Minnesota youth hockey coaches required to wear helmets in 2006-07

By Hal Tearse — letsplayhockey.com

On Jan. 14, the Minnesota Hockey Board of Directors decided in a 26-2 vote that it was time to protect the 8,000 registered youth coaches in Minnesota from serious head injuries and possible death.

The new rule requiring coaches to wear HECC approved helmets for on-ice activities will take effect with the 2006-07 season and at all of the 2005-06 Minnesota Hockey camps and programs.

This rule change has been discussed for several years, and until recently, there was not enough attention or information regarding the need. The Safety Committee, chaired by me, assembled a group of doctors and knowledgeable hockey people to review the information. As the committee members discussed the subject with hockey friends they began to discover an alarming trend. The fact is that hockey coaches are falling and quite regularly suffering concussions and in some cases skull fractures.

The problem with quantifying the number of injuries is that there is not a central registry that is collecting this type of data. The more the committee researched the more coaches we discovered had been injured, some severely. Even during the discussions at the Minnesota Hockey board meeting, three board members related stories of coaches they knew that had suffered serious head injuries in the past year.

The committee’s presentation to the board related the details of six coaches that have died across the country since 1999. One of those unlucky coaches was Wes Barrette from St. Paul. The presentation also detailed numerous incidents in the past two years that have occurred around the state that resulted in coaches being severely injured and having to miss as many as 60 days of work for recovery and rehabilitation.

In December of 2005 a Moorhead youth coach suffered a severe concussion and fracture. He will be off the ice for six weeks recovering.

A Chaska Mite coach, Dan Newell, suffered a severe skull fracture on Dec. 17, 2005, and according to his doctors had he not been so close to the trauma center at HCMC (8 minutes by helicopter) he would likely have suffered permanent damage and possible loss of life.

These are just some of the examples and incidents that were shared with the Board of Directors.

Hockey has done a great job of protecting the players and referees but very little to protect the coaches. Every day during the winter in Minnesota, as many as 5,000 youth hockey coaches step onto the ice. Coaches now spend more time in the teaching process of Tell-Demonstrate-Observe-and Correct. It is the process that diverts their attention and can result in their being knocked down by a skater who has fallen behind them. It is the Demonstrate part of the process that has taken the lives of three coaches and caused many serious injuries.

Hockey coaches are the links that hold the programs together. They are role models, teachers, leaders, moms, and dads. Youth hockey is a recreational activity and the members all have a responsibility to insure the safety of the participants including the coaches.

Minnesota is not the first organization to require their coaches to wear helmets. Michigan Amateur Hockey instituted the rule seven years ago. CHA (Canadian Hockey Association) has a helmet requirement. USA Hockey is also in a fact-finding mode and may consider a rule change at the Annual Congress.

Even though the helmet rule does not take effect until the 2006-2007 season, local associations and districts are encouraged to require helmets on their coaches for the remainder of this season.

Hockey is the greatest game on earth to play and watch. At the youth level it is just that, a game and not one worth dying over.

Hal Tearse is Coach-in-Chief of Minnesota Hockey