A letter to SooToday.com. About a hockey referee

SooToday.com has received the following letter from Tom Caswell of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

The alleged conduct described was witnessed by Caswell and his son, he says.

************************* Hello SooToday staff:

I wanted to share with our readers a disgusting experience my son’s hockey team experienced during a PeeWee hockey tournament in Sault Michigan this weekend.

My son plays for Royal Tire, in the local PeeWee B division and is coached by Jeff Wright.

This past weekend our team participated in a tournament at the Pullar Arena and as a parent I was appalled by the attitude and obvious bias of the refereeing staff.

Obviously, this is nothing new, these accusations happen all the time, but in this particular tournament, the referee in the final game we played on Saturday, actually cursed at our coach in front of our 11- and 12-year-old sons when our coach challenged his grabbing a player by the back of the neck.

The referee in question also verbally attacked several of our parents when they challenged his physically handling the child and then swearing at the coach.

Our coaches and parents work diligently to teach our players good sportsmanship and respect for other players, coaches and referees.

As a parent, I encourage the local media, parents and hockey associations to draw attention to this pungent display of unprofessional conduct and to boycott any and all hockey activity in Sault Michigan until the referee(s) involved are disciplined.

I believe that accepting this travesty in refereeing is a demonstration of accepting inadequate levels of professionalism and allowing our youth to be treated with disrespect.

My son will not participate in another hockey tournament in Sault Michigan.

I hope others will follow.

- Tom Caswell

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