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Stripping hockey team apologizes

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by Nishi Gupta
Idaho's NewsChannel 7

Posted on November 1, 2009 at 9:26 PM

Updated Monday, Nov 2 at 6:00 PM

 

BOISE - A junior hockey team punished for skating in it's skivvies during practice is now back on the ice.
 
The Idaho Junior Steelheads were suspended from the ice for four days after they were caught doing a drill which required them to strip.

Every time a player missed a shot, they had to take off a piece of equipment. 

The story has since gone international, but back in Boise the team is trying to get back to normal.

The coach and the team now say they're sorry.

Team leaders copied the drill from the pros.

A YouTube clip of Tampa Bay Lightning players shows them stripping every time they missed a shot at the goal.

The Idaho Junior Steelheads decided to do the same thing at Idaho IceWorld.

"We had a bunch of 17- to- 20 year olds skating in a public facility in their briefs," Doug Holloway of Boise Parks and Recreation said.

On October 21, the team did the strip hockey drill at practice.

The players were naked from the waist up. Waist down, they were wearing form-fitting underwear.

One player even took it a little further and mooned his teammates. 

It was right then that two parents and their 6-year-old daughter walked into IceWorld.

They caught a glimpse of the team's practice and complained to the city.

IceWorld suspended the team from its next four practices and tacked on another week of suspension for the player that mooned his team.

"This is a highly competitive junior program that really relies on a lot of practice time," Holloway said.

There were those who disagreed with the city's decision though.

"Kids will be kids, boys will be boys. Team building and team camaraderie- this was a type of activity that they were doing," people told Holloway.

Holloway's response was practical. "It still is a public facility," he said. "It's supported by taxpayers in the community."

The Idaho Junior Steelheads team has 18 players, all 17-to-20 years old.

Police initially became involved to determine if the team violated any public decency laws, but the city says the police department is

not going to pursue that.

The Idaho Junior Steelheads are playing on the road this weekend. 

Coach John Olver did not return a call for comment.

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