BY: DUANE A. STEINEL JR.
In this year’s NHL Entry Draft, we saw many young men who’ve worked hard through their youth to have the opportunity to be drafted by one of 31 NHL teams. Normally, when drafting future players of your franchise, there is a lot of investigation done into these young men’s backgrounds—especially those taken in the first round. Interviews are held, and former coaches and teammates are spoken to by coaches, scouts, and general managers.
They want to get an idea of the players’ skill set and the character that comes with it. What makes them tick? Their morals. Do they have the ability to make the right decision when push comes to shove? These qualities are essential when investing a draft pick into a teenage player in the entry draft.
The Arizona Coyotes’ first pick of the draft did not come until the third round. They were forced to forfeit the second-round pick due to combine testing violations. This was the punishment handed down by the league and Gary Bettman, who also forced the Coyotes to forfeit their 2021 first-round pick. Their first-round pick this year was dealt with New Jersey that brought back current Buffalo Sabres winger Taylor Hall. With their third-round pick, the Arizona Coyotes selected 18-year-old defenseman, Mitchell Miller, from the Tri-City Storm. Miller, this past season with Tri-City scored 33 points in 44 games.
Only 19 days after the draft, the Arizona Republic published an exposé that fully explained Miller’s history of bullying a black student Isaiah Meyers- Crothers. Isaiah is an African American boy that is also developmentally challenged. Meyers-Crothers, developmentally, is four years behind his classmates.
In 2016 when Miller was 14 years old, he subjected Isaiah to physical abuse, racial taunts, and an incident detailed in a police report where he and a classmate forced Isaiah to lick a push pop that was urinated on. Reporting officer Jacob Hammer wrote Joni Meyers-Crothers (Isaiah’s mother) is “concerned for her son’s safety” and that Mitchell had been bullying her son since the second grade.
A new boy named Hunter, a friend of Mitchell was now also bullying Isaiah. They both called Isaiah the “N-word” and told him to “go pick their cotton.” They also called him names like “Brownie.” Classmates also confirmed these reports. There was also surveillance footage of both boys physically abusing Isiah, which included slamming his head into a brick wall.
In an article published in 2016 by the” Toledo Blade” and “Committee for Children,” a picture is painted of Mitchell by writer Kyle Rowland. Both Mitchell Miller and Hunter Mckie appeared in Lucas County Juvenile Court. He writes of the juvenile court proceedings involving the incident from the police report above where William Hutchenson, the magistrate, didn’t believe Miller was truly sorry or regret his actions.
But rather more sorry for himself that he was caught. On the other hand, Mckie was allowed to speak aloud and was in tears when expressing his regret. Hutchinson stated in regards to Miller, “Mitchell, I’m not sure you still get it. I don’t think you like being where you are. But I still don’t think you’ve put yourself in the shoes of not just the one victim, but numerous victims. No one should come to school and feel humiliated or intimidated. If this is what you do in school, I wonder what you do outside of school. You’re supposed to be on your best behavior in school. So if this is an example of your best behavior, I wonder what your worst behavior is. I don’t have a sense of real remorse. But I do feel that you feel sorry for yourself”.
For violating the Safe Schools Act, both Miller and Mckie were sentenced to do 25 hours of community service, write letters of apology to the victims, Sylvania School District, and undergo counseling. Isiah’s family claims they never received any such letter from Mitchell Miller, but they did from Hunter.
Mitchell Miller has also never personally apologized to Isiah. Isiah’s mother Joni claimed that Miller, after the proceedings, would rollerblade by their house in what she believes was an attempt to taunt Isiah.
So after hearing the details of this story, one would wonder, “How the hell does Arizona draft this kid”? Did they not do their homework? Did they know the extent of this bullying? Did they know how much this boy tormented Isiah? How this “young man” had abused a young, mentally challenged classmate. How he called him the “N-word” on multiple occasions.
It’s hard to believe after hearing this story of bullying and torment that a professional sports team still was willing to take a chance on a clearly disturbed kid. Especially after Arizona Coyotes CEO Xavier Gutierrez, the NHL’s first-ever Latino President/CEO vowed to help hockey become a more inclusive and diverse sport. I question entirely if they really did do any research at all.
