WARNING: This story contains sexual content. Discretion is advised.
New information has surfaced as to why southern Alberta’s Warner Hockey School was unable to ice a team this year: a handful of parents are voicing concerns over schooling, while former coaches and players allege sexually inappropriate comments were directed at them.
A 10-person parent group told Global News they are seeking legal counsel against the Horizon School Division due to events that transpired last year at the Warner Hockey School. The group provided a statement that reads, in part:
“At this time there are no formal court applications that have been made on behalf of our particular parent group. We are still in the process of ongoing legal consultation on how to best proceed ensuring we have all pertinent information including any new information.”
Heading into the 2015-2016 school year, there were 15 players eligible to return to the hockey school and all of them decided to go elsewhere. The group of girls scattered between eight different programs across North America.
Delaney Ross is one player who wasn’t eligible to return. Ross has graduated and is now playing for Carleton University in Ottawa, but her year at Warner wasn’t without challenges.
“Being so young and still in high school, having to stress over things like that, it was just the worst year of hockey for me,” Ross said.
One of the stress’s Ross said she dealt with was inappropriate comments made by Horizon School Division Board trustee Derek Baron.
Hill told Global News she remembers the situation as described by Ross.
Ross said comments like this happened multiple times to several different players, both at school functions and at the girls’ residence.
“He’s like, ‘you got a full ride, or who you gonna ride?’ and he started laughing,” Ross said. “I’ve always been told to respect older people, so we kind of just didn’t know what to do and walked away.”
Assistant coach Naomi Meier said these remarks were not just made to the players, but the female coaching staff, as well. Meier said she witnessed one interaction with coach Lotta Haarala, an immigrant from Finland.
“Derek made a joke (towards Lotta) and said, ‘you can just have kids and then they’ll let you stay in the country,’” Meier said. “Then she said, ‘oh I’m not ready to have kids’ and his comment back was, ‘oh well you can always swallow until you’re ready to have kids.’”
Haarala told Global News she recalled this interaction, but declined an interview request.
Board chair Marie Logan tells Global News the situation was fully reviewed.
In March 2016, the Horizon board moved that Baron cease from having any contact or communication with the Warner Hockey School and Warner Hockey residents until the end of his term.
Global News reached out to Baron for comment, but he refused, deferring to superintendent Wilco Tymensen.
The superintendent also declined requests for interviews, but provided a statement that reads, in part:
“As I am sure you can understand, we are unable to speak to the specifics of any individual situation. This is especially true for personnel matters.”
An online agenda of October’s Horizon board meeting lists Baron as an active trustee.
For Meier, the whole year is one to forget.
“I wouldn’t wish what I went through last year on my worst enemy,” Meier said.
When the Warner Hockey School announced it was unable to ice a team this year, one of the main reasons provided was tough economic times.
At the time, Warner School principal David LeGrandeur said:
“There is just fewer girls and fewer who are available to be a part of a program where there’s a tuition fee.”
To compare, Global News spoke with two other elite girls’ programs: the Edge Hockey School in Calgary and the Northern Alberta X-treme in Edmonton. While the Warner School had just eight verbal commitments, the Edge has 21 players on its team. Northern Alberta X-treme has 20. All the programs also share similar tuition fees.
Due to possible legal implications, the parent group told Global News they couldn’t speak directly to why they’re seeking legal advice.
One of the parents in the group, Dean Ditto, cited concerns including the schooling his daughter received.
“The girls would leave either on a Wednesday or a Thursday for their long trips and not be back until really late Sunday night, or early Monday morning,” Ditto said. “Yet they’d appear in class and there were assignments that had been given out that they were not aware of. They had asked before they left, and it was, ‘oh don’t worry about it, you have nothing’. Then whenever they got back there were assignments due.”
Ditto also said that extended to tests, where students felt unprepared.
Global News emailed Tymensen, asking specifically about these concerns, but no response was provided.