A father is facing an involuntary manslaughter charge this week in Massachusetts after deciding that his child’s pick-up hockey game was ample reason to beat another father to death.

Monday, July 10, 2000

A father is facing an involuntary manslaughter charge this week in Massachusetts after deciding that his child’s pick-up hockey game was ample reason to beat another father to death.

Thomas Junta, 42, pummeled Michael Costin to death while Costin’s sons looked on and begged Junta to stop.

After the scuffle was over, Costin was dead and three children – two boys and a girl – were left without their single father. They will now live with their grandparents.

What caused the fight is anyone’s guess, although there is speculation that Junta was upset when the game that was supposed to be non-violent started to include checking.

But that reason doesn’t matter.

This is a lesson for any parent who feels him or herself losing control at his or her child’s sporting event. The anger that is generated over these scrimmages is nothing short of shocking. Some people don’t seem to understand that these are just games.

Their example to their children is not that of a class competitor, but that of a thug whose only interest is what number goes in the win column. No one benefits from that.

Two families have been shattered because of one adult’s ridiculous reaction to a child’s game – and a community has learned a tragic lesson about sportsmanship and proportion.

It is up to us to make sure that same lesson is not taught here.