Truro, Nova Scotia (October 26, 2018) – Hockey Nova Scotia (HNS) has overturned a team fine and coach suspension issued the Amherst Ramblers on October 15th by Maritime Hockey League (MHL) President Brian Whitehead regarding the use of an illegible player in a game on October 13th against the Valley Wildcats.
An appeal of that ruling was forwarded to HNS by the MHL Appeals Committee due to a possible conflict of interest. Earlier this week, the Committee had overturned the President’s decision to award Amherst’s win in the game in question to Valley.
In overturning the fine and suspensions, HNS states: “This decision is based on the fact the MHL Constitution does not deal with the pay to play registration and the lack of league consistency in dealing with pay to play issues. The Committee is also of the opinion the Amherst organization did their due diligence in trying to resolve the pay to play situation.”
HNS also agreed with the four recommendations from the MHL Appeals Committee:
- The League present a revised Player Registration Policy to the Board of Governors at their January 2019 meeting for consideration.
- The policy include a section requiring players joining a team after the player registration due date (currently Oct 1) be required to said fee prior to participating in any league game
- The policy to include specific sanctions for any proven violation of the policy.
- The League, at its’ 2019 AGM adopt by-law(s) governing the player registration policy.
James Faulkner
Director of Communications
Maritime Hockey League
jfaulkner@themhl.ca