An amish with a 'tude, you know that's unheard of!
Posted on 03/22/2007 3:34:18 PM PDT by Dan Evans
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa - Referees halted a penalty-plagued ice hockey match that included a team of Plain adults Monday night when an Amish player allegedly pummeled a member of the officiating crew.Police in East Hempfield Township, called to the Regency Sportsrink on Ambassador Circle at 10:45 p.m., cited Emanuel Dienner, 20, with harassment after the on-ice brouhaha.
Dienner, of 5498 Buena Vista Road, Gap, allegedly punched referee Keith Allen more than a half-dozen times in the midst of a goal-line scuffle with 14 seconds left in a lopsided championship game.
The fight ended only when a player from the opposing team pulled Dienner off the ref.
"It was a rough game," said Officer Lee Carpenter, who responded to the call and issued the citation.
Dienner was playing on a team made up of all Mennonites and Amish called the Phantoms, league officials told the New Era. He and some teammates became frustrated as the penalties for roughing and hooking — not to mention the score — mounted against them.
"The Amish can get upset at times," said Allen, 46, of Ephrata.
The five-year referee, who also coaches Ephrata's high school ice hockey team, suffered a bruised nose and was nursing pain in his neck this morning. He was wearing a helmet and partial visor at the time and declined medical treatment.
Joe Garrett, who is president of the Regency Hockey League and was a player on the opposing team Monday night, said Dienner was remorseful after the game.
"He's a nice guy off the ice," Garrett said. "I think he just lost it."
Garrett said the league does not tolerate such behavior and will suspend Dienner for a year. USA Hockey, with which the league is affiliated, is also expected to take action against the player.
Typically, fisticuffs are handled in-house, with penalties and suspensions. But because the fight was so severe, the league's officials suggested the refs call police.
"We don't want to condone that kind of behavior," said Garrett. "The officials need to feel safe on the ice."
Darren Musser, the league vice president, was also on the ice playing at the time. He said there was a scuffle in front of one of the goals when one of his teammates got in a tangle with Dienner. That's when Allen stepped between them — and Dienner started punching.
"When he realized he was punching the ref, he kept going," Musser said.
Dienner's Phantoms were playing for a championship against Garrett's and Musser's team, the Hogs. The Hogs were up, 7-3, in a game that saw more than 30 penalties called. Most of the calls went against the Phantoms, which is made up entirely of Mennonites and Amish.
"They were just frustrated," said the ref. "It was a championship game and they were losing. There were fans ejected."
With 14 seconds left in the game, Dienner pushed a Hogs player in front of one of the goals. The opposing player grabbed Dienner's jersey and wouldn't let go, Allen said.
The ref tried to break them up and all three tumbled to the ice.
"Emanuel started swinging at anybody he could hit," Allen said. "The first two punches, he never knew he was hitting me until he turned around and looked me in the eyes.
"I told him, 'You don't want to hit a ref,'" Allen said. "He said, 'I don't care.' He kept punching me in the face. I got punched five or six times in the nose. Thank God there were more people around to drag him away."
Garrett, the league president, said it was a Hogs player who pulled Dienner off the ref. "Had he not, it would have been worse," Garrett said.
Allen's injuries could have been far worse, too, had Dienner dropped his gloves and punched with his bare knuckles, as players often do in the National Hockey League. But because the local adult league requires players to wear helmets, fighters often keep their gloves on to protect their hands.
Police said they could have filed more serious charges, that of assaulting a sports official, against Dienner. But the ref talked them out of it, Officer Carpenter said.
Still, Allen said he was phased by the incident.
"I've been punched before," he said, "but not by anybody who meant to do it."
The refs called the game after the fight, with the Hogs hanging on to their 7-3 win.
(New Era Staff Writer John M. Hoober III contributed to this report.)
The Amish and Mennonites sure do love their hockey!
An amish with a 'tude, you know that's unheard of!
According to some of the comments at that site, this is not an isolated incident.
it's hockey for crying out loud. getting a black eye is part of the game.
He's gonna get hisself shunned.
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