When I was maybe 13 or 14, or whatever the first year of contact was, I remember there was a kid on my team who really was not enjoying himself due to the hitting. He was not a great skater, but we were in a low division and he really wasn't out of place. You could just tell he was intimidated and not having fun.
My dad was one of the coaches for our team and went to the league to see if he could arrange to move the kid down a division (where there was no hitting) and had to fight tooth and nail to make it happen. They were totally fine with moving someone up but wanted to make every involved party jump through all kinds of hoops to basically trade a kid down a division.
The teams and parents basically arranged it without the consent of the league and just told them to deal with it, but the kid was thrilled and having fun again. It seemed really stupid to me that the league did not seem to care about the best interests of their players. None of us were going to make it as hockey players, so why shouldn't the kid be able to play in a non-contact league if that's what he wants? I hear these kinds of stories all the time! I'd be all in support of non-contact for kids, especially in the lower divisions.
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