It's time for the Estevan Minor Hockey Association to lift up the rug.
There may not be anything under it, but people are talking.
I have spent the past three weeks trying to track down EMHA president Kelly Kjersem for an interview about an incident in North Dakota near the end of the hockey season.
The incident allegedly included an altercation between minor hockey parents and a coach, and suspensions were levied.
The existence of this matter was raised to the public's attention in a letter to the editor in the May 11 issue of the Mercury, written by suspended EMHA coach Kevin Pastachak.
The letter criticized Kjersem and the EMHA for not publicizing the incident and for a perceived lack of transparency.
It also took issue with the Mercury for writing about suspensions to Pastachak and Jeff Yanko, but not touching on the North Dakota incident.
I made contact with Kjersem, attempting to learn more about the second matter and to try to understand the disparity in the suspensions - three years to Yanko for a lapse in judgement behind the bench, one year to the parents for an alleged assault.
Kjersem continually told me he didn't have time, that he would do it another day, eventually saying he was planning on writing a scathing letter to "embarrass" Pastachak, a former EMHA coach, for asking questions.
Sixteen days after that conversation, that letter has never come and he has not returned any of my calls.
As a new resident of Estevan, I don't pretend to know the long-standing issues, or the history, or possible grudges between involved players.
I do know there are a lot of questions in the community about the transparency and neutrality of EMHA leadership. I have heard them from all corners in a few short weeks.
Another rumour floating is that Kjersem plans to cancel the Midget A program next season. If this is true, the public deserves to know, and know why.
There are a lot of children and a lot of lives affected by EMHA's decisions, and they deserve a full explanation. They also deserve to have those decisions made in their best interest.
When you, as a grassroots community organization, refuse to speak to the media, it sure gives the impression that you have something to hide.
That may or may not be true. But there's an easy way to fix it.
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It's hard not to feel for the athletes across the province who may have come home with a medal to show their grandkids.
They lost that opportunity Friday when the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association was forced to cancel the provincial track meet, caused by the ongoing teachers' dispute.
I'm not taking sides, but crushing kids' dreams doesn't get us anywhere.
Josh Lewis can be reached by phone at 634-2654, by e-mail at [email protected] or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshlewis306. He's hoping Vancouver will win the Stanley Cup, partly because Mercury general manager Brant Kersey might hand out bonuses, and partly because it would allow him to pass Bruins head coach Keith Cassidy in the Viking playoff pool.
