Youth Hockey In Toronto: Parent George Atis Caused 12-Year Old to Quit Team

I was highly disappointed and upset to read a recent article from the Toronto Star about a pee-wee hockey team in Ontario, Canada. The team, until recently, was made up of 12-year old boys and one girl, Kayla Watkins.

One father, George Atis (who by the way is an attorney), was apparently distraught over Watkins’ presence on the team. At a team meeting, he included on the agenda an item titled “Kayla Watkins—Player Ability Limitations and Suggested Options,” regarding what he felt was too much ice time for her. 

Atis felt that Watkins’ skill level was not proportional to her ice time. He proposed that she be switched from defense to forward or only be allowed to play every other shift and be taken off special teams’ play. And, if she and her parents objected to these terms, then they should find another team for her to play on.

Another complaint that Atis had is that there were a lot of incidents where the boys were “close to being exposed to Watkins in the locker room.” Watkins saw the item on an agenda that her parents had.

After she saw, she quit the team, understandably feeling humiliated and unwanted. Atis’ response? From Robert Cribb’s article in the Toronto Star, "As a parent, my heart goes out to her. If Kayla truly read this agenda by accident, it is very unfortunate...I am mortified that Vanessa or Sheree (Watkins’ mother and grandmother) or whoever shared this agenda with Kayla would actually do so...I believe Kayla’s feelings could have been spared. That, to me, is the great shame in this process that Kayla would feel as she did.”

See, he did not intend for her to find out about the meeting. He just intended to go behind her back and limit her playing time. Much better. Atis went on to further blame Watkins’ parents. “I lay the blame, if you must know, at the feet of Vanessa Watkins...If it was my child, he would have never been in that position because I would not have put him on a team where he was not competing and where he was a liability to the team.”

The Watkins family responded very maturely to Mr. Atis’ asinine claims. From Watkins’ mother, “Do we not put our kids in team sports to learn to be a team player, to win as a team, to lose as a team and it’s not about me, me, me?”

And from Kayla herself: “(Atis) is not my coach so I don’t know how he’s judging my play. If there’s something wrong, my coach should have talked to me, not him. And my coach never did.”

For the record, Watkins’ coach Paul Macchia had absolutely no issue with Watkins’ play. Like all the other players, Watkins was not perfect and made mistakes. But she was definitely not the only player to make mistakes. After all, it’s a learning process.

I have my own opinions on the matter. First off, Mr. Atis, this is the 21^st century. Hockey is a sport for both boys and girls, and when they are that young they should be able to play on the same team.

Plus, this is the second lowest level of competitive team hockey in Canada. At that age, like Vanessa Watkins alluded to, it should be about having fun and learning to play and love the sport, not creating issues where there are none and expecting the players to play like professionals.

Second of all, this seems like an issue that Mr. Atis is concerned about, but the coverage of this incident does not show if other parents, let alone the boys on the team, were concerned about it. In fact, based on the coach’s comments, I don’t believe that anyone besides Mr. Atis was concerned.

Third, the statement about the boys almost being exposed to her in the locker room: You’re an attorney; a case cannot be made on close-calls. “Your Honor, he almost hit me!” The point is that until it actually happens, it’s not a valid issue.

The team clearly accepted Watkins as a member. If you have a problem with it, perhaps you should be the one to seek another, male-only, team for your son to play on.

Finally, on a more personal note: when I was younger I played on a “co-ed” baseball team. I was the only girl. The boys harassed me anytime I played well. They could not handle the fact that I could play on the same level as them.

It may be stupid, but I did not want to play baseball after that. When you’re young, incidents like these truly hurt. I would hate for Watkins to stop playing hockey, which she clearly enjoys, having played the game since she was four, because of one person’s opinion. 

We should not let a young hockey player get pushed away from her team because she’s the only girl. Fortunately, it does not appear that Watkins has been turned off by the sport after this mistreatment: According to Cribbs’ article, she has since joined an all-girls team where she feels more supported and is much happier. That’s the only good thing to come out of this bad and unnecessary situation.