Hockey Coach Suspended for Yanking Team Over Racial Slur
- Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:37am by
Scott Baker
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Coach Greg Walsh pulled his Peterborough minor league hockey team off the ice after an opposing player hurled a racial slur at one of his teenaged team members and no one apologized.
Two weeks later, Walsh is watching his house league team from the stands while he serves an indefinite suspension from the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA). Meanwhile, the player who used the taunt and his two coaches received three-day penalties and are playing again.
Because of a Hockey Canada rule on “refusing to start play,” Walsh could be barred from coaching for up to a year.
“I acted in the best interest of the kids I represent as coach of the hockey team, and I’m prepared to accept any punishment that was given, he said. “Whether it’s fair, whether its not . . . that’s not my decision.”





















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Comments (167)
Carrie3570
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:02pmI agree with you 100%. Enough with the pc crap. Kids need to learn not everything in life is peaches and cream, expecially in hockey. I’ve been to many games and a racial slur is not the worst thing I have heard or seen.
Report Post »ensemble
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:59amThis is not about running away. This is about solidarity and justice for an entire team when one player gets ridiculed solely on the basis of race. The coach asked for an apology, he asked for accountability, he asked that league rules against derogatory personal remarks be enforced (which they were on the other team, afterwards). All for one and one for all..is a good character building and makes a team..a team. This is about the principle of the situation. Not about teaching kids to go ahead with a game, and win for the sake of winning..while your brother in arms gets bullied and harrassed because of his race. There is a larger issue here. Not one of the coaches kids has come out against his decision. That says alot…One game is not worth your dignity or your honor for your team mate. Good for them.
Report Post »c5then
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:56amThis is what happens when the appearance is more important than the actual facts.The coach who’s team member used the racial slur was suspended for a short time, but the coach who protected his team and left the ice is suspended indefinitely. In Canada it is more important to appear correct than to actually be correct.
Report Post »butler180
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:53amIt’s Canada folks. Why would the people who uttered the racial slur be punished? Punish the guy who stood up against the bigots. I guess the answer is that Canada is full of bigot and woe is the guy who stands up against their insanity
Report Post »dinadp
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:17pmThere are bigots everywhere but you’re wrong when you single out Canada. Don’t make blanket statements like that – they make you look foolish.
Report Post »TonyDarrington
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:43amWhy is this news? Yay, he stood up for his players despite the consequences. Boo, he didn’t let the kids solve one of the many problems they will face every day in real life. There are 100 Disney movies and after school specials I could refer you to.
Injustice happens every day. You have to learn to deal with it. Pouting in the corner gets you nothing.
Report Post »docvet
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 1:17pmAgree. The best response to any offense is to laugh at the ignorant SOB that said it. If it is that offensive, use it to fire up the team and win as big as you can. If the speaker can be identified as a player, that player can be subject to a few additional legal moves that suggest an attitude adjustment. I think of the woman in the race that crawled across the finish line. That’s what a competitor does. Is throwing a temper tantrum a sign of sportsmanship or competitive courage? I think the coach did his team a disservice in teaching them to give up because somebody said something offensive.
Again, a good laugh and a response of “I’ll see you on the ice” would have been much more adult.
Report Post »ClockKing
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 1:20amI also concur. He showed HIS team that such behavior is unacceptable, even when the other coach showed himself and his team to be ultimate idiots. That said, he could have taken them on the ice and let them kick their butts. They do have hockey sticks in their hands.
Report Post »M31Sailor
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:43amBlah, blahblah, bablah
Report Post »barackem
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:40amWhen I went on vacation last year, someone called my wife fat. I immediately called the airport and made a flight out of Hawaii. It didn’t matter that the kids had been looking forward to this vacation for a year or that we lost a couple thousand bucks in the process. There was a bigger lesson to be learned. My family is much better off because of it. Hopefully, because of my example, my kids will know to always go home every time someone offends them.
Report Post »Carrie3570
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:59amPerfect example!
