OHL Suspends Referee for Rest of Season for Tweet

[nilan30]

Originally Posted by chilly666

yup...see derek schoenmakers. the hounds acquired him from windsor, but he didn't want to go there. he wanted to go to kitchener which is closer to home for him. but there are many players that don't want to go to peterborough or other teams for various reasons.

the family wants to be able to see their kids play without them having to go live with a billet so the family says they won't report in hopes of their kid being dealt to their hometown team or close enough to where they will live with it.

That's pretty sad.

[4thLineGoon]

The best part is, if David Branch doesn't blow this up into a federal case, nobody ever sees those comments. The ref probably has less than 50 followers on Twitter, if they called him and issued a warning, no big deal it goes away.

Unless Branch's platform is "accountability" but given his stance on fighting, that's real low on his list.

[pigfarmer]

Originally Posted by nilan30

That's pretty sad.

Really? I mean, as a guy who watches a bunch of USHL games, I am still amazed that parents would be OK to let their 16/17 year old son who is still in high school go live far away from home for half the year. Its got to be one of the toughest things to do, why wouldn't you want to have your child at home with you?

[chilly666]

while what you said makes sense though...if it's the best thing for the player to further his career that he wants to have, wouldn't you understand and let him follow his dream or would you wanna be the parent that tells your son, **** you i don't want you to leave, so you're not going anywhere unless it's close to us?

[pigfarmer]

Originally Posted by chilly666

while what you said makes sense though...if it's the best thing for the player to further his career that he wants to have, wouldn't you understand and let him follow his dream or would you wanna be the parent that tells your son, **** you i don't want you to leave, so you're not going anywhere unless it's close to us?

Oh, I understand what you are saying, and I'm not trying to argue with you, going to the OHL is all about tryinig to make it, and its your shot. But why not try to get on a team closer to home? I'm not a parent, but I couldn't imagine how hard that would have been for my parents if I left for half a year while still in high school.

To the the argument boils down to, yes, you understand they need to go if they want to pursue hockey, so in the end you will let them go, but at the same time, it must suck that you have to make the decision to let your kid go.

[theknuckler]

Originally Posted by 4thLineGoon

The best part is, if David Branch doesn't blow this up into a federal case, nobody ever sees those comments. The ref probably has less than 50 followers on Twitter, if they called him and issued a warning, no big deal it goes away.

Unless Branch's platform is "accountability" but given his stance on fighting, that's real low on his list.

Can't imagine theres too many people who follow refs, let alone junior refs on twitter.

[chilly666]

Originally Posted by 4thLineGoon

The best part is, if David Branch doesn't blow this up into a federal case, nobody ever sees those comments. The ref probably has less than 50 followers on Twitter, if they called him and issued a warning, no big deal it goes away.

actually the greyhounds reported it to branch after fans had relayed it on to them. so obviously some fans thought that they wouldn't get a fair shake along with the greyhounds as well in games that he would ref in.

[pigfarmer]

Originally Posted by theknuckler

Can't imagine theres too many people who follow refs, let alone junior refs on twitter.

I think a lot of people follow the refs just to see who is going to be reffing a game before game time.

[The Dougler]

Originally Posted by nilan30

Does this actually happen? And the league lets the kids go elsewhere? If so Thunder Bay is gonna be pretty much screwed if they get a team when they build their new rink. I think AHL is a better (although still not great) fit anyways but that's a whole different conversation.

Oh yeah. Like Chilly said there are examples every year. That's one of the major reasons all these great players end up in London, Kitchener and Windsor every year. It happens to a lot of teams but the northern teams carry a stigma. And with Brampton moving to North Bay it's going to happen more.

The Majors drafted Nick Ebert, he said he wasn't going to report and in comes Windsor. There was Domi getting drafted by Kingston and ending up in London. Josh Ho Sang apparently would only go to Windsor so a few teams had to pass on him. It's all very clandestine. Parents will threaten to go to the NCAA if they don't get the team they want to draft their kid.

I was surprised when Darnell Nurse reported to the Soo and it hasn't hurt his standing for this years draft. I can understand why parents feel this way because these guys are just kids, but being helicopter parents who manipulate the rules is one of the major things wrong with this league at the moment.