Hockey coach faces ban for opposing racial slur

Hockey coach Greg Walsh watches a game from upstairs as he is not allowed on the bench or in the stands.

The Toronto Star:

Coach Greg Walsh pulled his Peterborough minor league hockey team off the ice after an opposing player hurled a racial slur at one of his teenaged team members and no one apologized.

Two weeks later, Walsh is watching his house league team from the stands while he serves an indefinite suspension from the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA). Meanwhile, the player who used the taunt and his two coaches received three-day penalties and are playing again.

Because of a Hockey Canada rule on “refusing to start play,” Walsh could be barred from coaching for up to a year.

“I acted in the best interest of the kids I represent as coach of the hockey team, and I’m prepared to accept any punishment that was given, he said. “Whether it’s fair, whether its not . . . that’s not my decision.”

Others are less diplomatic. “We’re supposed to be in it for the kids, but we’re just running into hurdles of bureaucracy,” said John Gardner, president of the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL).

The target of the slur, Andrew McCullum, 16, is simply angry. “He wanted to make a statement that he does not tolerate racism,” McCullum said of his coach.

The incident occurred at a Nov. 15 game between two Peterborough Minor Hockey Association teams. McCullum, who has played for Walsh’s NAPA Auto Parts team for years, and a boy who plays for the Austin Trophies got into an on-ice confrontation.

They were sent to the penalty box for two minutes, where “we were chirping each other,” McCullum recalled.

The other boy then called him “the N-word.” The referee didn’t hear it, so couldn’t impose a penalty.

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