Canada's Hockey Teams Rocked by Coach-Sex Scandals

"Hockey is Canada's religion, and, in fact, it is Canada itself," according to Canadians dismayed by a series of reports that many of their favorite sport's foremost coaches have been sexually abusing their teen-aged proteges with regularity. "This has really touched on hallowed ground," says John Lovell, head coach of the Owen Sound Platers.

The coach-hockey-sex scandal blew sky-high with the January sentencing of Graham James, one of the most successful coaches in Western Canada's junior leagues. James was sentenced to three and a half years for abusing two of his teen players "hundreds of times." One of the youths, handsome Sheldon Kennedy, now a forward with the Boston Bruins, said that James had frequently taken advantage of him.

"When things like that happen, you hide your feelings and you never talk," said Kennedy to Canadian newspapers. The Globe and Mail, a leading Canadian journal, called hockey "a diseased game." Graham James was characterized by TV's host of "Hockey Night in Canada," as "a creep." The host, Don Cherry, also used other words to denounce James but these words, according to media reports, were not suitable for broadcast. "This is one of the worst things I have ever heard in my life," said Cherry, asking to be understood for his misuse of language.

Unrestrained competition for high hockey status rules in Canada. The nation has three times as many hockey arenas as hospitals. With a population of only 30 million, nearly four and a half million are engaged in the sport as coaches, players, volunteers and administrators. There are a half-million boys, aged 4 to 20, active in youth leagues. Sheldon Kennedy said of his coach that most of the players seemed "willing" to do almost anything to guarantee professional success.

It is estimated that sixty-five percent of players now in the N.H.L. come through the junior leagues where the scandals have erupted. Kurt Walsh, 19, captain of the Owen Sound Platers, believes that such abuse is "a part of hockey, a bad part that's rarely seen." Walsh admits that "it's a tough situation."

Another prominent coach, Brian Shaw, who passed away in 1993, now stands accused of enticing and threatening young players into sexual relations for 30 years. Shaw was also general manager and later chairman of the Western Hockey League Board of Governors. Two other coaches, who both plead guilty in Quebec, are now under public scrutiny for assaults on hockey-playing minors. One was sentenced to five months in prison.

There's no solution in the works, according to those who'd restore hockey's stellar reputation. No one can estimate how long it will take Canada to get over the coach-sex scandals. Christopher Yong, a Platers executive says that "it may be a scab that's going to be there forever and ever, but hockey will survive." Yong reflected that "everybody in the world" associates Canada with hockey.