Albert Lea Hockey Association Bans Coach For Life!!!

[runingwithechukchi]

I was looking on the Albert lea Hockey Associations web site under board minutes and see they banned a level 4 coach for life. This new hockey board never seems to amaze me with their idiotic good old boy thinking. Apparently said coach wanted to start a 10 and under girls program this past year. He felt there was a need for girls this age to have their own team and not have to play at the next level 12 and under. Current 12 and under coach will take these younger players but will not play them on a regular basis. Mike Gordon the current twelve and under coach also sits on the board. Gordon was quite outspoken about not having a girls 10 and under team basic concern he wanted these girls to learn his ways and they were the only ways. When Kevin Sorensen had his request for a 10 and under team denied he went forward and started a 10 and under development team who would play limited games and practice 2-3 times per week. Kevin went out of his way to find sponsors and tried to find a few teams who would scrimmage them. Albert Lea hockey (Mike Gordon) found out they were playing USA sanctioned teams and at the next board meeting brought a motion to have Kevin Banned from coaching for 5 years board rejected it but in return voted to have him banned for life. You can read about it at the Albert Lea Hockey Association web site January 2007 board minutes. I can't believe what idiots run this program just amazed that people there put up with these jokers. The kicker, Kevin was never notified of this and found out by accidentally reading the board minutes this past week. The coaches coordinator (Shawn Prihoda) who initiated this has no coaches card with 1 maybe 2 years coaching experience. He was kicked off his high school team for bad attitude by his team mates, go figure. A little communication goes along way, isn't that the job of the coaches coordinator in the first place.

[whockeyguy]

first of all , no idiot has the right to against the wishes of a board of directors, second this indidual put many kids at risk with NO insurance, wonder if he would like to sit in court and try to defend himself,,, with that said if he felt this is unjust then he does have the right to file a greivence with the D-4 Mn Hockey director, and if you your telling me the truth then there are certain technicalities that could be challenged,,,,, But , the over laying fact here is that this guy took it upon himself to put KIDS in jeoperdy, and for what????????????????????????

[runingwithechukchi]

I was told he had insured these kids through AAU and they were insured at any rink so that reasoning is bull. There were 3 kids from a USA sanctioned team that played on this team they went to a Wisconsin Tournament, Wisconsin Association was notified that this would be a team that was not USA sanctioned they let them play as they needed a team. This is basically no different then a bunch of kids playing pond hockey with a mixture of kids some insured through USA hockey some not. This association has all squirts play in-house hockey, thats 50% traveling squirts registered with USA hockey and 50% not registered non insured players that the park and recreation insures. These kids play organized hockey together all year,games on Saturdays, I don't see the difference here.

[boblee]

Ok, the guy shoulda used his head. But banned for life? Bad decision.

[jancze5]

This is a JOKE...this guy only wanted to coach the girls. Everyone involved in this who calls themselves a YOUTH HOCKEY person should be shot.
Taking down a man who wants to do something good for the girls is ridiculous. The CORE of what youth hockey about is everything this guy wanted to do.

[pucker52]

I say good for the coach. Now he should take the next step, find a few more sponsors and put together a u12 team under the AAU. For years I watched a metro-area association give the girls program the short end of the stick because they thought the boys program would be weakened some how. The girls' parents basically operated the program with virtually no help from the association and the girls HS team went to state, the boys have never been and probably never will. It appears in this case you have one gate keeper that doesn't have the foresight to know how to make his own u12 team stronger.

[whockeyguy]

to all you so called experts here, you MISS the point. This coach took players that he had insurance for under AAU, accordingly to what is stated but played in a USA hockey tournament and other games... USA Hockey will ONLY insure thier players playing against other players insure with USA hockey.

