Most of the time, I'm fulfilling my role as Assistant Coach on the bench with my son's Bantam AAA team. Last weekend I was on the spectator side watching two teams in our loop compete in their playoff round.
The game was tight, each team had great scoring chances and the officiating was what you would expect for game 5.
When you are on the bench, you don't pick up the tone in the stands. You're focused on the game looking for ways to out-coach the other team. But being in the stands, I was shocked by the barge of hockey parent noise.
One parent started to cheer when a player from the opposing team got hit hard and laid on the ice. A short exchange of pleasantries resulted in a couple of parents from each team meeting in the neutral zone of the stands to let each other know what they think of that person. It almost ensued into a parking lot fight.
This served as a distraction to a competitive game. I tuned out the game entirely and just listened to the crowd for a moment. All ages and genders were chirping the players, coaches, refs and fans. It was ugly.
I know of people who find a quite corner in the rink to avoid this behavior. I like my spot on the bench.
Teams shake hands before a game. Would the game be appreciated more by the fans if they shook hands prior to puck drop?
At the very least, win or lose, everyone needs to app-laud great hockey.
1 comment:
I coached atom AA in Montreal and found the same thing. Unless I sit alone in the crowd, I cannot watch a game with all the foul talk going on in the crowd. It's terribly disturbing at times!!!
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