Contact in Peewee hockey has absorbed another crushing body-check with the delivery of yet another study denouncing the practice because it increases the risk of concussions in young players.
A University of Calgary study released last week suggests helmets, while protecting players from severe skull trauma and brain injury, do not prevent concussions. Another U of C study in 2010 found body-checking increases the risk of concussions among Peewee-aged players (11 and 12-year-olds).
It’s a going concern for the Cochrane Minor Hockey Association (CMHA), which has been grappling with the issue for a couple of seasons.
“It’s actually going to be a topic at our next board meeting again,” CMHA president Howie Kroon stated. “Individually, everybody has opinions.”
Hockey Calgary, the governing body for amateur hockey in the city, considered removing contact from Peewee hockey last year, but didn’t in the end to stay consistent with the rest of Alberta. Hockey Alberta, the province’s amateur hockey governing organization, has now stick-handled into the discussion.
“Because we’re such a small association, we defer to Hockey Alberta. I’m pleased they’re looking at it,” Kroon said. “They have the resources to look at all that stuff. When Hockey Calgary was looking at it, it was going to be a little more of an awkward thing. We would have then taken it back to the Central Alberta Hockey League, which is our association, or over to Hockey Alberta.
“We would probably seriously follow the recommendations of Hockey Alberta.”
At the elite level, played in Cochrane by the Bow Valley Timberwolves in the South Central Alberta Hockey League’s Peewee AA division, contact is a given. It’s not unusual to see Peewee Timberwolves flying around the ice, body-checking opposing players to gain possession of the puck.
Removing contact at this level would change the game, and how it is coached, fundamentally.
“Obviously, the coaches would have to adapt to it,” said James Rendell, director of the Timberwolves AA hockey program in Cochrane. “I don’t think that would be a stretch. Rules have changed in all sports over time, and coaches simply adapt to them.”
Rendell mentioned a rule change two seasons ago that made head contact illegal.
“We had to go through a learning curve on that. At the end of the day, I think it’s been a really good rule and I’ve seen less injury at the AA level since the head-contact rule has come into effect. I don’t see as many concussions. This is not a scientific study. This is my own observation.”
According to both Kroon and Rendell, one thing is for certain; the body-checking discussion in Cochrane and throughout Peewee hockey in Alberta will be lively and opinionated.
Hockey Alberta will have plenty of constituents willing to throw their weight behind the body-checking discussion.
