This isn't directly college hockey related, but nevertheless of interest
to the Hockey-l community.
OK--College hockey content: Anyone know if Mark Morris will be coaching
on Friday night at RPI?
> PRINT EDITION
> Father files suit after son fails to win
> MVP award
>
> New Brunswick man seeks $300,000
> in damages from hockey association
>
>
> By SHAWNA RICHER
> Thursday, November 7, 2002 ? Page S1
>
> A New Brunswick father is suing the provincial
> amateur
> hockey association after his 16-year-old son failed
> to
> win
> the league's most-valuable-player award.
>
> Michael Croteau is seeking $300,000 in psychological
> and punitive damages
> from the association. He is also demanding that the
> MVP
> trophy be taken
> from the boy who won it and given to his son,
> Steven,
> as well as the league's
> playmaker award, which was awarded to a different
> boy.
> Croteau also wants
> Steven to be guaranteed a spot on the New Brunswick
> Canada Winter
> Games roster.
>
> In an interview yesterday from his home on Lameque
> Island, N.B., Croteau
> said Steven was so crushed after losing the New
> Brunswick Bantam AAA
> MVP award at a banquet in March that he lost his
> love
> for playing hockey.
> That, his father argues, resulted in Steven failing
> to
> pursue the Canada Games
> tryouts in which he had been excelling.
>
> The league's nine coaches or managers vote for MVP.
> The
> voting is not
> disclosed.
>
> Steven, who plays for the Acadian Peninsula AAA
> team,
> stands 5 foot 4 and
> weighs 119 pounds. His father said he's grown two
> inches in the past year
> and two seasons ago was the league's rookie of the
> year.
>
> Steven led the league this season with 45 goals and
> 42
> assists in 27 games.
> The league MVP, Lucas Martin who plays for Moncton,
> had
> 21 goals and 39
> assists, fourth in the league.
>
> "How do you justify that?" Croteau said. "It's quite
> obvious he's the most
> valuable forward in the league."
>
> Brian Whitehead, in his fourth season as New
> Brunswick
> Amateur Hockey
> Association executive director, said he could not
> comment on the specifics of
> the lawsuit.
>
> "I'm not at liberty to talk about the statement of
> claim at this time," Whitehead
> said from his office in Fredericton. "But yes,
> there is
> a monetary sum attached
> to it."
>
> Whitehead, who said he received the suit on Oct. 28,
> referred the matter to
> the Canadian Hockey Association. Officials there
> will
> advise the New
> Brunswick body on a course of action. At this point,
> Whitehead said, the
> association has not hired a lawyer.
>
> The suit was filed in New Brunswick Provincial
> Court in
> Bathurst on Oct. 8.
> Whitehead said it's not the first time the
> association
> has been taken to court,
> but in every other case the suit involved player
> injury.
>
> Croteau said his son was "so hurt and damaged" after
> losing the awards in
> front of 250 people that night he came home and
> shoved
> his hockey
> equipment into a corner, saying he had no interest
> in
> playing again.
>
> "He was so sure of himself he took $50 of his own
> money
> to buy a nice shirt
> and tie to look good that night," he said. "And he
> was
> just humiliated."
>
> Whitehead said that when Steven didn't show up for
> the
> Canada Games
> practice two weeks after the banquet, coach Gerry
> Belliveau asked him to
> come out to the following one in May.
>
> But Steven declined.
>
> "He did not quit the Canada Games," Croteau said.
> "He
> just had to breathe.
> It's not the trophy, it's that he should have been
> honoured. I taught him since
> he learned to skate at three years old that hard
> work
> brings rewards. But that
> didn't happen.
>
> "I'm doing this because all the years I played and
> coached hockey I saw what
> good it could bring to your life. I'm doing this
> for my
> son. He feels very bad.
> He did his best. . . . I didn't want to go this far
> but
> hopefully it will be an
> example to others."
>
> One source close to the league who asked not to be
> identified said, "Steven's
> name would have been talked about for MVP. But it's
> like the Miss America
> pageant. On any given day, anyone that good could
> win."
>
> This suit comes on the heels of one involving
> nine-year-old John Bijelic of
> Mississauga, who is in small-claims court after
> suing a
> minor-hockey coach
> for $10,000, alleging he threatened to "put a
> bounty on
> his head."
>
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************Brian
Morris RPI Engineers
[log in to unmask] Best chance in a while to sweep
the North County pair
|
