Minor hockey volunteers face unenviable position of upholding HNL policies

This column is an opinion by John Spencer, a former educator and active volunteer with the Port aux Basques Minor Hockey Association and Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador.  For more information about  CBC's Opinion section , please see the  FAQ .

I had volunteered to act as the Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador (HNL) coordinator for an Easter tournament in Port aux Basques. It was my second provincial event in as many weeks. In total it meant volunteering to be in the arena for six days and overseeing 22 games. With each tournament came a list of duties outlined in a HNL policy manual.

At the second tournament the manual was a little thicker with ice time guidelines for players, complete with a number of sample letters with a bold headline "Hockey NL ice time allocation sanctioning letter" neatly tucked in the back.

Locked in my email was another HNL document that was key to a series of events that were to follow on the provincial fair play policy. HNL was on a mission to ensure every child involved in a tournament got equal ice time.

It sounds truly altruistic. But was it reality? 

History has taught us that minor hockey and Easter tournaments are about winning gold. Easter tournaments in N.L. are a rite of passage for some — it ranks up there with baptism.

At least that was my experience at Easter tournaments over the years as a coach, before moving into municipal politics. There was nothing but potholes to deal with in that field. In retrospect, though, bringing about change in culture involving fair play in minor hockey at Easter may be akin to municipal politics and provincewide regionalization.

But imagine sitting high up in the stands with pen and clipboard in hand and attempting to ensure every