A Sad Day for BI Roller Hockey

For those of you who know my 2nd son, Micah, you know that he LOVES roller hockey! A couple of years ago, we heard about the BI Roller Hockey League on the island and he decided to try it out. Turns out he’s a natural and he had two great seasons playing with them. The league promotes itself as being “family-friendly” and “welcoming” and “all-inclusive.” It doesn’t matter if you’ve never even been on roller blades before; you are encouraged to come and play.

EXCEPT, apparently, if you have any sort of religious beliefs which encourage you to maintain a Sabbath day observance. It is only “family-friendly” if your family wants to spend Sundays at the hockey rink. It is “welcoming” to any who will commit to playing on Sundays. It is “all-inclusive” of non-Sabbath observers. And I’m not just talking about those who observe Sunday as their Sabbath. A Jew or Seventh-day Adventist would encounter similar problems.

I’m sorry if I sound a bit snarky, but this is the response that I received when I informed the BI Roller Hockey League that Micah would not be able to play in any of their Sunday games. Keep in mind that he would attend both of his weekly practices, and all of the Saturday games (in his division, they have 2 games each weekend - one on Saturday and one on Sunday):

I wanted to get back with you on the Rollerhockey decision. As hard as it is, and believe me, we spent a lot of time discussing and considering this - we do need to maintain at least an 80% participation for Roller Hockey and that includes playing in Sunday games. I am sorry.

To be most honest, I would like to share with you two of the main considerations:
1. We set an 80% attendance target to allow coaches and teammates to count on attendance to help have balanced teams.
2 . If we make this exception, where would we be on requests from families who would prefer not to play on Sundays for non-religious reasons, or from families who for religious reasons do not participate in sports activities on Saturdays?

Here is my response:

Thank you for your email. Our family, especially Micah, is disappointed that this is the course Bainbridge Island Roller Hockey has decided to take. We were first encouraged to join this sport by hearing rave reviews about how family-friendly and welcoming the league is to all players. Sadly, this has not completely been our experience.

This is a youth sport. It is meant to be fun and it is a way to get kids outside, learning new skills, making friendships, and staying fit. We are not looking for Micah to go to college on a hockey scholarship, nor for him to play in the NHL someday. He plays roller hockey because it is fun and he is good at it. We attended his games as a family and enjoyed cheering on all the players, both on our team and the opposing team.

Our boys have played a lot of sports on Bainbridge Island - basketball, soccer (both Rec. and Select), Little League, cross country. In each instance, they have made it clear from the beginning that they choose to maintain Sunday as a family day and that they do not participate in sports on that day. In EVERY case, the coaches and directors of the sport have been completely supportive of this decision. Our boys were fully included as team members; they were never penalized nor criticized. I'm sure that the other sports organizations had concerns similar to those that you have indicated, but they never expressed them to us or our boys, nor did their teams seem to suffer due to our boys' lack of Sunday playing time. This has been a wonderful experience for them to see their coaches be so fully supportive of their beliefs and decisions.

I am sorry that Bainbridge Island Roller Hockey has made the decision to ostracize one boy for his decision to not play sports on Sundays. I highly doubt that this isolated situation would have turned into a rash of players skipping out on games, merely because of Micah's Sabbath decision. And I'm sure if you were to ask his previous coaches - both in roller hockey and other sports - you would find that Micah gives 100% to his team. He is hard working, respectful, and focused. He enjoys athletics, and he will continue to play local sports in leagues which support his personal decisions.

As for Micah – he is so awesome! He was initially disappointed that they wouldn’t allow him to play roller hockey. But he never once considered playing on Sundays. Instead, he said, “Hey, how about if we take the money that we would have spent on roller hockey and instead buy a season pass for snowboarding next winter? I’m going to be the next Shaun White!” I said that was a great suggestion.

It constantly amazes me how mature and responsible my kids are. Micah knows that it is important to keep the Sabbath day holy. We don’t make this decision for him; he wants to spend his Sundays going to church and being with his family. I’m sorry that he has to experience this level of discrimination at such a young age, but I’m also thankful for how it shows what a strong, faithful young man he is. Youth sports will come and go, but the life decisions that he is making now will support him for eternity.