Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Schille moving on from ejection and ahead to Brier

Chris Schille says he's learned his lesson and is ready to start focusing on the Tim Hortons Brier. Murray McCormick crafted a nice piece in the Leader Post capping the weekend that saw Schille tossed from a game for bad language and his team, skipped by Brock Virtue, capture the Saskatchewan men's title. He spoke with the CCA's Warren Hansen who said the Sasky boys won't be treated any differently than any of the other rinks. That's a relief to Schille.


“It was a mistake that I made and our team made as a whole because we all knew what we were up against,” Schille said after returning to Regina. “We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing. I’m glad to hear that there is a clean slate going forward.”

At the Brier, the penalties hit the wallets rather than the lineups. Fines are issued for breaches and while they aren't publicized, they happen pretty much every year. The most famous was at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts where Colleen Jones team was fined for taking too long signing autographs (I believe that was eventually overturned). 

If there is anything troubling about the outcome of Schille-gate, it was the comment from SCA head honcho Amber Holland who said the association would review the social media policy of athletes. This came after Schille sent out some Tweets after the incident that were critical of his penalty.


Holland said the SCA will review a number of concerns that have surfaced during the men’s playdowns. That includes player conduct and a social-media policy when it comes to athletes expressing their thoughts about the association and volunteers.
That could be a slippery slope for an association to travel down and I hope it doesn't get to the point where criticism isn't allowed, whether it be via Twitter or some other outlet. It also makes me wish Twitter had been around in the days when Eddie Werenich was playing!




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