Article written by Steve Rice of the Stratford Beacon Herald:
Tony Martindale was looking forward to getting out of his office Tuesday to watch some of the action in the Ontario Hockey Federation bantam AAA tournament at the RBC Arena in the Rotary Complex.
The executive director of the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario enjoys this time of year as championships are contested at all levels around the province.
“It’s a fun time of year for the executive to get out and see the kids, hand out a trophy and shake their hand, whether it’s house league or midget triple-A,” Martindale said from the corporate office on Albert Street in Stratford. “That’s when it’s fun.”
It makes the hours of work through the season worthwhile for Martindale and his staff. And things are hectic when you’re overseeing an organization with associations from Windsor to Waterloo to Fort Erie with 31,000 members playing up to 2,500 games each week.
One of the mundane but critical tasks is making sure that when players or coaches step over the competitive line in one of those games they face an appropriate punishment.
A three-member discipline committee consisting of a chairman, the referee supervisor, and another board member meet “15 to 20” times each year to deal with the severest infractions. Martindale’s role is to provide the committee with all of the pertinent information.
By the constitution, the committee is required to hold a hearing when there is physical or verbal abuse of an official, a refusal to play or finish a game, or a falsification of official documents such as player cards or game sheets.
“We’ve always been proponents of letting the kids decide the game on the ice, and if we’ve got coaches or anyone making decisions that takes the game away from the kids, then it’s our responsibility to do something about it,” Martindale said. “I’ve always been a firm believer in that and so has our association.
“Whether we’re volunteers or paid employees, that’s our responsibility.”
Penalties range from a stern warning to up to three years suspension and may depend not only on the facts in the case but on the sense of remorse from the offending individual.
“If you’ve got a player, coach or referee coming in and it’s everybody else’s fault then it probably gets looked upon differently than somebody who’s willing to take responsibility for what they’ve done,” Martindale said.
Like most other amateur hockey leagues, those suspensions are never made public. In fact, in meetings with the various associations, Martindale does not include names in his discipline reports.
“(Making the suspensions public) is a decision that would have to be made at the board level,” he said. “We have asked it and the consensus has been, no, let’s keep it in-house and deal with it here.”
Martindale played varsity hockey at Wilfrid Laurier, was later an assistant coach there, then head coach at Conestoga College before returning to be head coach at Laurier for four years ending in 2001. He was also general manager of Kitchener minor hockey.
He recognizes that the desire to win may perhaps be a little higher in hockey than it is in other sports, leading individuals to decisions they might not make otherwise.
“I think you see it at all levels of hockey, and others sports,” he said. “Maybe hockey because it’s our pasttime and considered our sport, it’s maybe escalated a bit. (But) I think it’s our responsibility to make sure it’s a kids game and to curb that stuff when we see it.
“I think for the most part everybody’s in it for the right reasons. Sometimes they just need to be reminded of that. That’s the executive’s and the staff’s responsibility.”
Besides the OHF bantam triple-A tournament now going on at the RBC Arena, hosted by the Huron-Perth Lakers, Stratford will also be the site of the OHF midget A championships April 11-13 at the Molson Arena, hosted by the Stratford Minor Hockey Association.