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Copyright Stillwater Area High School MMX
February 17, 2012
Following the now infamous injury that left sophomore Jack Jablonski paralyzed, the Minneapolis Hockey Association and the Jablonski family have created a grass-roots program called "Jack's Pledge," which encourages teams to increase safety in hockey.
Jack's Pledge aims to discourage unsafe play in games and to advocate for hockey players and coaches to play by the rules in a smart,safe and skillful way. Hockey teams, coaches, associations and hockey players (both boys and girls) can sign the pledge and vow to play "Jack's way," obeying the rules and respecting the safety measures put in place to prevent injuries similar to Jablonski's.
While taking the pledge remains optional, several teams, including the Stillwater Area High School girls hockey team, have chosen to sign the pledge as a team.
"I think it's important to take because it not only helps to encourage people to stop checking from behind, but it is also respectful to Jack," said junior Allison Pasiuk, goalie for the SAHS girls hockey team. "It's coming together as a team and promising to do our best to stay safe."
Though the Stillwater Hockey Association, which includes many younger Stillwater-based teams and club-based teams, has taken the pledge, the Minnesota State High School Hockey League also took initiative to discourage checking from behind through upping the penalty time from two minutes to five minutes.
According to the Minnesota State High School Hockey League's website, "Checking from behind, which formerly called for a two-minute minor penalty plus a 10-minute misconduct penalty, will now become a five-minute major penalty plus a 10-minute misconduct penalty.The existing rule also states that any check from behind that is deemed 'flagrant or causes the player to crash headfirst into the boards or goal frame' will continue be a game disqualification. The disqualified player cannot re-enter that game and cannot play in the next scheduled game either."
"Rule 13," an aspect of Jack's Pledge that is deemed optional, meaning that a team can sign Jack's Pledge without adopting it, seeks to further encourage coaches to educate their team on body checking and its proper place in hockey.
According to jackspledge.com, by adopting "Rule 13," coaches and players are acknowledging that they "support and embrace the elimination of body checking from competitive play at the Peewee and younger levels." Supporters also sign that they "support body checking at the Bantam level, but want to clarify the purpose of body checking, which is to separate the player from the puck, or to impede the player's forward progress. A body check should never be directly delivered into the boards; body checking should be avoided if there is potential for injury to the player. Stick checking is a natural skill to directly play the puck."
While all high school hockey teams have been required to up the penalty for checking from behind, taking Jack's Pledge is an optional initiative for teams and coaches that want to support Jablonski and further encourage safe play and game play that follows the rules set by USA Hockey. It has become a global initiative for teams to step up and take the pledge, so that tragic accidents such as the one experienced by Jablonski can be prevented and avoided.
Editor-In-Chief