So yes, his girls were insured but the players he played against were NOT.
Did he care about them, I think not

Now to think that this association is AGAINST girls hockey is crazy, board members usaully have kids playing whether they are boys or girls and I can not believe they acted out against this group.. . sounds to me youve got a coach that thinks he was above everybody and did his own thing,, heck it sounds like an attorney, to all the good attorneys out here i apologize , but have seen this so often by these people it stinks.
Yes maybe a life ban is on the extreme but i have no idea what this guy has done in the past and if he was warned the so be it.
There will be other people im sure that will step foward to coach

[whockeyguy]

If you believe the City has insurance on these kids playing squirt hockey in a house league I challenge you to go to the CITY office and ask them to see the policy and the coverage or these kids , so called have, I can tell you from past experience IT WILL SHOCK the HE-- double hockey sticks out of you,
Ask them what would happen to your kid if he he had an unfortunate accident and broke his leg or something more serious,,, You will be in the same boat as any high school hockey player, relying on your own coverage, and yes the kids that think they have USA Hockey coverage in this house league in fact DO NOT, as they must all be registered through USA Hockey to be covered,and it is a small price to pay for this type of insurance

[HockeyRocks1]

And USA Hockey insurance only covers you when all other means have been exausted.....USA HOCKEY INSURANCE is as close to NO INSURANCE that a person can get.

[ZAMBONI]

Wow, Look it up on the Albert Lea hockey web site. January 2007 board minutes. Then scroll down to coaches rep report for more info.

[whockeyguy]

yes its true USA hockey only picks up for what private insurance does not, but if your sitting in a hosptial for any time its well worth the coverage, and its alot more than the citie's or high school insurance , which is ZERO,, I believe this is heck of alot better than what you claim, better get your facts before you start spoutting off, just check with anybody that has filed a claim on USA hockey insurance and i bet you wont find anybody complaining

Hey there are many out in the world with no insurance and USA hockey does pick up for those indviduals at a 80/20 plan,

So if you can find better than that go out and buy it,

But seems to me this so called coach knows everything so why doesnt he buy the insurance for everybody then he wouldnt have to worry about it,

[runingwithechukchi]

whockeyguy,
You ask what has this guy done in the past? He was on the board for 2 years and sat on the fundraising committee and did a darn good job of it as well, findind over 10,000.00 of uncollected funds and was able to contact all past due families and got most of it collected. He truly wanted to be involved with this association but was pushed one too many times.
Go read the October 2005 board minutes you will read where he had a girls U-10 team all prepared to be rostered. He was looking for a motion from the floor to go forward with this team and not one person would give it, it died on the floor. People were worried that another team would put the bid for ice-time in a crunch.
This has not a dam thing to do with insurance as they would like people to believe. It is more about you do what we tell ya and don't mess with my little Jonny's ice-time.

[golfreak]

Tim C.
I never thought I'd do this but I'm quoting ZAMBONI, RELAX AND HAVE FUN, eh?

[whockeyguy]

Being a past board member gives NOBODY the right to put people at risk for the sake of ones EGO... thats what he did and you are confirming it with your statements. If you cant see the problem here, then youve got some major issues to be handled also,
Yes thes are kids but it this the repsonsbilty of the adults to make sure they are protected...
If you dont want your kids to play traveling hockey then you rent the ice yourself and put your BUT on the line if one of those kids get hurt, thats the world we live in today------- not 20 years ago. Ya, it might not be the best, but if you cant see this then there are serious problems

[hockeydad]

A coach asks the board for permission to do something, the board says no, and the guy finds a way to do it anyway.

Regardless of how reasonable or unreasonable the request for another team might have been, the decision was made and he should have followed it. Insubordination sounds like a pretty good reason to get rid of a coach.

Banning for life may be a bit extreme, but If I were on the boad of the Albert Lea Association, I'd think twice before allowing him to coach again.

[runingwithechukchi]

I guess it doesn't really matter Kevin has no intention of coaching in this program again anyway. Its too bad, they'll be losing a good level 4 coach. I guess they have more than enough good coaches down there anyway.

[golfreak]

I guess it doesn't really matter Kevin has no intention of coaching in this program again anyway. Its too bad, they'll be losing a good level 4 coach. I guess they have more than enough good coaches down there anyway.

That would've included you but then you were too selfish that when the board didn't give you the Peewee job, you packed up and left. There are a lot of great coaches in Albert Lea, the only problem is that they don't want to coach at the youth level because of idiots like you. You are exactly what is wrong with youth hockey today.