Hockey parents’ ‘brawl’ just words

Coaches and staff at Simcoe arena say fight didn’t actually happen

The report from the OPP 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 as directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Immediately, it became one of the best-read stories online 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 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 morning.

“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 different 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.

The game was physical and at certain points along the way, a few parents had something to say about it.