Bears punished for using ineligible player

The NDA has handed down some stiff punishment to the St. Joseph-Scollard Hall Bears hockey team after the league found out the 16 and 1 Bears were using an ineligible player in games between November 29th and December 23rd.

In a press release sent by NDA president Tim Lowe the board stated that the Bears hockey team will forfeit six of the eight games played in that time frame prior to the Christmas break.

"This is an unfortunate incident, for the player in question as well as the team involved," said NDA President Tim Lowe in the press release.

"However the board wishes to commend the coaching staff of the SJSH Bears for the prompt action they took in dealing with this issue," he added.

The eligibility issue came into question when a Bears player left his West Ferris Minor hockey team to play for the Bears but sources have told BayToday.ca that the player elected to return to the local minor hockey system when he wasn't receiving enough playing time with his high school team.

Bears head coach John Wilson, who also serves as the NDA boys hockey convenor requested that a board of review look over the situation at a meeting earlier this week at Algonquin.

In many parts of Northern Ontario hockey players are not permitted to play both minor hockey and high school hockey at the same time although in other parts of the province and in the United States it is very common to find hockey players involved in both minor hockey and high school hockey at the same time.