Crowd hurls vile chants at female goalie as high school hockey game turns ugly

[tenderfoot]

The corrosive nature of hockey culture has been exposed throughout the past year, and it’s no different at the high school level, unfortunately.

During a Thursday game between Pittsburgh-area Armstrong High School and Mars Hockey Club, a number of Armstrong students participated in sexually explicit chants directed at a female goaltender on the Mars team, leaving the unnamed goaltender in tears.

As a subsequent result of the chants, all Armstrong students have been banned from attending hockey games, while the students who allegedly participated in the chants may face further disciplinary action.

“In my mind, this should’ve been stopped immediately by anyone that was there who has any moral value at all. I’m disgusted by it. … There were a lot of people there who could’ve handled this differently,” Armstrong principal Kirk Lorigan said via Mike White of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Mars head coach Steve Meyers said the player that was targeted is the only goaltender on the roster, while noting that she has been the starter for all of the team’s five games this season.

“We have no one else. She plays varsity and JV for us. We’ve had plenty of girls in this league before and never heard anything like this. With all the training we’re required to do as coaches about safe sports and sportsmanship, this should not happen. For it to fail this badly, it’s really disappointing.”

Below is a video of the vulgar chant directed from the Armstrong students, and we don’t necessarily advise watching it.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

BTW, there's even more vids with worse shit being said.

https://sports.yahoo.com/crowd-hurls-vulgar-sexually-explicit-chants-at-female-goalie-as-armstrong-mars-high-school-hockey-game-turns-ugly-224643179.html

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/paul-zeise/2021/11/03/Armstrong-Mars-hockey-game-goalie-chants/stories/202111020168

[Jilly_in_VA]

1. The other team

should have lost the game by forfeit because of their fans' behavior. It's been done before.

[Sherman A1]

3. Yes, they should have lost the game

and I believe that their team should have be pulled from further competition this season. There is absolutely no excuse for this type of behavior.

[sir pball]

8. The school's entire athletic program should have been de-sanctioned by the state conference for a yr

Then publicly name the abusive students, so the varsity football and hockey teams knows exactly who to blame for costing them an entire season.

Yes, I'm serious.

[sarisataka]

9. So what should the varsity football and hockey teams

Do when they find out who cost them their seasons?

What about the basketball, volleyball, tennis etc teams?

[sir pball]

11. They should do whatever they want.

I imagine they'd be all be pretty angry, but football and hockey are a bit more, ah, physical than the others you listed

[sarisataka]

13. I had thought you might suggest

The teams sit down and explain how sexist or racist chants go against the principles of sportsmanship and their personal values of bettering themselves through respectful competition.

But I guess bullying and assault are techniques of behavioral modification as well.

[sir pball]

16. I don't much believe in changing hearts and minds with nice words anymore.

I mean, I'm imagining sitting these little shitheads down and saying that to them, and all I can picture is them laughing in your face and probably then calling you a f----t.

The last 5 years, last year or so in particular, have made it pretty clear to me that a vast swath of folx simply don't work that way. I'll respect your sticking to your ideological guns on the matter, genuinely believing if you can just find the right thing to say you can make them understand that sexism/racism/Trumpism goes against values and principles...but I have an ever-growing certainty it just ain't true, mate.

[sarisataka]

20. While I do doubt a single conversation

Will change any minds, I don't think having teens beat the crap out of other teens will give the end result you hope to see.

Especially when you are counting on the most physical athletes to supply the corrective actions. A group widely held up as examples for their support of gender equality and examples of respectful behavior towards women.

[Sherman A1]

10. Works for me

I believe that you are completely correct.

[Bluethroughu]

4. +1

Sick in the mind, sick in the heart.

[SoCalDavidS]

2. AMERICA!!

For those of you who still doubt this is a Shithole country.

[LisaM]

5. It's not just hockey.

I was at a college football game last week and the whole student section (and this is in a very liberal college town) would yell, "you suck, you suck, you suck.....BITCH" at the other team for no reason I could discern. I was shocked looking at these kind of nerdish looking students yelling such unpleasant things.

We just have this awful mentality going on, call it mob mentality or what you will.

There was an argument here at DU about obscene language a few weeks ago with a lot of people who are just fine with it, but to me, now we have kids who don't even think about what they are chanting.

"You suck, BITCH". "She's a whore". "Fuck (other team name)". We can't argue that these are just words. They're pointed insults and unnecessary, too.

[GoCubsGo]

6. It's not "hockey culture." It's our shitty, rancid society, in general.

Go on any social media outlet, and you'll regularly see dozens and dozens of people calling Kamala Harris a "whore." And, worse. And, don't even get me started on Hillary, AOC,and any other female politician. Even the likes of Liz Cheney are recipients of this kind of behavior. Women from every walk of life are dealing with this kind of crap now, not just politicians and athletes. This kind of shit has always been around, but it's only gotten worse after much of our society gave a bully and sexual predator a pass, and allowed him to occupy our highest office in the land for four miserable years. It has been normalized. And, it's just going to get worse.

[2naSalit]

7. +100000000000000000000000000!!

[Initech]

12. The underlying irony of the Trump administration is Melania's anti-bullying crusade.

And not only did that not help things, it actively made online bullying worse than it's ever been. Aided and abetted by the online bully in chief. Facebook and Twitter are really so much better without him!

[GoCubsGo]

14. Yep. Unfortunately, FB and Twitter are still pretty damn horrible.

As are the comments areas in places like Reddit, YouTube and Instagram. I've seen everything from sports pages to storm chaser live video stream chats infested with bullies and generally-nasty people. It's not just over politics, either. Bullies and social media lynch mobs are everywhere.

[Initech]

18. And the sad thing is this crap is going to get worse.

Social media has had the opposite effect of the original intent. Instead of bringing people together, it's driven us further apart than ever. And I don't see it getting better anytime soon. Bill Maher was right - people's phones and social media accounts are turning them into assholes.

[Caliman73]

17. But, but, but... didn't Josh Hawley just decry us poor guys being told their "manhood" is a problem?

THIS is the problem THIS exactly! They could have taunted the goalie as happens at competitive sporting events. I remember when I missed a shot, badly when playing basketball, "AIRBALL, AIRBALL". I am sure there are activity specific taunts for hockey.

The problem is the misogyny. They knew she was a young woman and they insulted her SPECIFICALLY because of it, and they insulted her in a way that was a DIRECT attack on her sexual being.

That is not BEING A MAN. That is TOXIC MASCULINITY. That is what young men are being told IS WRONG because IT IS!!

[DFW]

15. I'm for all the over-the-top solutions/sacntions proposed and more

Let the rest of the people at Armstrong be upset at suffering unjustly for what their "fellow students" did (and their parents didn't). If there are no drastic measures taken for a bad case of Trumpitis, the symptoms will only worsen.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. Here In Illinois...

...in the far south part of the state a series of football games were played with three to ZERO referees because so many quit over the constant abuse.
One umpire was getting nasty calls to his house. A linesman got hit with a water bottle. A head ref was threatened with a beating by a coach, with an irate parent standing right there screaming, too.
The usually have six officials. So they went to half or less the required amount for many games.
Teams tried to get parents to volunteer, but IHSA rules say officials must be certified and they would suspend teams if they used uncertified officials.
All because fans & participants didn't know how to behave.

[GoCubsGo]

21. Yikes.

I can only imagine what it's like down here in the South, where football is the #1 religion. I don't hear about it, mainly because I'm not a football fan, so I don't pay attention. I'm sure that kind of ugliness goes on, though.

[ProfessorGAC]

22. I Don't Care About HS Football Either

But, I read about the story on (I think) The Daily Herald website.