[FireGilbert]

Good. It’s time for a change. Get the bullies away from coaching.

I had some brilliant hockey coaches growing up but there was one horrible midget coach whose bullying still sticks with me. His way of creating team unity was to lead the entire team in bullying one of the quieter team members, which happened to be me. This was the typical stuff you’d get in the high school lunch room 20 years ago made much worse by coming from an authority figure. He’d also hold me to a higher standard of play and I was always being made an example of in practice. Once when I was suspended he made me take face off stats (no one else had to do this) and after the game ripped into me for their accuracy. Oh and when I separated my shoulder I was accused of milking it.

This took a lot of fun out of hockey and really strained relationships with teammates I had considered good friends. Another incident I remember was having my teammates hide my towel when I was in the shower which led to me fist fighting a teammate naked. Of course this just lead to additional bullying.

Considering this was the freaking Blackfoot Chiefs and I was a middle class straight white teen I can only imagine the horrors players at higher levels with actual differences had to face. Get these ####### coaches out of the game.