Brawl may lead to culture shift
HALIFAX— The executive director of the body governing Atlantic university sports says they are considering policy changes and counselling after an ugly brawl between two hockey teams, allegedly the result of an “egregious” player comment.
Phil Currie with Atlantic University Sport (AUS) spoke with reporters on Wednesday after it was announced that 15 players and two head coaches from the Acadia Axemen and St. Francis Xavier X-Men had received automatic game suspensions that take effect immediately.
“One of the reasons why we don’t have fighting in university sport is an attempt to change the culture in the hockey world. I think potentially this is related to a cultural issue,” Currie said in a press conference at the AUS offices in Halifax.
“We don’t condone it in any way, shape or form and we will do … everything possible in the future to prevent these types of things from happening again.”
Seven of the total sanctions are against Acadia players and its coach, with suspensions ranging from two to four games, while 10 St. FX players and its coach will miss between two and five games.
The brouhaha occurred in the third period of last Saturday’s game in Wolfville, N.S., leading to the ejection of five Axemen players, eight X-Men and both head coaches at the time.
Videos posted to social media show players on both teams hurling profanities, striking each other and grabbing each other’s jerseys near the Acadia bench. After a 20-minute delay, the game continued and Acadia won 6-3.
There will “absolutely” be more suspensions and discipline to come, Currie said, but AUS wanted to first announce the game sanctions before identifying the “more egregious” activity they’ve seen in videos of the fight, as well as looking at the behaviour of coaches.
Duelling statements released by both schools have added to the confusion around what started the brawl.
In an effort to provide “context and clarity,” St. FX centre Sam Studnicka said in a statement Monday that in his threeyear AUS career he has been “dealing with insulting and derogatory comments on the ice pertaining to the shaming of a sexual-assault survivor.” A few hours later, Acadia issued its own statement, saying the information it had gathered was not consistent with allegations made by St. FX.
Studnicka said the comment made toward him in Saturday’s game was the trigger for the fight. .
Currie said Wednesday that the word “rapist” was used in the comment to Studnicka.
In a statement Wednesday, Acadia University said it acknowledges that one of its student athletes made an inappropriate comment “containing a particular word” to a St. FX player during Saturday’s game. The Acadia athlete took responsibility immediately after the game and extended an apology, the release said, and this information was shared with AUS.
However, Acadia disputes that the player’s comment “was made deliberately or that it was made with the intent and in the context in which it has been portrayed in mainstream and social media.”
The Acadia athlete “looks forward” to providing this information to the review being conducted by AUS, the release said.