But when questioned whether or not the team knew about Mitchell MIller’s criminal history, they stood by their selection of Miller. They hoped to use this as an opportunity to “guide” Miller into becoming a leader and to raise awareness and help prevent bullying and racism.
So when yesterday’s news of the Arizona Coyotes renouncing their selection of Mitchell Miller broke, it was a big surprise. In a statement from the Arizona Coyotes, President/CEO Xavier Gutierrez stated the following:
“Prior to selecting Mitchell in the NHL Draft, we were aware that a bullying incident took place in 2016. We do not condone this type of behavior but embraced this as a teachable moment to work with Mitchell to make him accountable for his actions and provide him with an opportunity to be a leader on anti-bullying and anti-racism efforts. We have learned more about the entire matter, and more importantly, the impact it has had on Isaiah and the Meyer-Crothers family. What we learned does not align with the core values and vision for our organization and leads to our decision to renounce our draft rights. On behalf of the Arizona Coyotes ownership and our entire organization, I would like to apologize to Isaiah and the Meyer-Crothers family. We are building a model franchise on and off the ice and will do the right thing for Isaiah and the Meyer-Crothers family, our fans and our partners. Mr. Miller is now a free agent and can pursue his dream of becoming an NHL player elsewhere.” Team GM Bill Armstrong also supported the team’s decision, who actually didn’t participate in this year’s entry draft.
After reading about this story in its entirety, the police reports, the documentation of Miller’s demeanor on his day in court back in 2016, and all of the details involving Isaiah, I was heartbroken, disgusted, and downright angry.
I know many people who read this think I’m that crazy asshole who lost his mind about the Sabres on the radio. But there’s much more to me than that. I relate and can empathize with Isaiah in many ways.
Although I can never begin to understand what Isaiah goes through because of the color of his skin, I do know what it’s like to feel tormented, to be afraid to go to school, and to be willing to go along with certain things or put up with abuse because you want acceptance from “the cool kids.” I know what it’s like to feel embarrassed about your mental hurdles.
To make a long story short, I needed inclusion classroom settings to focus from middle school until my senior year. So this meant in middle school, I spent most of my day in the same classroom, with more intense teaching from a Special Ed teacher. In high school, I only spent one period a day receiving help with school work and was given separate testing sites to block out distractions around me better.
I had trouble focusing on even the easiest of tasks and memory. It wasn’t very comfortable having to get up and walk out of class every time we had to take a test or quiz. Classmates would always make sure they would rub my nose in that embarrassment. I was really proud when I put in the work away from that inclusion setting in my senior year and graduated with a B average. That was the hardest school year I’d ever been through.
My mother and I moved around … A LOT. I think I was in five or six different school districts before settling in at high school. I was never able to put down any roots or establish any real lasting friendships. She was my hero, though. There was no stronger woman in this world than Dawn Marie O’Rourke, and I will die on that hill. She did whatever she could and worked as many jobs as she had to provide for me.
So when playing high school hockey with a group that had been friends for most of their lives at that point, I was a loaner.
I also played on varsity as a freshman, which made me an easy target for upperclassmen. I was forced to “locker box” juniors and seniors. I was beaten on constantly. Thrown into walls, and “ball tapped” both in the locker room and in school halls. I would have pucks fired at my head in practice so often it became almost a routine for me to keep my head on a swivel. It was a constant fight for survival. When I did fight back, it was to no avail. I was alone against a posse almost—a pack mentality. A few guys who once in a while stuck up for me, one of them I’m very close friends with even today. But for most of them, it was expected to stay silent to not upset your place on the team or popularity in school.
After most of the teammates that had put me through that torment had graduated, I thought it was over and that I could move on. I was wrong.
My own classmates who had seen the pack mentality used against me both in school and in the locker room kept this torment alive. It was almost like a passing of the torch. One tormentor to another. This person happened to be named an Assistant Captain. He was also one of the more popular guys in our class.
He dated all the popular girls and was looked up to by those lower on the high school’s social totem pole. I won’t name this person as he has a family now. I would never want those who love him as husband and father to read this and see him in a negative light. They don’t deserve that.
