Where are the Parents Here?!

Is it wrong to want to punch an 11-year old kid in the face?  I wouldn’t of course, but Oliver Wahlstrom is really asking for it.

Lil’ Oliver is the hockey wonder-boy who scored an amazing trick shot goal in Mini 1-On-1 between periods of Bruins games.  He flipped the puck onto his stick and whipped it behind his back for a goal.  Pretty cool I guess.

Well, one year later he tried another crazy shot.  This time resting the puck on his blade and slinging it like a lacrosse stick.  Now he’s all over YouTube and the news again.

This brings to light a few questions.

1.       Where is this kids coach?!  

“Alright Oliver. I want you to go out there, forget all the fundamentals we worked on and do something crazy!  Sure it will make scoring harder and possibly lose the event for the team, but man will it look cool.”   Really?!   If I was the coach that kid would have been sat down right then and there and we would have forfeited the match.  Complete lack of sportsmanship and a complete disregard for the game of hockey.

2.        What was the ref watching?

This isn’t the All-Star game where rules go out the window.  There are two teams playing to win and the game needs to be called fairly.  When Oliver brings the puck to his stick he raises it above his shoulders.  Boom! Shot over.  High-Sticking and no goal. 

But no, the ref is just as amazed as everyone else and lets it slide.  Boooooo!

3.        Anybody want to try and be a parent here?

You know this boy told his mom or dad what he was going to do. And he must have practiced it a few hundred times.  Where was the adult saying no. No, that is not the way the game is played.  No, that is not what you should be practicing.  No, you will not pull a stunt like that in a televised event.   Answer…nowhere.

This id represents all that is wrong with youth sports.  It’s about “me”.  My playing time.  My trick shot.  My time to be famous. Me me me me me me me.  

4.       Does anyone care for the other kid playing goalie?

He’s on TV too.  He has a job to do too.  He’s not in on this joke like in All-Star games.  He was left out there, abandoned by the ref, the opposing coach, Oliver, and everyone on the other team.    Here is what I would have done as the parent/coach of the goalie.

“Ok, Billy.  That wasn’t right of him to do that.  It was illegal and classless.  What I want you to do is forget about it and stop the next one.  Shut them up by playing the right way and winning with class.  Oh, and if he tries that again drop your stick and pretend your Clay Mathews and tackle him before he gets a shot off.  Don’t let him get the shot off again.”

It is an insult for this child to be allowed to do what he did.  It is embarrassing that after he did it once the coaches and parents did not pull him aside so it wouldn’t happen again.

This was a failure on every level and I feel bad for the other team, the goalie and everyone involved.

Let this be an example of how we do not want our children acting.