Sartell Squirt C Team
In the Jan. 8 Newsleader there was a letter of complaint from two guests at Best Western Hotel in River Falls, Wis. against our Sartell Youth hockey team. This couple described concerns Dec. 5 while being guests at the hotel.
In response, here is a list of the events that took place that Saturday, as a team. That letter contained factual errors. At 11:30 a.m., our team met for pizza as we believe it’s important to have positive and healthy team relationships on and off the ice. At 5 p.m. we met again as a team in the hotel lobby to celebrate one of the team member’s birthday. While we were all there, we enjoyed watching the children make Christmas cards to veterans to help them learn and practice generosity and empathy skills. By 6 p.m. we were at the ice arena for our game. We returned to the hotel around 9 p.m. where the children and parents met at the pool to allow the children time to swim. All Sartell children were in their rooms by 11:30 p.m. with parental supervision. The Sartell parents never met at the hotel bar at any point over the weekend.
We are surprised, appalled and offended at the false accusations against us. This was the first away tournament for many of our children, so to make them feel special, we had Sartell door signs on our eight team rooms. The guests who complained may or may not have known there were three additional youth hockey teams staying at this location. Although the general manager reported to us he was not working the night of these “complaints,” we spoke to the night manager who stated he had no concerns with Sartell. He added there was only one documented complaint made against our team the whole weekend. It was due to children playing shin hockey in one of their rooms and when asked to stop, hotel staff reported the children respectfully complied. We had a group of 8-10 year olds, so was there running and playing happening at times during the day? Yes, of course! Parents provided adequate supervision, feedback and re-direction to the children as needed.
We fully believe parents, coaches and children all represented Sartell with class, dignity and respect throughout the weekend. Our coach proactively asked the staff to come to him if any concerns arose. He was never approached by any staff throughout the weekend. Our intention is not to place blame on the hotel, other youth hockey teams or even the agenda of the couple who wrote the first letter. Our intention is to advocate for our children. We trust this letter clarifies this situation.