The Greater Toronto Hockey League has taken steps this year to address bad behaviour by implementing mandatory training for parents.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Jack Kukolic is only 13 years old, but he's already aware that adults should know better.
At a Meadowvale hockey arena, west of Toronto last Saturday, his eyes were drawn away from the room where his 11-year-old brother unlaced his skates. In the hallway, a brawl broke out involving five parents from two teams. When it spilled into the parking lot, police were called and a player from the visiting Erindale team's father was charged with assault.
"When kids are playing hockey, how are they supposed to know not to yell at the refs and not to fight with each other if their parents are doing it?" the teenager asked.
The Greater Toronto Hockey League, where the brothers play, has taken steps this year to address such behaviour, by implementing mandatory training for parents.
The GTHL is joining a growing number of leagues countrywide. After noticing declining behaviour in their arenas, organizations are requiring one parent per child to undergo Respect in Sport training. The program's co-founder, Wayne McNeil, said that the long-term issue has come to the forefront in recent years.
"In the old days, it would have happened in the parking lot of the arena, and no one would hear about it but that little community," he said. In the past few years, parental fights were gaining increased media traction after being immortalized with video footage. This year alone, several incidents have been documented.
In April, RCMP officers had to deal with a multiple-parent fist fight at a game for 10-year-olds in Osoyoos, B.C. Earlier this month, an altercation in Markham, Ont., left one dad with stitches and one player with a host of injuries.
Last weekend's skirmish in Meadowvale only adds to the list.
According to Peel Police Sergeant Josh Colley, supervisor of public information and media relations, one of the fathers involved in the two-father, three-mother fight in Meadowvale was charged with a single count of assault.
Sgt. Colley was hesitant to release the man's identity without consulting with the detective in charge of the case, as "it can cause us a lot of headache" and the man was not a risk to public safety.
In many organizations – including the Ontario Hockey Federation and Hockey Calgary – the Respect in Sport Parent Program has been presented as a solution. In Calgary, the program's implementation in 2010 led to a drop in parent disciplinary hearings of 10 per cent to 15 per cent.
A study conducted at Mount Royal University found that while the program didn't halt the most severe of parental behaviour, 70 per cent of those surveyed in the minor-hockey community would support increased training.
At the University of Toronto, researcher Katherine Tamminen is broadening research on the program with her own three-year study, which is two-thirds of the way completed.
"These types of programs are not silver bullets," she said. "They won't fix things overnight."
She and her team are documenting parental behaviour in leagues with the program versus leagues without.
"The idea is that the longer these things are in place, this focus on positive parental involvement in sport improves, and over time, that becomes the norm," she said.
While the majority of parents in her experience were demonstrating positive behaviours, even the lesser incidents – verbal rather than physical – are worth addressing.
"There are parents yelling comments at their children, at their children's teammates, at their opponents, at the referees," she said. "It creates a lot of pressure for these athletes, and it reinforces the idea that these behaviours are appropriate."
Though her study won't be completed until the end of this hockey season, she said that implementing respect training showed a concerted effort by the leagues to address underlying issues.
"I don't think it can be the only solution, though." Additional steps, including a streamlined system for parents to report negative behaviour they witness, and updated policies addressing parental harassment, would be beneficial, she said.
In many instances though, Canadian parents are the ones pushing back.
"The initial response is, 'Why do I need this program? I'm already a good parent,'" Mr. McNeil said. He tells them the program is about learning to nurture and respect your child's sport and to not live vicariously through them or create undue pressure.
"The likelihood of your kid making a career out of this is less than 1 per cent," he said. As the Mississauga Hockey League, part of the GTHL, cleans up the aftermath of its recent parental clash, executive director Jeff Leavens echoed Mr. McNeil's sentiment. "There are no shoe endorsements being handed out at the end of this game," he said.
Disciplinary action taken against the parents is pending with a potential hearing at the MHL office. Parents can be banned from arenas for posing a threat to safety. In his five years as executive director, it has never come to that point for Mr. Leavens, but he isn't ruling out the possibility.
"Wayne Gretzky made a comment, years and years ago, that hockey – and a lot of sports – would be different if you just kept the parents away and just let the kids have the sport," Mr. Leavens said. "The same can be said about the coaches and some of the organizers, too. Just let the kids do their own thing and this stuff doesn't happen."