The minor-league hockey season hasn't even started, but the gloves are already off in New Westminster. Hockey mom Temple Anderson is out-raged that a New West-minster Minor Hockey Association coach involved in a punch-up with another coach last spring has been elected to the association's board of directors. Last spring, bantam house league coach Kevin O'Quinn was involved in a brawl with another coach from the NWMHA - with the association banning both volunteer coaches from being behind the bench this season. But at the association's recent annual general meeting, O'Quinn was elected as a first vice-president. The move sends the wrong message to the kids playing hockey, says Anderson, who has a nine-year-old boy playing in the New Westminster association. "The parents are furious and embarrassed about the whole thing," she said. "One of the coaches got his teeth knocked out," she said of the dust-up. "One gets promoted to vice-president, while the other one goes to the dentist for new teeth. "This is violence in sport and they are sup-posed to be an example. Now we are let-ting someone who is involved in a violent act sit on the executive board." The brawl is alleged to have started when the two teams played each other last spring in a playoff game and one team started to run up the score. The two coaches had a fight in front of all the players. There have been no charges laid. Calls to the members of the NWMHA executive committee were not returned. In a letter to Ander-son explaining the situation, NWMHA president Robert Nasato said the suspensions were not something they wanted to discuss. "Suspensions are considered issues of personnel, thus are not discussed," he said. "No further communications on this issue will be forthcoming from the executive of NWMHA," he wrote. Anderson said she will take her concerns up with the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association and B.C. Hockey.
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