Coach, Admit It

We passed some new rules for Novice teams (7-8 year olds) on January 9th. The rules simply prevent a coach from overplaying the stars and keeping the weaker players on the bench. Every player must get on the ice every third shift so a minimum of 5 shifts in a 30 minute game with 2 minute buzzers. Then we added that no player could play consecutive shifts. A difference of more than 2 shifts between the least played and most played players was also reason for a suspension. Sounds airtight until it comes to policing it all. I had experimented while timekeeping and could keep track of both teams with a form made in a spreadsheet.

At the mandatory meeting one team failed to attend, suspended. First games after the meeting and a team has one kid playing just 4 shifts (suspension) and another playing 8.

The next week I have a team have the opposition sign their plan on paper to have all the players get between 5 and 7 shifts which is all legal. Then they flip the lines before the start and nothing matches. I catch them but the head coach who is a big wig at the hospital says they are positive they did nothing wrong and sends me his matrix. I take his matrix and put it beside my tracking in a spreadsheet, color code it and explain what happened. He does not even open the file and claims his integrity is above reproach blah blah blah. In the first 8 shifts or 40 kids, not one player on his matrix matched my tracking. BUT my tracking had all his lines and defensive pairs correctly just not on the ice as he had mapped out. Then they skipped a shift and violated the rules because 2 kids ended up with 8 shifts and the least played had only 5. I pointed out that I could not possibly get the first 40 numbers wrong and still have his lines together. He assured me his staff is first rate and would not break the rules.

I called Sal at lunch and got the one entry on the game sheet for his team, a goal in the third period. Amazingly his matrix did not have the player on the ice when he scored the lone goal but my tracking did. I sent another email and he finally came as close to admitting an error as I guess I'm going to get.. The matrix did not 'contemplate' an excellent warmup by one line that resulted in a change in the order of the lines. Maybe we should be more worried about development of players and less worried about hassling the coaches who are volunteers. Up to that point he was on board 100% with keeping everything above board. Now we are too picky.

Update: he got the original game, an extra from his home association and a new friend who will be watching every game.