Dear Hockey Parent(s),
I am writing this letter to inform you of what has transpired since last Saturday at the Lakeland Ice Arena and where we stand as of today. As most of you are aware, we (LUHS Girls’ Hockey Team) received a third player disqualification for kicking an opposing player with a hockey skate blade. As shared with the team, coaches, and parents back in December, we were on notice with the WIAA, receiving a letter that informed us that we had received two (2) DQ’s during WIAA game competition to that point. The letter went on to warn us that a third DQ would render our team ineligible for WIAA post season play.
On Monday morning, I talked with Tom Shafranski (WIAA’s Hockey Head Administrator) regarding the incident that occurred on Saturday night, what options that we have as a team/school, and verbally appealed to him the inequities that occurred(penalties assessed), and overall official quality. After receiving our third DQ, some of you have expressed a desire to appeal an earlier DQ from December. I did address this with Mr. Shafranski, attempting to get this reviewed again through an appeal. He reported that once a DQ has been acted upon and the suspension served, you can no longer appeal this incident. Mr. Shafranski reiterated this statement in a subsequent email to a parent. Please see below:
“Please know that this Game Disqualification penalty has been completed. The penalty was thoroughly reviewed, acted upon, assessed and served. Video from both the Lakeland and Northland Pines school administrators was determined to be valid and needed to be provided prior to the actions that were taken to assess the penalty. I am not able to review additional video.”
“Mr. Updike has done everything in his power to review these situations. He has carefully reviewed every Game Disqualification and worked with coaches and players to prevent additional Game DQs; however, there has been no misapplication nor disagreement of NFHS or WIAA rules with any of the three Game Disqualification penalties assessed. Consequently, the WIAA hockey rule removing the Lakeland girls’ team from the WIAA tournament does have to stand. This has taken place with other hockey teams who have violated this rule since 1987.”
After verbally appealing our situation and reviewing the options or lack thereof with the WIAA on Monday morning, I found that we have no ground left to stand on. Therefore, I will not be filing a written appeal.
Sincerely,
Phillip L. Updike