ERRA / NCRRL

POLICY ON PENALTIES

Ad Hoc Committee Recommendations

History

In the Spring of 2007, an Ad Hoc committee was formed under the joint umbrella of ERRA/NCRRL to review overly aggressive play in the region. After the initial discussions, three areas were identified as requiring further review and discussion:
 
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    		• Reporting and tracking of serious or major penalties (ie: match and misconducts)
     
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    		• Tracking individual penalty minute totals and setting acceptable thresholds for age groups
     
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    		• Tracking team penalty minute totals and setting acceptable thresholds for age groups
    In the fall of 2010 the Ontario Ringette Association also issued guidelines to be followed regarding excessive penalties in a single game. New guidelines posted at http://www.ontario-ringette.com/administration/member_notices/Penalties.pdf
     
    Progress

    Reporting and tracking of serious or major penalties

    The ERRA RIC has posted a new form on the ERRA web site that allows referees to report match/misconduct penalties immediately after their games. It is recommended that this report (regardless of whether it is an Open, LERQ, or NCRRL game) be automatically sent to the following people.

    ERRA Games & Tournament Coordinator
    ERRA RIC
    NCRRL RIC
    NCRRL Statistician
    NCRRL President
    NCRRL Discipline Chair
    All Age Level Convenors
    Respective Association President of the team assessed the penalty

    The process for reviewing these major penalties is outlined below.

    Regulations
     

     
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    		• Discipline and reviews to be conducted along existing lines of administration: all tournament, Open, or LERQ games are the responsibility of ERRA. NCRRL will be responsible for their league and play-off games.
     
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    		• If a discipline committee hearing is required, the player or team official appearing before the hearing panel is not permitted to participate in a sanctioned game until the review process is complete and all assessed penalties and supplementary discipline, if applicable, has been served.
     
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    		• The person who has committed a match or misconduct penalty is not permitted to play (or be on the bench) in a league, tournament or exhibition game until the review process is complete and all assessed penalties and supplementary discipline, if applicable, has been served.
     
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    		• Should it be determined that a formal hearing is required, the ERRA Discipline Committee or NCRRL Discipline Chair will call upon three to five objective members from a common pool within the region to form the review panel. Also to be included should be the RIC (ERRA or NCRRL) or their designated representative.
     
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    		• Discipline thresholds, both for a team and an individual, are subject to annual review. Any changes will be posted on the ERRA/NCRRL web sites.
     
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    		• An automatic review and possible formal hearings will occur, in all cases, when the following has occurred:
    In the same playing season (including tournaments, play-off or exhibition games), a player or bench staff is assessed
        i) Any match penalty
        ii) Any misconduct penalty. As per ORA rules any misconduct penalty carries over a suspension of the next regularly scheduled game
        iii) In any single game a player accumulates 10 minutes of penalty time. As per ORA rules the player is ejected from the game and serves a suspension of the next regularly scheduled game
        iv) iv) During the season accumulation of 40 minutes in total penalties, compiled in any manner, during league play only
     
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    		• League convenors will make every reasonable effort to advise team coaches and respective association presidents when they have a player or team official that has reached thirty total penalty minutes.

    Team Thresholds

    In addition to the individual regulations outlined above, there are also team thresholds.
    The level convenor will contact any team if both of the following two conditions are met:
      The team in question is averaging more than 10 pim per game, and
      The team in question is averaging 50% more pim than the mean for the division.


    NOTE: NCRRL Discipline Chair will be responsible to carry out random spot checks to ensure that level convenors are correctly calculating pim totals and teams are being evaluated as per the guidelines and the schedule set out below.

    Suggested Procedure

    Step 1: League level convenors will review team pim totals on a regular, agreed upon basis (November 1st, December 1st, February 1st, March 1st) and red flag any team that is exceeding acceptable league guidelines either by 10 pim or more per game, and surpassing their division pim average by more than 50%.

    Step 2: If a team exceeds on both qualifiers, the level convenor will contact the team coach by e-mail and c/c the respective association president. The convenor will ask that precautionary action be taken to reduce the number of penalties and avoid any possible discipline from the league. The convenor will follow-up as per the prescribed schedule.

    Step 3: Upon the next review, if the team in question has not dropped down below the acceptable levels, under both qualifiers, the respective coach and president will be required to meet with the league discipline committee. Present at this meeting should be the league discipline chair, three members of the discipline pool with no conflict of interest, the level convenor, the team coach and association president. At this meeting the league will seek reasons why this team has accumulated so many pim, suggest ways to curb this behavior and outline possible repercussions if it is not done. Minutes of this meeting will be recorded and e-mailed to the respective coach and association president.