Report Post »docvet
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 1:27pmI guess you plan to have your kids live with you forever. You let some knucklehead represent the entire population of Hawaii, cost you thousands of dollars and ruin your vacation. Boy, I guess you fixed them! I’m sure they are sorry now.
Although, I am pleased to know that there is someone (you) have never been offended in your life. If you had, you would be at your parents home now with your mommy comforting you with “Now, now, everything is going to be OK”. You taught your kids the same lesson the coach did – when life is unfair, quit and run home.
Report Post »Blacktooth
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 4:45pmYour joking, right?
Report Post »Stupid Windmill
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:33amOh god, not this…
Anything but this.
Don’t you even dare mention femization of anything. Seriously. Don’t.
Report Post »ensemble
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:30amThe coach made a great point for the solidarity of his team and for what is right. When one player gets bullied or ridiculed solely on the base of race and no one is held accountable, then it sends the message to the whole team that they should just suck up individual injustice and not care about their team members or their sense of being a cohesive unit. I thought that the coach did the right thing and I haven’t heard one of the team members say anything to the contrary. It seems like they are proud to take the hit and stand up for their team member. That is good character building, in my opinion.
Report Post »Tony Nagy
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:27amI already commented on this story in Canada and support the team and coach for STANDING UP!.
Report Post »Blacktooth
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 4:42pmYou mean laying down don’t you? Must have been a typo.
Report Post »DMD
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:17amWhat kind of slurs do you think a white dude gets on the BB court?
Report Post »M31Sailor
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:21amElbow’s are great for split lips
Report Post »Stupid Windmill
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:25amNothing, white people don’t play basketball.
Report Post »M31Sailor
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:35amBlah, blah blah , blah bla
Report Post »WhiteFang
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 2:12pmSailor, I don’t think StupidWindmill understands your relies to his comments. He just keeps on going…so funny.
Report Post »M31Sailor
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 2:40pmHow do I dumb down Blah, Blablah , blahblah ????
Report Post »ensemble
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:15amI admire the coach for making a point and standing up for his player. I think that it will make the team of kids stronger by all taking the hit for a disgrace to one player. They are a team and they hold integrity together and they take the punishment (however wrong it is) together. The coach has given a good life lesson that you stand up for your team and gracefully take whatever comes your way for doing it. All for one and one for all.
Report Post »Bad Thunder
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:14amEverything is racial, sure is sad how freakin sensitive people are.
Report Post »cogito ergo sum
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:54am@Bad Thunder
Substitute racial slur for anything denigrating or demeaning to another, maybe say a threat against your family, a condescending boss or an overtly sexually suggestive boss at work and let see how “unsensitive” you are! It’s about creating a hostile environment, which does have a huge effect on people!
Cogito Ergo Sum
Report Post »Bad Thunder
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 1:50pm@COGITO
Report Post »hostile environment? you are weak
M31Sailor
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:11amBeing a Conservative , being called Racist , Bigot , Homophobe, by a Liberal, Socialist, Progressive, Communist, DEMOCRATS ALL. means nothing. I feel ,as an athlete, you teach these kids about life not by sitting out but by going on the field of play( combat) and taking care of business. The jerk that uttered this slur would have been meeting the ice hard enough to be sitting on the bench, maybe going to the Canadian hospital, where he would have to wait 2 years for his injuries to be seen to. If you didn’t know which one said it, hit the biggest foe first. That’s life.
Sailor
Report Post »Stupid Windmill
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:14amActually no. Thats not life, thats stupidity.
You do not kill someone because their hurt your feelings.
Report Post »M31Sailor
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:16amblah, blah blah
Report Post »Stupid Windmill
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:22amWell go ahead and do it, critically hurt the next person that insults you, then see who ends up in jail.
Report Post »M31Sailor
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:31amBlah, blahh, blablah
Report Post »QuietRiot
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:09amCanada needs to Elect a black president and all will be well in the minds of Liberals …..
Report Post »Stupid Windmill
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:16amWhat the heck is this suppose to mean?
Report Post »M31Sailor
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:26amBlah, BLablah, blablah
Report Post »Stupid Windmill
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:34amI thought it was Halb Halb Halb…?
