Photo: Contributed - GVMHA

Last season's Snakes team

In a rare turnabout, a young Vernon hockey player was cut from his team – for being too good.

The Vernon midget Snakes’ season is over now, and people involved are more willing to talk. But it’s fair to say they might still have been going in the playoffs were Chris Gallant on the ice.

Gallant, an over-ager at 19, was unceremoniously removed from the Greater Vernon Minor Hockey Association’s player roster after playing only a handful of games this season.

It wasn’t the decision of his coach, Headley Larson.

“Chris is one of the most respectful players I’ve ever coached. He shares the puck and helps the other kids score,” Larson said Monday.

“He might have had four, maybe six minutes in penalties.”

Larson said he called Gallant at the beginning of the season to see if he was willing to play one more year. The coach had just had his bench depleted when a strong player was called up to play Tier 2 hockey, two more went to France on an exchange program and another was unavailable on weekends because he had to work.

“I called him up with the full knowledge of Vernon Minor Hockey and within the rules,” said Larson.

But the fight over Gallant’s eligibility made it all the way to Hockey Canada.

“I’m not one to go out and slam anybody, but, basically, Vernon Minor Hockey made a mistake,” said Gallant.

“My team was fundamentally screwed. We were looking good for the playoffs prior to this decision.”

Afterwards, not so much. The Snakes’ last two losses were 10-3 and 7-1 blowouts.

This isn’t a case of anxious hockey parents with NHL dreams for their kids. Gallant played house league hockey, “where these kids are just out to have fun and play to the best of their ability,” said Larson.

He said the intent each year is to balance the teams as much as possible so all are competitive and everyone has fun.

But, he said, in an unprecedented move, the other four coaches approached Vernon Minor Hockey and asked that Gallant be removed.

Larson pointed out his was not the only team with over-age players, so that doesn’t appear to have been the motive.

When Castanet spoke to the Gallants a couple of weeks ago, Chris’s mother, Betty, was fearful to speak publicly because she felt going to the media during the season could have repercussions for her son or the coach. She did say she would be seeking a refund of his registration fees.

But fellow team parents couldn’t let the story die, taking the issue to sit-down meetings with the executive of the Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association and corresponding with leadership at BC Hockey and Hockey Canada.

“This was just about one young man’s right to play,” said one parent, who declined to be named in the story.

“In what appears to be an unprecedented act, Vernon Minor Hockey allowed opposing coaches to decide a classy young man’s fate,” he said.

Larson indicated Gallant’s options going forward include beer league hockey or Junior B, but his mother said the whole mess has the family reconsidering the sport.

Efforts to reach Greater Vernon Minor Hockey president Richard Frater were unsuccessful on Monday.