I love this message..."son, if you don't win the award, just sue!" what a pile of crap... http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet...1107/SHOCKX/sports/sports/sports_temp/4/4/25/ Father files suit after son fails to win MVP award New Brunswick man seeks $300,000 in damages from hockey association By SHAWNA RICHER Thursday, November 7, 2002 – Page S1 A New Brunswick father is suing the provincial amateur hockey association after his 16-year-old son failed to win the league's most-valuable-player award. Michael Croteau is seeking $300,000 in psychological and punitive damages from the association. He is also demanding that the MVP trophy be taken from the boy who won it and given to his son, Steven, as well as the league's playmaker award, which was awarded to a different boy. Croteau also wants Steven to be guaranteed a spot on the New Brunswick Canada Winter Games roster. In an interview yesterday from his home on Lameque Island, N.B., Croteau said Steven was so crushed after losing the New Brunswick Bantam AAA MVP award at a banquet in March that he lost his love for playing hockey. That, his father argues, resulted in Steven failing to pursue the Canada Games tryouts in which he had been excelling. The league's nine coaches or managers vote for MVP. The voting is not disclosed. Steven, who plays for the Acadian Peninsula AAA team, stands 5 foot 4 and weighs 119 pounds. His father said he's grown two inches in the past year and two seasons ago was the league's rookie of the year. Steven led the league this season with 45 goals and 42 assists in 27 games. The league MVP, Lucas Martin who plays for Moncton, had 21 goals and 39 assists, fourth in the league. "How do you justify that?" Croteau said. "It's quite obvious he's the most valuable forward in the league." Brian Whitehead, in his fourth season as New Brunswick Amateur Hockey Association executive director, said he could not comment on the specifics of the lawsuit. "I'm not at liberty to talk about the statement of claim at this time," Whitehead said from his office in Fredericton. "But yes, there is a monetary sum attached to it." Whitehead, who said he received the suit on Oct. 28, referred the matter to the Canadian Hockey Association. Officials there will advise the New Brunswick body on a course of action. At this point, Whitehead said, the association has not hired a lawyer. The suit was filed in New Brunswick Provincial Court in Bathurst on Oct. 8. Whitehead said it's not the first time the association has been taken to court, but in every other case the suit involved player injury. Croteau said his son was "so hurt and damaged" after losing the awards in front of 250 people that night he came home and shoved his hockey equipment into a corner, saying he had no interest in playing again. "He was so sure of himself he took $50 of his own money to buy a nice shirt and tie to look good that night," he said. "And he was just humiliated." Whitehead said that when Steven didn't show up for the Canada Games practice two weeks after the banquet, coach Gerry Belliveau asked him to come out to the following one in May. But Steven declined. "He did not quit the Canada Games," Croteau said. "He just had to breathe. It's not the trophy, it's that he should have been honoured. I taught him since he learned to skate at three years old that hard work brings rewards. But that didn't happen. "I'm doing this because all the years I played and coached hockey I saw what good it could bring to your life. I'm doing this for my son. He feels very bad. He did his best. . . . I didn't want to go this far but hopefully it will be an example to others." One source close to the league who asked not to be identified said, "Steven's name would have been talked about for MVP. But it's like the Miss America pageant. On any given day, anyone that good could win." This suit comes on the heels of one involving nine-year-old John Bijelic of Mississauga, who is in small-claims court after suing a minor-hockey coach for $10,000, alleging he threatened to "put a bounty on his head."
Boohoo. Ever heard of a team player? The individual awards shouldn't mean that much, you play hard so that your team can win, you shouldn't be playing so that you can win as an individual. I don't think people will look down on him just because he never won the award, everybody will see the kids statistics. "oh, i never won, now i don't love hockey"...what a dumbass.
What a crybaby. Even though he was disappointed, a true MVP caliber player would have taken this as a challenge to excel even more and show them they were wrong. What a joke, this kid needs to get over it and play, rather than mope about it and sue.
I don't think the kid went out and got a lawyer and filed suit. It seems the dad is more hurt and damaged than the son.
Are you guy out of your mind? The discrepancy in the stats isn't eve close. The lawsuit kid should have won the MVP.
LOL. Remember the dad that sued the school for his son not making the varsity team, because it ruined a "possible NBA career", lol. Maybe the kid should of one, but you can't take away the award from the other kid, since it was a vote, and the kid lost. Maybe the kid that won was more valuable to his team. LOL. Give me a break. Only 1 kid wins the MVP Award. How can you be humiliated!?
If you are truly serious, how can you say that without ever seeing them play? Perhaps the MVP was so good that other teams routinely kept 2 or 3 skaters on him and he still managed the stats that he did. Perhaps the MVP was also a defensive stud that routinely kept the other team from scoring.
maybe he left the price tag on the shirt so that everyone knew he bought a new shirt because he was so confident about his impending MVP victory?
LOL. Even if he deserved to win MVP, you don't just go out and sue. That is the way it is. The best player doesn't always win the award. He might not of been the best player.
perhaps a precedent is soon to be set? I can just picture Kobe Bryant suing Shaq next July for the rights to the 2003 MVP award.
They said that the kid spent $50 on a shirt and tie and ended up being humiliated...damn, if i was that kid, i'd be a hella alot more humiliated at the fathers actions and the whole "suiing" ordeal.
I don’t know if you guys have anything similar down there, but the “hockey parent syndrome” (my term) is getting out of control here. Many parents live through their kids, and have dreams that their kid is going to be a big NHL star. Here’s one article I found on the subject. http://www.carleton.ca/ctown/archiv/nov2699/sport2.htm I went to high school with a guy (two brothers actually) whose mom was one of these bleacher freaks. Screaming and yelling at everybody, the ref, the other team, her sons. Ugly. Her boys were good, but the didn’t even make Junior A. They were never NHL material. One was checked into the boards, head first, in the middle of a period. He toughed it out and finished the period, but in the dressing room between periods he was having trouble lifting his arms over his shoulders. They took him to the hospital and found out that he had a fractured vertebra and his spinal cord was being pinched. He wore the big steel halo for months afterward. He never said it, but I wondered if he didn’t come out of the game because he didn’t want to get yelled at by his mother. Crazy. (This place is a long ferry ride from where fadaway lives, btw, but I’ve noticed that he doesn’t like to talk about his part of the world that much. With a name like Croteau, the family is probably Acadian, the people the Cajuns are descended from. Here ends you trivia lesson for today. )
I am a certified soccer ref. I ref 3-5 games every Saturday. Coaches are crazy, but the parents are worse. I am considered as one of 2 or 3 best refs in the league, but every week atleast 1 parent is a pain in the ass. I refed a 8 year old girls game once, and no one complained the whole game. There was this one little girl that kept tripping. She would trip over her teammates and the ball the whole game (this was a rec league). No one complained every time she tripped, because it wasn't a foul. After the game her dad came over to me and said that she was so sad and beat up that she hated soccer, and that I let it get "too physical". I was like "these are 8 year old girls for Christ Sake!They don't push or shove. If they accidently do they go like "O my gosh I'm so sorry." One thing I hate is that over half of the time the parents and sometimes even coaches don't know the rules. It is aweful. I play on 3 basketball teams (school, church, travel). My parents are into the game, but they don't go nuts. My mom thinks that everything I do is great, even if I throw it over the backboard, lol. My dad isn't exactly like that, but he is good too. He tells me what I am doing good and what I need to work on. I hate when parents try to live through their kids. They should realize that kids have more fun and feel less pressure when their parents aren't physco about sports.
