Outrage within the B.C. minor hockey community after a game last Saturday in which a coach purposely trips a member of the opposing team during the handshake line up. (VIDEO below)

The diminutive player fell to the ice causing another player to fall on top of him. The young boy whom the adult coach had tripped suffered a broken wrist according to some reports.

BULLYING

The Richmond Minor Hockey Association game featured a match up between the Steel and the Hornets with boys in the 10-13 year age range playing at UBC's Thunderbird Arena. The Hornets had won the game 5-4 yet for some reason a coach on the winning side decided to exact revenge on the losing team. A parent of a boy on the Steel team was shooting video.

Later footage shows the same man trading words with a referee, while a stunned Steel coach is ushered off the ice. A Hornets player is captured on camera throwing a water bottle at the bleachers while others on his team applaud. The Hornets coach gives a middle finger to those yelling in the stands.

The coach has not yet been identified, although YouTube and other sites say he is 40 yr. old Hornets coach Martin Tremblay. Police are investigating. Charges are pending.

We have heard a lot about bullying lately after the Karen Klein story. In her case we wrote it off to a bunch of misguided kids. Here, this is not only an adult picking on someone half his size, it's an adult who chose to be involved with youth. This is not an irate parent who flew off the handle, not that that's excusable. This is a man who coaches kids in minor hockey, so that they may not only learn the skills of the great Canadian game, but learn those things that go along with it: team, sportsmanship, respect, et al.

I imagine he's got a side of the story to tell, but I can say right now, it holds no water. No matter what may have happened during the game, an opposing coach does not purposely trip a kid, during the handshake line yet. Shameful. Get this man out of hockey and away from kids. Punishment can't be swift enough. LEAVE COMMENTS.

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