Update: Coach caught berating young child on video issues public apology.

Many of us have seen parents like this around hockey our whole lives but it's particularly disturbing when it involves such a young child.

On Sunday night a Facebook user named Stella Peastitute published a video on social media that has since been viewed over 50,000 times. The video, which appears to be quickly going viral, showcases some rather ugly behavior from a man standing behind the bench during a children's hockey game. The man can be seen verbally berating one of the children, and make no mistake these are indeed children, during a long tirade as the young man slowly and sheepishly skates back to the bench towards the coach that is unloading on him. Perhaps the worst part of this video however is that the coach continues to unload on the young man even after he has gotten on the bench, and who knows how long this went on for before the camera started to roll.

I have no doubt that Stella pulled out her recording device, likely her mobile phone, specifically due to the fact that this coach was going off on this young child. That makes me believe that either this has happened before, or this tirade from the coach had been going on for some time before this video even began to capture what was going on.

There is some good news however as we now have an update to this rather ugly story. The man in the video has now been identified, by his own choice, and has chosen to issue a public apology for his behavior in the video. Now no doubt the fact that this video is garnering widespread attention played a role, but if it does indeed teach this man some humility then it may very well end up doing some good. 

The man in the video is Jean-Phillippe Boudreau and the child he appears to be yelling at in the video is actually his young son. To his credit though Boudreau has taken full responsibility for his actions and appears to be sincere in his apology.

Here is Boudreau's apology in full(translated from French):

Good evening all of Facebook. Today during my son's hockey game I was filmed screaming at him. I believe that by now just about everyone has seen the video. I am not very proud of my behavior. Those who know me know that this is out of character for me. Yes I did over react. Yes, it's true that my son did not deserve it. I am sincerely sorry. I am apologize to my son and to the entire team who saw me behave in this manner. I do not want to make any excuses for myself because I know people will not think I am sincere if I do. I know that already many of you feel that I am a coach who has no business behind the bench and I completely understand. Thank you to the parents who still have confidence in me.

It may be merely an attempt to save face but this does come off like genuine remorse to me, and I would ask that our readers not turn this into some kind of witch hunt on Boudreau. No doubt his reputation has already suffered a hit in his local community and if he, as well as the other parents in his community, learns a valuable lesson from all of this that is more than enough for me. 

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