An eight-year-old hockey player has been banned from a Quebec tournament for being "bigger and stronger" than his other competitors. Jared Murray, grand-nephew of Ottawa Senators coach Bryan Murray, is a four-foot-nine, 110-pound Grade 3 student registered as a novice B player with the Shawville Blackhawks. His team was 11-3-2 during the season, finishing fourth in the standings, and Murray recorded a staggering 51 goals in 17 games. But Hockey Outaouais officials have ruled that he is ineligible to play in the regional playdown tournament because of his size and strength. "They said that, basically, he was too strong to play with his team," Blackhawk's head coach Dan Duggan told Canada AM on Thursday. "I can't understand how they could say that the team was too strong as they finished fourth out of 20 teams."
In a show of support, the entire Shawville, Que. association has pulled its seven other teams and about 130 players from the tournament. Murray says he's disappointed he can't play in the tournament. "I think it was dumb because all the other teams got to go and then we don't get to go because we're too strong," he told CTV News. Duggan said reports in the media that the association was asked to move the team up to novice A are false. On Wednesday, Murray's grand-uncle criticized the decision. "I don't think anybody should be discriminated against because of size," the Senators' coach told The Canadian Press. "It's parents, it's administrators of programs I suppose . . . that have made this decision and I don't understand it." 
No comments:
Post a Comment