Several years ago I was an assistant coach with HMHA. My son Timothy had been playing hockey with the organization for several years and I decided to try and get involved. Mainly because the coaches they had were just plain ol’ dads who had never played the game and several didn’t even know how to ice skate.
I was accepted and was given a position under another coach who I will keep nameless because he was one of those dads who didn’t know what he was doing. The team was basically run by myself and the third coach who had played hockey as a youth and into his late teen years just like I did. I’m not saying our head coach was a bad guy, not at all, this was just his first year involved in hockey and he was obviously clueless.
Being the new guys in the league we were last to pick players in the draft overall. There was supposed to be a drawing to see who drafted players first but that never happened and it was plain and clear that the HMHA Board Members were getting the top picks. After the draft it was very clear that our team was not going to be top notch. Half the kids were just starting at skating and at least five of the fifteen never put on ice skates prior to that season.
We as coaches realised the futility of trying and win the first several games of the season with skill and advanced gamesmanship so we decided that we would sacrifice our won/loss record to teach the necessary skills our team needed to win. The move payed off in spades by the end of the season.
At the end of the season every team gets into the playoffs. This was important because our record was dismal. We did, however, now have the best team in the league. We had won our last five or six games and we were blowing out the competition. No-one could skate with us line for line. For that reason the ugly HMHA politics showed it rotten head.
We won our first playoff game as expected and we were up to play the House League Directors team next. His name is Mark Depasquale and he was the Director of the Squirt Minor HMHA House League. The morning of the game, about twenty minutes before it started, our head coach was called into the league office. He was told by Mark and the League President that they were changing our lines.
They decided, without any input from any of our coaches, that six of our players would be switched to different lines. Mark apparently tried to justify the move by saying that three kids had progressed past their rating level and the adjustment had to be made. As I said we were never given a single practice to work out the change and because of the timing our team was thrown way off kilter. Kids were used to having certain players in position for our plays and now everything was off completely.
I guess some would say that our team should be able to cover the same as if they were on that line from the get go, because as a coach every kid should be coached the same. The reality is much different. An “A” line player can be coached for a lot more complex game than a “C” line player. We had to switch one “A” line player to the “B” line and of course that “B” line player was now on “A” line and he had difficulty playing on it. Two “C” line players were moved to the “B” line.
Well in the end we lost by one goal and that made the loss all the more terrible. This is what this league does to protect their own and I can testify that they put their own coaching interests in front of fair play and sportsmanship. It’s all about winning to them and that’s a shame. Needless to say, I threw a fit and withdrew from coaching with HMHA because of it. Our head coach, who went along to get along, moved up the ladder to coach many more seasons but he has undoubtedly sacrificed his own credibility. Justice was served when the only player who returned to his team the following year was his own kid. All the others parents insisted on another coach and I was asked to coach in another league but declined for health reasons.
I decided I would like to return to coaching now that my back surgery is done but I was turned down by HMHA this year and decided to not pursue any other leagues until next year. I didn’t expect them to let me back in, but since the former Organization President and Mark Depasquale were gone I figured I’d give it a try anyway. Since this story posted last night I have gotten a lot more information and this stuff will be block busters if ti all turns out to be true. I wouldn’t be surprised to eventually see the District Attorney involved and I can promise you this. The Hamburg Recreation Advisory Board will be very interested in the paperwork I’m about to present to them on this issue if it is actually real and true! I haven’t seen it yet but Gary tells me its real and I can have a copy.
One final thing that I feel is important to this story. The leaders of HMHA at the time this actually happened have moved on. I haven’t had any dealings with HMHA since then and I can’t call the current regime good or bad. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt right now but at the same time when a former Board Member comes forward with this kind of info it needs to be disseminated. If HMHA is actually as messed up as he claims then something must be done and the public should be informed.
I’m not passing judgement and I have called HMHA current President Steven Holmes and talked to him. I asked him to provide a response and I offered to post it as a photo attachment so nothing could possibly be put out improperly. His response was that he will respond in the Hamburg Sun. That’s fine but he needs to understand that I get a thousands of readers a day and the Sun goes out once a week. People can contribute here and he would get better input if he responds and makes this into a discussion. He did say that HMHA books are open to any and all members. That’s something that will be tested soon I expect.
