This column was written by Tracy Watson and appeared in The Daily News of Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007 . . .
The assignment sounded so easy -- reach representatives of Hockey Canada, B.C. Hockey and the Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association for comment about the way in which the Kamloops Minor Hockey Association dealt with an underage drinking incident at the home of the KMHA's president.
It sounded easy . . . but it wasn't.
On Tuesday evening, The Daily News had a conversation with Al Berg, president of B.C. Hockey -- and that was something of a milestone.
It followed more than two weeks of fruitless attempts to reach someone -- anyone! -- in this country's hockey hierarchy.
We started with Todd Jackson, senior manager of safety and insurance for Hockey Canada. A message was left at his Ottawa office on Nov. 23. He returned the call early Nov. 26 with a message of his own -- The Daily News should call B.C. Hockey first as "they are the ones dealing with this."
It was an interesting reaction, considering a reason for the interview request hadn't been specified.
So we called B.C. Hockey -- specifically, associate director Jeremy Ainsworth, at Jackson's suggestion. A message was left for Ainsworth on Nov. 28 in the provincial body's Saanichton office.
That same day, a call was placed to Lillooet's Pat Sullivan, the acting president and midget director for OMAHA. Sullivan wasn't in, so a message was left on voicemail.
Neither call was returned.
Also on Nov. 28, a call was placed to Hockey Canada to obtain the phone number of John Clements of New Glasgow, P.E.I., who represents the minor council on the national association's board. The number provided to us wasn't accurate.
Later that day, a second call was placed to Ainsworth. After ascertaining who was calling, B.C. Hockey's receptionist sought out Ainsworth, but returned with news that Ainsworth wasn't available and that all calls were to be directed through B.C. Hockey's communications department. She took this reporter's name and phone number and promised someone would contact The Daily News.
A short while later, someone did. Erin Thornton called, but when asked if B.C. Hockey was satisfied with the way the KMHA handled the underage drinking investigation, Thornton said the only person allowed to comment was executive director Barry Petrachenko.
Unfortunately, said Thornton, Petrachenko was back east at Hockey Canada meetings. Thornton said he would e-mail Petrachenko to set up a time for a Nov. 29 interview with The Daily News. After recording contact information, Thornton said he would be in touch.
Neither Petrachenko nor Thornton called Nov. 29.
Given that Petrachenko was traveling, The Daily News waited until Dec. 3 to send another e-mail to Thornton. He replied that day, revealing that Petrachenko would be back in B.C. on Dec. 4. Thornton said he would get back to The Daily News after that.
He didn't, and neither did Petrachenko.
The Daily News sent one last e-mail to Thornton on Monday to inquire if Petrachenko had ever received the interview request. That e-mail wasn't returned.
On Tuesday, we again called B.C. Hockey in Saanichton, requesting to speak to Petrachenko. We were told that he was in a meeting and wasn't available; a message was left but wasn't returned.
Left with no other option, we decided to call Berg, and he answered our questions.
But we never did hear from Petrachenko. And we're also still waiting to hear back from OMAHA president Sullivan.
Tracy Watson is a Daily News sports reporter. She is at
twatson@kamloopsnews.ca.
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