Someone recently pressed the question of whether or not a player can get “black balled” of if a “black list” for players actually exists.
Some might think that in todays age that the question may be an antiquated one. Some may think that surely there is no way such practices may take place. In fact its a pretty good question. Its especially good when the people who ask it, actually need to think about it.
Plainly answered, there is no “official” black list or list of black balled players. Unofficially, you better believe there are multiple lists of players that teams will never consider for any multitude of reasons.
If you find yourself wondering why you may not be getting the attention you think you deserve, you may be on one of these lists. If you find yourself wondering if maybe your bad attitude may be effecting your career altitude, you may be on one of these lists. If you find yourself rolling your eyes when your parent opens their mouth to complain about people making decisions, you may be on one of these lists.
If you think that in todays game people aren’t keeping track of which players and parents are difficult for any number of reasons, you need to see a physician.
We track everything. Not just numbers and stats on the ice. We track your attitude, your parents attitude, your grades in school, how often you volunteer for community service, and any number of other items we may want to track.
We track what your former coaches say about you. We track what your neighbors say about you, what your cousins ex-girlfriend says about you, and pretty mush anything that anyone says about you when we check up on you.
If you are a difficult player, or you have a difficult parent, you are probably on some lists of players to avoid. If you have burnt bridges, you are probably on a list of players to avoid.
So the real question should be, if you think you have been blackballed or black listed, is can you get off the list?
The answer is yes, but its not going to happen over night, and you better prepare to work for it. You didn’t get on a list over night, and you wont get off one over night.
The first step to fixing your problem is for you to apologize to every people you think may be able to put you on a list. Those people that you have done something to that pissed them off enough to want to make sure you go no where in hockey.
This is usually the only way people can get off such a list. If you wont do these simple tasks, then you need to go and fill out the job application at McDonalds.
The bottom line is that if you are not one of the ten best players in the world at your position in your age group, you can devastate your career by acting like you are one of those players. You are not so good that you cant be replaced, and if you can be replaced, you better be careful because someone is looking to replace you right now.
Joseph Kolodziej – Adviser
