Libraries” section of our website. The GMHA Code of Conduct is found in Appendix E.
In the coming weeks myself or other members of the executive will be attending random games. If this behavior is observed, the offending parties will be asked to leave the facility and appropriate actions will follow, up to a ban from the arena. The City of Hamilton staff is on board with assisting us with enforcing the Zero Tolerance Policy.
As great it is to see the on-ice success Glanbrook is achieving, the disturbing trend of our abusive attitude is not. These are not the values we are attempting to pass along to our young players and are not what being a Glanbrook Ranger stands for. Please be courteous and thoughtful the next time you attend a GMHA game. There is still fun to be had even in defeat.
Rob Barbera
President Glanbrook Minor Hockey