More on the Caswell hockey letter

The following are two additional letters that SooToday.com has received in response to Tom Caswell's letter to the editor about an incident at a weekend hockey tournament in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

One is from Anthony and Lily Persic, who claim their son was grabbed by the neck by a referee.

The other is from Charles Gimpel, chief referee of the Soo Michigan Hockey Association.

SooToday.com has removed the name of the referee from both letters.

************************* This is a response to the initial letter sent by Tom Caswell concerning the appalling and abusive conduct of a referee during the Cabin Fever tournament in Soo, Michigan.

My wife and I were eyewitnesses to the event at the Pullar arena where the referee [name deleted] grabbed our son by the scruff of his neck and hauled him over to our team's bench.

Our son told us that it felt like he was being choked!

We were horrified by this incident and we feel that [deleted] displayed physically abusive behaviour towards our son and verbally abusive behaviour towards our son and our son's coaching staff.

We heard his yelling of profanity loud and clear.

This disgraceful behaviour negatively flavoured the tournament and we strongly agree that the playing in any future tournaments in the Michigan Soo by Canadian Soo teams should be boycotted until this referee is appropriately disciplined for his actions.

What kind of sick individual would grab an 11-year-old by the neck, like a dog, and carry him in this manner to the boards in a hockey arena in front of a small crowd of parents and children?

Furthermore, the fact that Isaac McKechnie would deny this behaviour is a joke when it really did happen.

Maybe Isaac should have a word with [deleted] and the coaching staff/parents/players of the Royal Tire Rockets.

By the way, we learned of the referee's name from a committee member of the tournament who we approached after the incident to express our concerns.

This person immediately disclosed the ref's name but directed us to a different arena to discuss the matter with a different committee member who did not witness the event.

Suffice it to say that we got the message that we were not going to receive any help with the matter from anyone involved with the tournament that was actually present.

We were getting the "runaround."

Sincerely, Anthony and Lily Persic

************************* Dear Mr Helwig:

My name is Charles Gimpel and I am the referee in chief for SMAHA.

After learning of the said incident refereed and printed in your paper, I feel that I must respond for the referee in question.

[Name deleted] is a father of three, coaches two teams in our association and also officiates games when he has time.

He has never showed this type of behaviour ever.

If any of you knew Mr. [deleted] you could never say anything bad about this man.

I could line up personal references until you got tired of hearing them.

Before responding I checked with everyone that I could including [deleted] and he denies all accusations by Mr. Caswell.

He broke up a scrum and ushered off a player that came in late and was trying to start a fight, at the end of a game.

He grabbed the back of his sweater and by the arm and brought him to his coach who [deleted] thought would take care of the kid but rather started a verbal barrage, with some parents right there yelling too.

[Deleted] did not engage this unruly crowd and left the area.

He did not choke, manhandle or force this young man in any way.

There was a comment in a e-mail that I received from the coach that stated that the other ref came over and used profanity.

Not [deleted].

Also, [deleted] was approached after the game by some of the other parents and they apologized for the coach's behavior and some of the parents too.

One of them sent Ken Aikens (tournament director) an e-mail and apologized also.

I am really disappointed that you would print such false accusations about a person without looking deeper into the situation.

I thought that was what investigative reporting meant.

This false accusation was also broadcast over the radio at WSOO which I’m sure you have some type of affiliation with, and again another person does the wrong thing without checking out anything but a one-sided report.

I’ve already tried to contact the manager and even stopped by personally and will not let this go until I get an apology from this station to [deleted] and his family and you should too.

Please forward this to Mr. Caswell and his coach and hopefully they will do the right thing.

Thank You Charles Gimpel

************************* Additional SooToday.com coverage of this story

Michigan Soo official responds to Caswell letter