"Adults can ruin anything," said Sean Fitz-Gerald, senior writer for The Athletic and author of a new book called "Before the Lights Go Out: A Season Inside a Game on the Brink." Fitz-Gerald, appearing on CBC's 'The Current', told the host specialized skills coaches, clinics and equipment like $300 sticks are putting youth hockey out of reach for many families, while the pressure being put on children to excel is turning a hobby into more of a job.
"All of these things are barriers that we've allowed to go up around the game and are now becoming a real challenge for entry," said Fitz-Gerald.
He stated that, not only do parents have to deal with pricey equipment and specialized training, they must also deal with "soft costs," like having a car or being able to take time off work to get kids to a tournament out of town. He said parents who can afford extra clinics feel obligated to do so because no one wants to hear their kid say they didn't make the team.
For his new book, Fitz-Gerald interviewed Roch Carrier, the Quebec author of The Hockey Sweater,who told him he's dismayed by how serious the game has become for parents and their kids.
"The bags that he sees these kids pull out of these SUVs to go play hockey are bigger than the ones he took to go to boarding school," said Fitz-Gerald. "And the kids are yelling at the parents and the parents are yelling at the kids. He says that it's not a game anymore; it's a job."
Fitz-Gerald claimed the impact is showing, as the Peterborough Minor Hockey Association told him they've been losing 100 players per year for three years now. There are programs available to help kids and parents with equipment costs and, in some cases, kids can donate their used equipment back to their programs in exchange for reduced enrollment costs.
According to Fitz-Gerald, Hockey Canada is having conversations about these issues, but getting to solutions that work nation-wide is a "massive issue" because there are different factors in each community.
Source: CBC.ca
