Last season, Ryan Arnold was named the peewee coach of the year by the Prince George Minor Hockey Association. During his eight years of coaching minor hockey, he has gained the respect of parents and players for his work behind the bench.
In those eight seasons, he has only been penalized once - a two-minute bench minor for arguing an official's call. Earlier this season, he was suspended briefly for not turning in his scoresheets on time to the minor hockey office.
Now some people want to run Arnold out of town.
Arnold is the coach of the Viking Construction Cougars Tier 1 peewee hockey team. After a controversial winning goal went against them during a tournament in Vernon earlier this month, a frustrated and angry Arnold led his players to the dressing room without staying for the customary handshakes at centre ice with their victorious opponents.
The only reason anyone outside of minor hockey circles even know this happened is because of what happened next. One of the Cougars players, 12-year-old defenceman Matt Marotta, did not follow his coach and teammates. Alone, he stayed on the ice to shake hands with the winning team.
For obvious reasons, Matt has earned widespread praise for his good sportsmanship while Arnold has been harshly condemned for not showing better leadership.
In a story in Saturday's Citizen, Arnold admitted he made a mistake that embarrassed himself, his players, Prince George minor hockey and the city of Prince George.
"I expect there to be consequences, and I don't blame them (Prince George Minor Hockey Association) for suspending me," he said. "Ultimately it's a decision I made and I will wear it. I made a mistake. All I can do is own what happened, learn from it and move forward, and that's what I'm prepared to do."
To read some of the commentary online, however, Arnold should never be allowed to coach again, a punishment completely out of line with the seriousness of the infraction.
The Citizen's advertising director, Dave Smith, is a former junior hockey player, an assistant coach with the Spruce Kings for a brief period of time and a longtime hockey scout. He says it's not unusual for minor hockey teams on the losing end of a hard-fought game decided by a controversial call to not stay for handshakes with the winner. He's seen it for himself this season.
Some residents, as well as some media outlets, have decided there is a link worth noting between Arnold's coaching error and his job with the Prince George RCMP. Cpl. Arnold took a statement from Greg Matters on June 3, 2011, 15 months before Matters was shot and killed on his Pineview property by Prince George RCMP after a lengthy standoff. As the team leader of the emergency response team that had deployed to the Matters property, Arnold had been stationed in a command post on a neighbour's property at the time Matters was killed.
Reporting the two incidents together, as if they are somehow connected, is irresponsible and mean-spirited journalism.
The easy way to prove that point is to reverse the circumstances. If Matters had been killed last week and the hockey incident had happened two years ago, no reporter would write a story that read: "The leader of the police squad involved in the shooting death of a Pineview man last week coached a hockey team two years ago that didn't shake hands with the opposing team after a tournament loss."
The two events clearly have nothing to do with each other. The only purpose in connecting them is to smear the individual.
And for the folks who still think Arnold is the bad guy, then follow the example set by young Matt Marotta and his family.
As his mother explains in a letter to the editor on this page, Matt's reason to stay behind and shake hands was simply that it wasn't Nanaimo's fault the officials missed the fact the time clock hadn't started when it should have. Most importantly, he stands by his teammates and his coach. Both he and his family appreciate the time Arnold and the other coaches spend with the team and the passion they bring to hockey.
If Matt Marotta and his family are big enough to accept Arnold's apology, that should be good enough for the rest of the community.
