Meathead ex-Kid's Hockey Coach Sentenced to Jail for Tripping Player On Ice

[bill barilko]

This guy gives new meaning to the term 'nasty piece of work'

[youtube]FmCKJg2EeCo[/youtube]

Judge jails 'tripping' B.C. hockey coach for 15 days
Martin Tremblay was caught on tape tripping a teenage player

A judge has sentenced a B.C. hockey coach who was caught on tape tripping a teenage player to 15 days in jail and 12 months of probation.

Martin Tremblay, 48, was filmed knocking the skates out from underneath a 13-year-old hockey player with his foot following a game at UBC's Thunderbird Arena last June. The boy broke his wrist and fell into a 10-year-old player.

The incident was recorded on video by someone watching in the stands, and then drew national attention after it was posted online to YouTube.

Tuesday’s jail sentence came as a surprise to Tremblay, who pleaded guilty to two counts of assault in November. His lawyer, Robert Bellows, said he would not be making an appeal.

Former minor hockey league coach Martin Tremblay walks to the courthouse in Richmond, B.C., for sentencing Tuesday.
Judge Patrick Chen said Tremblay had abused his position of trust as a coach and compared his move to a “cowardly sucker punch.”

Bellows said his client has “paid a huge price” for his actions, including the breakdown of his marriage and the loss of a number of contracts for his construction business.

“He’s rebuilding his life after this incident,” Bellows told reporters outside the courthouse in Richmond, B.C., on Tuesday. It was unlikely, Bellows said, that Tremblay would ever coach hockey again.

“It’s horrible. He put in years and years coaching hockey, he put in years and years as a scout master. And that all over … because of one incident when he was off his antidepressants for three weeks.”

Bellows had asked the judge for a suspended sentence, saying his client was under a lot of pressure just before he committed the offence and that he had written a letter of apology asking for the victim's forgiveness. The Crown had asked for a sentence of 30 days of house arrest and 18 months of probation.

Tremblay's first day in jail will be today and will serve out the rest of his 15-day sentence intermittently on weekends.

 

[damngrumpy]

Yes he is a piece of work, and the jail sentence is in order. I do not agree with the other
part though not being allowed to coach again. Here is a great lesson that you can't do
things like this but there can be redemption as it were. Kids have to know there is a path
back and perhaps the coach and the kids could have learned a lesson and at the same
time benefited from an adverse experience.

 

[karrie]

If it was truly a medication failure, I have a problem with never letting him come back as well.

 

[taxslave]

Too bad we don't still have stocks in the village square. It would be a good place for him.

 

[karrie]

Too bad we don't still have stocks in the village square. It would be a good place for him.

Don't need 'em, we have the internet.

 

[EagleSmack]

Don't need 'em, we have the internet.

Oh heck yes... the internet is the great equalizer for this nonsense. He'll ALWAYS be the guy that assaulted the 13 year old.

 

[spaminator]

I guess one could say the coach was trippin.

trippin:

When someone is overreacting or getting all bent out of shape over something small.

 

[shadowshiv]

Yes he is a piece of work, and the jail sentence is in order. I do not agree with the other
part though not being allowed to coach again. Here is a great lesson that you can't do
things like this but there can be redemption as it were. Kids have to know there is a path
back and perhaps the coach and the kids could have learned a lesson and at the same
time benefited from an adverse experience.

According to the title of one of the articles he had a previous conviction, but I couldn't find any mention of what it was and when he did it in the article. If he had done something like this before, I certainly don't think he should get another chance. And it seems more and more common that people blame their poor behaviour on "being off their meds". That may be true for some of the cases, but for some it's more than likely just an excuse to try and lessen their punishment. I'm not saying that's the case in this instance, just that it happens.

Also, who's to say the ban will always be there? Heck, the pedophile Graham James was able to coach minors again due to an ill-advised pardon. Thankfully he has been found guilty of new charges and will be back in jail. And he won't be getting a second pardon, that's for sure.

 

[SLM]

What trips me up, no pun intended, is the same day that I read this article I also read another one.

Three years for man who killed four teens in crash - Crime - Canoe.ca

The part that sticks with me is, the coach is banned permanently from engaging in an activity where he did someone harm by tripping them. Not to justify it, not at all, if you haven't learned by the age of 48 not to trip a child out of spite for losing a hockey game then perhaps you're not of the mental age where you should be coaching them. But he's perma banned and the guy in the other news story is banned for three years from resuming the activity in which he killed four people.

What is wrong with this picture?

 

[taxslave]

What trips me up, no pun intended, is the same day that I read this article I also read another one.

Three years for man who killed four teens in crash - Crime - Canoe.ca

The part that sticks with me is, the coach is banned permanently from engaging in an activity where he did someone harm by tripping them. Not to justify it, not at all, if you haven't learned by the age of 48 not to trip a child out of spite for losing a hockey game then perhaps you're not of the mental age where you should be coaching them. But he's perma banned and the guy in the other news story is banned for three years from resuming the activity in which he killed four people.

What is wrong with this picture?

Mostly has to do with intent. My feelings on drunk drivers that kill someone is a whole different thread.

 

[EagleSmack]

What trips me up, no pun intended, is the same day that I read this article I also read another one.

Oh sure... no pun intended at all.

 

[karrie]

Mostly has to do with intent. My feelings on drunk drivers that kill someone is a whole different thread.

That's an interesting point, but I'm curious where you're going with it.

From what I can see, tripping a 13 year old hockey player is childish, ignorant, a plethora of negative things, but, I don't think tripping a hockey player in full view of all those people, he intended bodily injury. Hockey players fall on the ice all the time, I don't see a broken bone as being an expectation of his actions.

Now, driving 150km/h... that comes with a pretty clear expectation of injury, especially in an 80km/h zone. And it fulfilled the completely foreseeable.

 

[SLM]

Mostly has to do with intent. My feelings on drunk drivers that kill someone is a whole different thread.

I still think it speaks to the disparity in how we determine punishments in our legal system. If I were the mother of one of the teenagers killed and I saw this coach,who will never be given the opportunity to do the same thing again while the man who killed my child would have the opportunity to engage in the same activity as the one that got my child killed after only three years, I'd be feeling there's some injustice with that.

Oh sure... no pun intended at all.

Well ok, ya got me.

How often can we mix puns with a little bit of righteousness though? I couldn't pass that up!

 

[taxslave]

That's an interesting point, but I'm curious where you're going with it.

From what I can see, tripping a 13 year old hockey player is childish, ignorant, a plethora of negative things, but, I don't think tripping a hockey player in full view of all those people, he intended bodily injury. Hockey players fall on the ice all the time, I don't see a broken bone as being an expectation of his actions.

Now, driving 150km/h... that comes with a pretty clear expectation of injury, especially in an 80km/h zone. And it fulfilled the completely foreseeable.

I didn't say I agreed with it. I just understand how it works. Now the coach most probably didn't men to harm that kid but he did mean to trip him and that is asult on a minor by someone that should know better, also an authority figure. TO let him off easy is to say we condone violence in sport.

 

[karrie]

I didn't say I agreed with it. I just understand how it works. Now the coach most probably didn't men to harm that kid but he did mean to trip him and that is asult on a minor by someone that should know better, also an authority figure. TO let him off easy is to say we condone violence in sport.

Oh, I agree, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't let him off easy, I think he earned every single day he'll spend in jail for it.

I just don't know that I'd be as concrete about continuing the punishment after that, if he'd gotten his head back on straight.