Two minutes for fake news, minor hockey parents say

The report from the Ontario Provincial Police painted a picture of small-town Canadiana gone horribly wrong: 30 parents brawling in the lobby of an arena after a kids’ hockey game, like a Tim Hortons commercial directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Immediately, it became one of the best-read stories on The Spectator’s website and spawned a series of stories in media outlets across the province. Tales of crazy hockey parents will do that.

There’s just one small wrinkle. The people who were there say it didn’t happen.

Yes, there was a peewee playoff game at Talbot Gardens in Simcoe on Sunday afternoon between Simcoe and Paris. Yes, it was intense and chippy and there were some comments coming from the stands during the action. And yes, there were a few angry words exchanged in a common area afterward.

But a donnybrook? The coach of the Paris team that was involved in the game heard that report on the radio as he was driving to work Tuesday.

“I actually laughed,” Sean Koekoek says.

He’s not the only one saying that. The president of the Simcoe Minor Hockey Association says he only heard about a brawl when he checked Facebook on Tuesday. Since then he’s been calling around to find out what happened. He says he’s talked to parents, arena staff and a few folks who weren’t affiliated with either team but just happened to be at the rink.

The answer from everyone? “There was no physical violence,” says Marty Jefferson. “There was no fight.”

The president of the Paris Minor Hockey Association says he found out about the alleged fight reading a local paper online. Usually if something serious happens — even a significant verbal altercation — he gets a report the same day. This was now nearly 48 hours later and he’d heard nothing.

“It was shocking to see a headline like that,” Pat Graham says.

All of this is backed up by one of the two rink workers who was on duty that day. Mateo Barreto says he saw all the people in the lobby after the game and ... “Nothing happened,” he says. So what did happen?

The two teams are in the midst of two playoff series against each other at the same time. There’s the all-Ontario playdowns and the league playoffs. For timing reasons — so seasons can be done on time — they have to overlap. As a result, they’ve played each other a half-dozen times in the last 10 days. That’s certainly created some animosity.

Even though these are 11- and 12-year-olds and there’s technically no hitting, this game was physical and at certain points along the way, a few parents had something to say about it.

After the game, roughly 30 people milled about in the lobby waiting for their kids. Koekoek says he went up to a Simcoe parent and asked that some of the more egregious comments directed at his players stop. Something was said back to him. Someone with an English accent intervened. The coach walked away. A few more comments were shouted behind him. And that, he says, was it.

“There was no physical violence whatsoever,” he says.

So where does the report of mayhem come from?

Well, someone — the police press release mentions a resident — called the Norfolk County OPP with a report of a massive brawl.

“We were informed there was a large fight happening,” says Const. Ed Sanchuk.

Who that resident might be is a mystery since the rink is in a commercial area of town, it was 5 p.m. on a Sunday and according to those involved, everything that happened occurred inside the building.

Anyway, a number of cruisers showed up but nearly everyone had left by that point. Koekoek says two Brantford police officers — parents on his team — were still there and spoke to the responding cops. Since no injuries were reported and no official complaints were made, no charges were laid.

So what to make of it all? Good question. It’s certainly a confusing story.

But there is a moral to it. Despite the popular refrain that most hockey parents are bulgy-eyed maniacs who spend their afternoons in a Zambonifume-enhanced rage, it’s not true. Sure, it happens now and then but it’s hardly a fair acrossthe-board picture. Most parents are grown-ups.

But it does happen. Not just in freezing arenas, either. You can find the same kind of occasional insanity at baseball diamonds, basketball courts, soccer and football fields, and any other venue involving children. Not just at the highly competitive levels of sports, either. House leagues and recreational leagues have their problems, too.

That’s a problem. Because it’s common enough to be a stereotype and because there are still folks who persist in acting like idiots, stories like this become plausible. Whether this one happened as described matters but it’s almost secondary. The fact that most people could easily

imagine a situation like this erupting is what’s truly telling.

And that suggests sports parents — some of them, anyway — still have a lot of work to do to unmake the bed they’ve made.