Black youth hockey players say some members of opposing team called them racist slurs during game
ASHBURN, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - The Chesapeake Bay Hockey League is investigating reports of racist comments made by players during a youth hockey game. It happened during a 14U game at the Ashburn Ice House on Sunday.
FOX 5 spoke to the Bernard brothers who are the only Black players on their team. Brandon and Landon Bernard say during the game players from the other team called them the N-word several times.
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"Three times. One was to me," Brandon Bernard said. "That was during the face-off. And then the second time was during another face-off right after they discussed it with the ref. Then they said to it one of my teammates after the game," Bernard added.
The players said the referees did not do anything because they told them that they did not hear the comments.
The family says this isn’t the first time this opposing team has done something like this. In January, the brothers said that the players made monkey sounds every time they skated near the team’s bench.
"Kids don’t just make monkey sounds during a hockey game for no reason. Nobody said stop and they’re on the bench with the kids," Cleo Bernard, the brother’s mother said.
Parents of multiple players on the team reported both incidents to the Chesapeake Bay Hockey League but the Bernard family never heard anything back.
The CBHL posted on its Facebook page yesterday writing:
"Racism, including incidents of communicating racial and other derogatory slurs, has absolutely no place in our game. Upon hearing allegations about inappropriate comments made during a 14U game that took place on Sunday, CBHL officials immediately reached out to our on-ice officials' organization, our area's USA Hockey SafeSport coordinator, and others, to include the leadership of both clubs involved. An investigation is currently ongoing."
The entire team and their parents are shaken over the comments.
"Their action was not warranted on that day. There’s no excuse for it. It hurt me. I was crying," Cleo Bernard said.
"This is what this is all about, to ensure that kids can play this sport, feel safe playing it emotionally and not be subject to racial attacks whenever they’re playing," Lionel Bernard, the brother’s father said.
Both Brandon and Landon Bernard say they want some type of consequences enforced so that this does not happen again.
"I think as long as you know, anything is done. Just like a suspension or you know, because this can’t keep going on. Because there’s other people of color on other teams and I’m pretty sure that they had to go through the same thing. I just want something to be done," Brandon Bernard said.
FOX 5 has learned that The Potomac Valley Amateur Hockey Affiliation, which oversees CBHL is investigating. USA Hockey, which oversees all organized hockey throughout the country is also involved.