All,

Each season there is a very small minority of parents who negatively affect the experience of our kids, volunteers, and parents in our minor hockey programming year after year, and it casts a shadow on all the good work being done.

These are mostly repeat offenders who have gone too long without being put in check, or hockey parents who act out in the heat of the moment.

The purpose of this letter is to make them and everyone else aware of our revised Parent-Player Agreement and newly created Disciplinary Process.  Both documents have been uploaded to the League info section of our website.  Similar to the Hockey Canada Automatic Minimum Suspension Guidelines, this new process will serve as an Automatic Minimum Suspension Guideline for association members, family members, and anyone else who is involved with SSMHA  and/or GMHA activities as a volunteer or spectator.  I encourage you to become familiar with these documents as you will have to acknowledge both when registering your player in hockey this season.

If you get into a heated argument in the stands or outside of the dressing room in our rink or any other rink, hurl insults at a volunteer, a visiting team, a referee, or anyone else, etc.…, you will feel the full weight of this disciplinary process. 

A player’s, parent’s, or spectators’ behavior, which is judged by the Discipline Committee to be abusive or intimidating toward a player, coaching staff members, another parent, an executive member associated with SSMHA or any other hockey association, or any game official shall be dealt with severely and will result in the parent being banned from all activities with the SSMHA. If this does not resolve the issue, members of the parent’s family may be suspended from all activity with SSMHA and/or GMHA.  In addition, SSMHA/GMHA has the right to refuse future registration for any members of that family.

I encourage everyone to be good role models for our kids, good representatives for our associations, and good ambassadors for the sport we all love.

Be involved but not over-involved and make the sport fun for all.

On behalf of the Southern Shore and Gould’s Minor Hockey Associations,