WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. — Knowing that just last year, TCO Sports Garden was empty while the White Bear Lake Bears played hockey, KFAN Morning show's Zach Halverson says he was excited to be calling the game on Saturday.
"It was really cool to see to have al the fans back in the building, the atmosphere was great, it was electric," Halverson said. "And obviously sad to see that privilege of having people in there was used inappropriately."
With about 75 seconds left in the third period, Halverson says a fight broke out.
"We later found out it was a confrontation and a physical altercation between a parent and White Bear Lake students involved in that whole ordeal," Halverson said. "Certainly a chaotic and scary situation initially, because you don't know what's going on — if there are people getting hurt."
Halverson says the players on the ice watched through the glass in shock and horror.
"For Tartan, that's gonna be their lasting memory," Halverson said. "A lot of seniors on that team and their last game, last minute and a half of their high school careers was spent watching a parent fighting a kid, and even for White Bear, nobody should've seen that — especially the kids."
And as somebody who grew up playing and loving the game — and as an adult who has witnessed and called hundreds of hockey games — Halverson says it just doesn't feel the same right now.
"I don't recognize a lot of the youth hockey game anymore today that I played back in the day. Parents are overall more intense," he said. "Overall, there's a very worrisome trend when it comes to hockey parents and how intense they have become. And I hope that stuff like this doesn't become more common. I hope we don't see further down, deep diving into just classlessness, and we start to see these parents kind of get their heads on straight."
Halverson says he gets that parents are invested, financially and emotionally.
But he says it's what the kids gain that is the most important thing.
"Parents, they spend all that money, but they don't suffer," Halverson added. "They don't lose out on the memories. It's the kids that do."
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