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January 10, 2012

Recent tragedies shine light on hockey safety

By Shane Frederick Free Press Staff Writer

— Mankato West boys hockey coach Curtis Doell takes hockey safety very seriously.
Last week’s news that Benilde-St. Margaret’s player Jack Jablonski was paralyzed after getting checked from behind into the boards and the outpouring of support that has followed that injury has stirred some scary memories from Doell’s own hockey past.
“My brother was checked from behind in a game,” he said. “Back when I was playing youth hockey, I showed up to the rink two minutes into the first period, and my family was nowhere to be found. The ambulance had taken my brother to the hospital. Fortunately, it was for preventative reasons.”
Kevin Doell was lucky. He was OK. He went on to play college hockey at Denver and even had a cup of coffee in the National Hockey League. Curtis Doell said another friend of his broke his neck during a game and ended up “in a halo for a long time,” but even he got back on the ice eventually.
Jablonski won’t be as fortunate, as doctors said the spinal-cord injury he suffered on Dec. 30 is so severe that he’ll never walk again. (His mother did report over the weekend, however, that he has been able to move his arms.)
Another hockey player, Jenna Privette of St. Croix Lutheran, was hospitalized after a similar incident on Friday and reportedly has no feeling below her waist.
“I can’t imagine, as a coach or as a dad, dealing with that,” Doell said.
On Thursday, during the girls and boys games between Mankato West and Mankato East/Loyola, wristbands will be sold to benefit the Jablonski family. The fundraiser was set up by the Benilde girls team, who had 50,000 made to sell for $2 each. The Mankato Area Hockey Association obtained 500 wristbands to sell. If they sell out, orders can be made for more.
The support from the greater hockey community has been impressive, as Jablonski has taken a call from Wayne Gretzky and has been visited by members of the Minnesota Wild and San Jose Sharks.
More importantly, both accidents have shed light on safety for all players. Last week, the Minnesota State High School League sent a memo out to all coaches requesting they do their best to eliminate checking from behind.
Area coaches said they have taken time to re-emphasize the rules and on-ice behavior, including both delivering checks and taking hits, especially along the boards.
“The big thing now is continuing to educate kids,” Doell said.
Doell said he tries to emphasize players using angles and thinking about body position, “instead of looking for big hits.”
Said Aaron Anderson, the East/Loyola boys coach: “We tell them, ‘If you see (the other player’s) back — even at the last second — you just do anything you can to not finish that check.’”
As in the case of Privette, checking from behind is not just a problem in boys hockey, and the area girls coaches have also talked to their teams about safe play.
“We don’t want to see players going down — ever,” East/Loyola girls coach Nate Fuller said. “Last week, we took time in practice teaching how to safely take the puck from another player, how to go into the corner under control and be ready for a player to turn.”
It’s good to see that those discussions are taking place; it’s just too bad that it takes a tragic injury or two to get people talking.

Shane Frederick is a Free Press staff writer. Read his blog at mankatofreepresshockey.blogspot.com. Follow him on Twitter @puckato.

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