Report Post »M31Sailor
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:08pmEbonics???
Report Post »casey1
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 1:21pmBingo QuietRiot you hit the nail in the head. On the other hand Stupid Windmill must be one of the Liberals you refered to.
Report Post »canuck44
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 2:01pmWe have one to give them…minimal experience but excellent at bowing and reading teleprompters. Will get along famously with CUPE and CUPW for their annual postal strike which fewer and fewer even notice.
Report Post »Stupid Windmill
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:07amPC police?
What the hell are you guys complaining about, its something called common decency.
And no, racial profiling does not work either. Don’t see where your pulling this.
Besides if they were racially profiling you would start seeing alot more exploding grandmas/children because terrorists would hide their bombs in the least expecting persons luggage anyway.
Report Post »M31Sailor
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:15amBlah, Blbaah, blahblah, Blablah
Report Post »Stupid Windmill
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:23amTypical tea partier response.
Nonsensical babbling.
Report Post »M31Sailor
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:30amBlah, bla blah, blah blah
Report Post »barackem
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:33amA lesson in common decency would apply to the person who made the slur. Standing one’s ground by engaging rather than retreating is the lesson that is missing in this story. Wouldn’t it be nice to get liberals to go home by calling them liberal. If only.
Report Post »Stupid Windmill
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:38amStop bein‘ racist yo’
Report Post »Stupid Windmill
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:39amActually I was talking about how people are complaing about “Political correctness”.
I was pointing out this was not a matter of political correctness.
Report Post »M31Sailor
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:42amBlah, bablah, bablah babalh
Report Post »Sgt.Crust
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:23pmstupid windmill, you are just that
Report Post »barackem
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:03amIt sounds like when Carter kept our team out of the Olympics. You don’t retreat from fools. You stay above the fray by ignoring them and do your best. The only lesson I see from what this coach did was to tell minority children to retreat from the mainstream if they ever hear a slur. Very foolish.
Report Post »Stupid Windmill
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:11amBut thats what they did, they ignored them and stayed above the fray.
Report Post »Taquoshi
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 1:17pmWhat fray?
The team that left forfeited the game. What a great strategy – Okay, Player A, you say this; and Player B, you say that. Then when the opposing team is insulted, we’ll win the game. I wonder how far that will get them in the Division championships?
The other point is one does not have to respond with violence, although I have heard from several people about attending a fight in the midst of which, a hockey game broke out. You just get your team together and say, “You want to call us (fill in term du jour)? We’ll show you.” and politely, legally, but thoroughly wiping their sorry butts off the score board.
Report Post »canuck44
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:56amThere are far more brutal ways to send this message, but this is much more gentlemanly and instructive to the teenagers. The coach is to be congratulated not condemned by the slugs vicariously living out their own fantasies in the OMHA.
Report Post »In the old days before helmets the message would have been passed on the next shift to the player with the mouth…it is amazing how many teeth can be removed with a single butt end. Coaches were never immune and it is curious how many sticks found their way into the coaching end of the box when contact was made on the boards at the bench. Now they put them behind the bench in many venues and they are much more difficult targets that have to be taken out with pucks.
Strife
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:52amIt’s a stand up move… but he could have used this as a teaching tool, to go out and finish the game the right way regardless of the immaturity of the other team.
Report Post »kathleenhenthorn
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:49amCoach Walsh, I’m very proud of you! My grandson is a hockey player, The things that we see & hear are unbelieveable. I thank you for standing your ground on issues like this. We all know that part of hockey is getting under the skin of the other team, however it can be accomplished without racist & defamatory remarks. Parents need to teach their children it is not ok to make racist remarks on or off the ice.
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:49amYou have to wonder what type of racial slur was given. But yet the team that hurled the so-called slur should have been suspended just as long as the coach on the other team. Because if this is what happens every time then there’s not going to be much hockey in Canada. I am glad that he stuck to his guns about the racial slur, but the punishment is a little lop sided.
