A Saskatchewan hockey referee is gaining widespread attention after posting a video on social media telling coaches and parents to “do better.”
Dave Kadun recently took to Instagram, calling on the hockey community to think twice before yelling — or swearing — at a young official.
“Think about what you’re doing when you’re yelling at a 12 or 13-year-old kid,” Kadun said in his video, which has garnered 1.5 million views.
“You’re killing them inside.”
“Why does no one want to ref games?”
KidsRefs don’t want to work anymore.
Dave Kadun said if mistakes are made, there can still be level-headed conversations.
“Talk with the officials, they’re people. Call them over, get down on ice level, and talk with them in a calm manner. It goes a long way in regards to learning,” Kadun said.
Encouraging fans to stop games to “teach” the referee is not a good suggestion…
He said he hopes his video will help those in the hockey community who have yelled or sworn at a young referee to correct their behavior.
I feel like a better one would be security or other fans enforcing social norms like not cussing out children at youth sporting events.
Like, dude’s heart is in the right place, but he’s still not getting it.
I was an official for 20 years and there’s very little that can actually get the
childrenparents in the stands to behave. The only thing I’ve heard that was moderately successful was to essentially have designated parent referees. They would officiate their own fan’s behavior and if someone got out of line, their team would receive a penalty. Essentially if you were an asshole, you penalized your own kid’s team, making you an even greater asshole.