But my last two years of high school, with the exception of the year I lost my mother to cancer, were the worst of my life. Nothing changed. But what was so screwed up about it all? That every chance I got, I did what I could to gain his acceptance. His acknowledgment. I even threw parties at my dad’s house, knowing that I would probably be disrespected in an attempt to put me through hell. I threw these parties in an attempt to gain acceptance. Because I just wanted to be “one of the guys.”
He would wipe himself with my shower towel before I could use it after games and practices. He would urinate on my equipment. He would verbally abuse and berate me in front of his teammates. But the worst thing about all of this and the one thing that kept me up at night for years is when I showered one afternoon after practice.
As I washed my hair and body with the shampoo I kept in my bag, I began to smell a weird odor. It wasn’t long before I knew what that smell was……urine.
Someone had urinated in my shampoo bottle. Their urine had been all over my body. In my hair. On my face. The most humiliating moment of my life because I knew the one responsible for this was watching. I rinsed off, got back in the locker room, got dressed, and walked out.
On the way out, you have to pass by the showers in which there are no doors. While passing the showers, I saw him laughing, with the shampoo bottle in his hand, squeezing out what was left of his own urine.
I went to bed that night, having no idea how to handle what was to come the next day. The ridicule. The embarrassment.
As I laid in bed, for the first time in my life and with all the bullying I had been through between middle school up until that moment, at 17 years old, I contemplated taking my own life.
I didn’t want to go through the pain and embarrassment of the next day. I was terrified—more than I have ever been in the years before. I didn’t go through with it, obviously. I faced the inevitable music. Later on that year, he also started a rumor that I had “shit my pants” when a pair of messy boxers were found in the boy’s bathroom. I ended up getting into a fight with a classmate who made fun of me for it days later because I couldn’t handle the torment anymore.
When Isaiah said, he was upset when finding out Mitchell was drafted…..I understood and felt that pain. It’s the same pain I feel when I see pictures online of my tormentor and his family. Smiling and enjoying life together. I see it as unfair.
I’ve always believed everyone is entitled to a second chance to make up for their mistakes, but that doesn’t mean we forget what we went through. What we went through will never go away. It will always be on our minds. It will always affect us, even in certain social situations.
I turned what I went through into something positive, though. I went back to my alma mater. I coached with the same Varsity hockey program for nearly a decade. I volunteer as a big with “Big Brothers, Big Sisters.” My little Hunter just recently turned 18. And I am outrageously proud of the man he’s become.
I volunteered and then worked for my hero’s foundation, “Hasek’s Heroes,” where we taught underprivileged kids to play hockey and provided equipment and ice time for free.
I want to make sure that on my watch, that no kid will go through what I did. That there will always be someone to stand up and say something. To do something when you see something.
That’s the biggest issue in Isaiah’s story and my story and so many other stories. The fear of being the one to stand up and say “STOP,” and not be afraid of breaking these bullshit social contracts in junior high or high school in fear of being ridiculed for standing up for the weird or awkward kid.
The mentally disabled or physically disabled. This needs to stop. Don’t be afraid. Please stand up for those who need it most because of the aftermath of what that kid will go through, the depression, the suicidal thoughts, and tendencies; It’s long-lasting.
It can be prevented. I, and I’m sure Isaiah, we both would have given anything for just one person to stop the violence, the abuse, and for someone to have our back because it was the right thing to do.
As I look back at Isaiah’s story, I ask myself, how was this kid allowed to play hockey? What coach allowed him to play knowing this criminal background? How did he still play when coaches knew what he did to an African American boy with disabilities, that he tortured physically, verbally, and racially? What classmates or teammates stood by? How could his parents allow this behavior? I don’t understand it. I never will.
I know we’ve been on a long ride since the beginning of this story, and I hope you made it here at the end with me because these issues are so important to me.
They need to be addressed. It needs to stop. Be nice and love one another. Be respectful and most importantly, when you see someone getting abused, like Isaiah or myself, stand up and be a leader., not a follower.
We need more leaders in this world, now more than ever.
Thanks, and I’ll hang up and listen.
FOR MORE FROM DUANE READ HERE:
The Sports Desk can be reached at editorialtrainwrecksports@gmail.com