by Cris Italia
With just 21 seconds left in a junior-varsity ice hockey game, an Oceanside man, Robert Schmitt, hopped onto the ice at Iceworks Arena in Syosset and took matters into his own hands, literally. At the time, the Cold Spring Harbor hockey team was up 7-2 over Oceanside. Before anyone realized what was going on, Schmitt had Andrew McAvoy, a 15-year-old Spring Harbor player, in a chokehold.
"He just charged onto the ice without regard for anything," said a parent of an Oceanside player, who asked to remain anonymous. "At first I just thought he was just going to take his son and leave, but he charged the player instead."
Witnesses said there didn't seem to be any reason for the father to be so angry. "I didn't see anything out of the ordinary," the parent said. "It's hockey -- they were just playing an emotional game. It didn't seem as if anything got out of hand."
Randy Levine, a linesman, tried to break Schmitt's stranglehold on McAvoy. "The official tried to pull at him, but he grabbed and threw the official to the ground and then fell on top of him," the parent said. Witnesses said that game officials then dragged Schmitt off the ice.
The two teams are part of the High School Hockey League of Nassau County, which is not endorsed by the county or any school district.
Police arrested Schmitt on Sunday, March 2 and charged him with third-degree assault. He is scheduled to appear in court on March 27. The case is reminiscent of a similar incident last year in Massachusetts, in which one father killed another father during a hockey game.
"It makes me almost want to pull my son out," the Oceanside parent said. "You hope when you sign your kids up for a recreational sport, it can just be fun, but incidents like this make it urgent for me to be at every game."
Schmitt could not be reached for comment. Neither Levine nor McAvoy was seriously injured in the melee.