Report Post »TXPilot
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:47amIt’s a shame, sometimes you have to stand up for whats right, even when the penalty for doing so can be substantial. He may not have his position anymore, but at least he has his sel-respect, which is much more important.
Report Post »YellowFin
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:54pmSelf respect? Do you get self respect by quitting a scheduled game? I have to go with Blacktooth’s comment on this one.
Report Post »Bearfoot
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 1:08pmNo guts – No glory! A man has to play the game if he wants a chance to win.
Report Post »Islesfordian
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:47amA standup guy. But that’s what you get for being standup in Canada.
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:50amEvidently you get to sit back down. LOL
Report Post »Choctaw25
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:02amThat’s Liberalism for you, stand up for children on your Team and there are “instant” actions taken to punish the person who is right.
Report Post »He best be glad that he or a member of his team did not need “Healthcare”, because that would take Years and Years of wrangling to get that, if at all. Even if it meant the life of one of the children.
Stupid Windmill
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:18am“Because of a Hockey Canada rule on “refusing to start play,” Walsh could be barred from coaching for up to a year.”
What the hell does Canadian hockey rules have to do with Liberalism?
Report Post »Steverino
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:20pmThe coach knew, or should have known, the rules.
This is an “open and shut” case to me. You break the rule, you pay the price. That is my understanding of rules, however antiquated it may be.
Sticks and stones. If the other team was appropriately punished, done.
“Refusing to start play” if, a rule, should be appropriately punished. Done.
P.S. If a racial epithet is all it takes to knock someone off their game, that person has no future in professional sports. Let that be a motivator to raise your game and shut the idiot up. My 2 cents.
Steve
Report Post »moriarty70
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 2:57pm@STEVERINO
It wasn’t the word said, it was the fact that the other teams coaches didn’t even try to get the kid to appologize for saying it.
I’ve played sports in Canada at that age (although at that age it was rugby), and I’ve seen two types of coaches that end up with two types of teams. The first is the coach/team that will do whatever it takes to win, sportsmanship and morals be damned. The second, the one I was lucky to be on was the coach/team who realized that what is taught about on field/ice conduct teaches lessons about the type of person you will end up as.
A good coach stands up against poor behaviour, and I suspect that if the other coach had chewed out his player for that type of conduct that the game would have gone on no problem. But that coach only saw his team vs their team. Morals are second to a win.
Report Post »ME
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:43amWhat was said?? I am sure he called him a honky:)
Report Post »cognitivedissonance
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:36amI think it was the N word
Report Post »WhiteFang
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:42pmReal men would play the game, no matter what was said. Grow up.
Report Post »Blacktooth
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:46pmBoo hoo hooooo, he called me a name. How can I continue to live, I think I will just hide under my bed till the bad man goes away. Mommy!
Report Post »Rogue
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:54pmI believe the term used was “hoser, eh”.
I am one who disagrees with what the coach did. You kleep your players on the ice and let them play. You don’t teach good sportamanship by bowing down to any type of diversity – you don’t quit if someone else is being a bad sport. You play it out and handle the issue after the game. He’s giving his kids the right to make excuses.
Report Post »ME
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 2:08pmLOL “hosser eh”
Got to go watch “Strange Brew” again:)
with Rogue on this
I am sure it was “bad” and very un PC so it was not against a white or jew my point was it must have been against a black or Muslim. Hoser, honkey, jew, ******* and killing ******* babys ect are not bad or un PC just common white house talk:)
Report Post »Cemoto78
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:42amGood man for taking a positive stand. too bad the PC police don’t ever seem to see it that way
Report Post »ADMIRAL747
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:55am‘Tackling Fuel’. Hockey gives the opportunity to hit the perpetrators who said it. A win and a boardcheck would shut them up pretty quickly. PC led to the Fort Hood tragedy and the DREAM bill in congress. The hypersensitivity needs to end.
