HOOKSETT, N.H. (WHDH) - A youth hockey coach from Connecticut has been fired after he grabbed a player and pulled him down in the final moments of an 8-0 loss in Hooksett, New Hampshire over the weekend.
“I was just blown away that he allowed himself to get to that point,” said coach Tama Parsons, who says she didn’t see her player hit the ice but she heard it.
“One of our players skated by and said, ‘that was a coach who pulled me down like that,'” she recalled.
Parsons was coaching her Merrimack-Valley-based team of 13 and 14-year-old boys in a tournament when the opposing team’s coach reached over and grabbed one her players by the jersey, knocking him to the ice.
“As an adult, as a coach, you know better, and it was so unacceptable,” Parsons said. “There is no reason for it.”
The coach was escorted from the area.
In a statement, the South Windsor Youth Hockey Association said, “We strongly oppose and are offended by this type of action and as a result, the coach was terminated and forbidden from coaching in any and all South Windsor Youth Hockey Association events.”
The coach did pass a background check and complete annual training as required by USA Hockey.
The Connecticut Hockey Conference is investigating the incident.
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