Glenn Baldwin
LANCASHIRE, UK – A respected English junior coach has hit out at Manchester Storm Academy, claiming that the club failed in its duty of care during last weekend’s game against Billingham Stars’ U13 side.
Storm racked up a 66-0 scoreline against the young Stars, firing 151 shots in the process to spark outrage across a variety of platforms at the manner of the victory.
The Altrincham-based club lost a play-off to miss out on promotion to a higher division at the end of last season, but officials subsequently asked the English Ice Hockey Association to move them up anyway due to the strength of their U13 squad.
The request fell on deaf ears, leaving Storm to play teams who are struggling to compete on an equal footing with them.
Bradford Bulldogs coach Glenn Baldwin admitted that he sympathised with Storm’s predicament, but says there is no excuse for the organisation to use another club’s junior players to make a point to the governing body.
“Getting kids into ice hockey is hard enough as we all know – it’s a minority sport and keeping them in it and interested is even harder,” he said.
“We really need to stay away from games like the Billingham game at the weekend. It was farcical, wrong and perhaps even abusive. It should never happen to any other team again.
“Junior hockey can cost a fortune for parents and in return the least they deserve is that their children are happy and looked after.
“Every coach has a code of conduct and within that code is a duty of care. I don’t feel that duty was taken in the game with the 0-66 scoreline.
“There are many ways in junior hockey that that could have been avoided. I have witnessed teams that have been on both sides of high scores, but would never have let it run away as much as it did.”
Billingham Stars U13s
Baldwin, who has coached extensively in the EIHA’s Conference programme, believes that the focus in the younger age groups should purely be about enjoyment of the game, and that coaches on both sides have a duty to ensure that every player has fun.
He believes scorelines such as the one in the Stars versus Storm game could result in young players being lost to the sport, something he says would be a step back for junior hockey.
“We need to nurture these kids and make them happy,” he added. “After U13s they start to become quite independent and more competitive when they move up to U15s.
“However at the bottom ages – 13, 11 and 9 – all we need is to see these kids laughing smiling and enjoying every time they step foot on the ice. If they do, they will want to come back week-after-week.”
Baldwin is also worried about the structure of the sport at senior level. He thinks the Elite League should be doing more to encourage British players by reducing import numbers.
With big changes potentially coming to the governance of the sport in this country, Baldwin believes that it is crucial a clear pathway is built that starts with the youngest age group and finishes with the national team.
“Where do most juniors go after reaching senior age?” said Baldwin. “A lot quit or go to recreational hockey as there simply aren’t the places within the teams for them.
“Where will our future Great Britain stars come from? In my eyes, icing so many imports in the EIHL is wrong as it has a snowball effect through to the lower leagues.
“The collapse of the English Premier League was a hard pill to swallow. Yes, it has vastly improved NIHL1, but at what cost?
“The league has become much stronger with the inclusion of the EPL clubs that is has forced some players out of D1 as coaches look to recruit three or four solid lines.
“This also has a massive effect on junior hockey, as we have nowhere near as many face cages on the bench at that level as we should have.
“The new governing body needs to have a long hard look and have a serious development plan in place that starts at U9s hockey.
“We have now made the big show with the GB men’s team and with having Liam Kirk drafted to the NHL things are going in the right direction. It needs to carry on.”
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