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:59amPC police once again at work in the Canadian land; and rapidly building that way here in America. Soon they shall be known as the USA-KGB-Department of Homeland Security. Their motto shall be “We do not need you to talk; you are guilty because we say so.”
http://www.artinphoenix.com/gallery/grimm
cognitivedissonance
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:39amI’m not sure how getting suspended for standing up AGAINST racial slurs is a problem caused by the “PC police” it seems more to be heartless bureaucracy, if it was the PC police they would make a no talking on the ice rule or something.
Report Post »mauneym
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:51am@COGNITIVEDISSONANCE
I think they meant that rather than yanking his team, they should have settled it by good ol’ hockey tradition. Something about going to a fight and a hockey game braking out…
Report Post »grandmaof5
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:00pmUnfortunately you can‘t control what comes out of other player’s mouths so the coach should have counseled his players about that, and taken it up with the opposing coach and refs after the game. These kids are so thin-skinned because of PC that they just don’t let things roll off their backs anymore and it is something they need to learn before they become adults. Now every other team knows how to get under the skin of this team and rattle them. Too bad.
Report Post »cognitivedissonance
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:13pmI think it’s good that the coach taught his players that violence is not a solution and while it may be just words, the N word, or any other word that is targeted at a person’s race, culture, or sexuality, has a long history of pain behind it and there is never a good reason to use it.
Report Post »GBMBulletsSKNRD
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:26pmObviously this coach’s team is a bunch of pansy a$$ punks or they would have said let us go back out coach and TC of B.
Report Post »Green Eyed Lady
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:33pmI am with the coach 100% and I posted this on facebook and joined and shared the fb page! I have just one question – HAVE WE ALL LOST OUR MINDS? What happened to knowing right from wrong? ok that’s 2 questions!
Report Post »Reagan/Demint.deciple
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:46pmhow about racism has no place\ what so ever ? not just in sports… geez!!
Report Post »2
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 12:51pmDid He call one of them a Honkie?
I DIDN’T WATCH. P.C. Sucks for everyone White.
Report Post »Dstarr55
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 3:37pmSorry, Cemoto78 – I can’t disagree with you more. The stand the coach should have taken was to tell his team to go back out there, win the game and ignore words hurled across the ice. Words only have power if you allow them to have power – it isn’t a taunt that will put the puck into the net. Instead his lesson to his players is not to stand up for yourself but to pack your hockey sticks and go home when someone calls you a name – no matter how foul that name is. I thought hockey was a tough sport – to not let the rude comment of an opposing player slide off your back means to me just one thing – you aren’t cut out for rough sports.
Report Post »grandmaof5
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 4:23pmDSTARR55, I am standing and applauding, sorry you can’t see it. My husband coached and ref’d kids sports for years in FL and his favorite line was “talk is cheap, show it on the field”. That is exactly what that coach should have done, unless his team wasn’t in a position to “show it”, and then I guess he just taught them to wimp out when the going gets tough.
Report Post »Aldo_the_Apche
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 5:59pmagreed
Report Post »Coonshine
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 8:43pmAdmiral747 is right on. Shed the thin skin and fight back. Make your on statement and quite crying to the coach……..
Report Post »wtwmew
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:34pmThis is so wrong. It makes me sad that this is what has come from our world today. If doing the right thing is wrong, I would be punished for the rest of my life.
Report Post »uneedmorekoolaid
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 11:17pmI’m this is hockey which I have played most of my life. I would have went out there and buried him with a cross check and then since fighting is only a 5minute penalty we could have dropped the gloves. Fighting in hockey is used as a means or keeping balance of respect between the two teams If you take a cheap shot on someone you are going to have to stand up for yourself or someone from your team will for being disrespectful. People think it is brutal, but you notice that rarely do players come away all bloodied.
Report Post »DogTags
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 12:51pmAll he taught the kids is “Sticks and stones may break my bones and racial slurs will hurt me.” It is a severe overreaction to stop playing simply because someone called his player a name. Racism exists and is bad, but it does us no good to act as if racism is the greatest evil in the world. We get more upset at an epithet (mere words) than we do that millions of children are murdered every year under protection of law. We say it‘s a woman’s choice. Why aren’t you pro-choice when it comes to racial epithets? This hockey coach clearly overreacted.
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