When Tyler Seguin didn’t make the Canadian World Junior team at age 17 he was disappointed. Disappointed but determined, he used it as fuel to help him practice and up his game to the next level, and now he’s the 18-year-old Bruins center ready to play in the pros.
Now if only that idea was universal.
In a move that seems to forgo the idea of sports and competition altogether, a pair of parents are suing the Greater Toronto Hockey League and one of its clubs for $25,000 each because their sons were cut from the team.
Vito Valela and David Longo filed the lawsuit after their 15-year-old sons were cut from the Avalanche Minor Sports Club.
"Their direct actions have caused irreparable psychological damage to Daniel Longo’s self esteem as an impressionable teenager and demoralized Daniel as an athlete and team hockey player with his peers," Longo’s statement read. "The conduct by all defendants destroyed the dignity of my son, whom in good conscience gave his team nothing but his best efforts."
Rather than accept that perhaps their sons’ best efforts were not good enough to crack the 17-man roster out of the 70 that tried out, the parents brought fourth what league president told the Toronto Star was the first legal action against the league over such an issue.
Valela even claimed that, upon hearing the team’s decision, his son Christopher vowed "never to play the game again."
Sure, it’s always tough to get cut, but it happens. Lawsuits contesting that decision? That doesn’t happen. Or at least didn’t happen until now.
