Many high school athletes have issues with their playing time or lack thereof. Few handle the situation like Farmington, Minn., goalie Austin Krause.
In the third period of Tuesday's hockey game against Chaska, Krause played the puck near his net. The senior goaltender then pushed the puck into his own goal, gave his team's bench the middle finger and a salute and skated off the ice — all of which was caught on tape and has since gone viral on the Internet.
According to the Farmington Independent, Krause posted on his Facebook page that he was unhappy with the amount of playing time he had received this season. It was just his 10th game in net this season of the 23 Farmington has played. Sophomore goalie Gage Overby had received the majority of time in net but missed Tuesday's game with a concussion.
So with his team leading Chaska, 2-1, and just 3:13 remaining in the third period, Krause played a puck that was dumped into the Farmington zone and instead of passing it to a teammate, simply swept it into his own goal. That tied the game at 2-2, and Chaska went on to score less than a minute later and eventually won, 3-2.
The Farmington school district released a statement Wednesday, saying, "The district is taking the proper steps to investigate the incident and will take appropriate action in line with school policy."
Farmington principal Ben Kusch wouldn't elaborate on specifics but said the school district is investigating the situation.
"As you can imagine, this kind of thing has a pretty immediate and dramatic impact on not just our team and not just our high school but also our community," Kusch told FOXSportsNorth.com. "We take a lot of pride in our schools and our athletic programs and everything that we do here. Something like this kind of shakes us, but the district, the high school, we're taking the steps that we always do to investigate incidents like these and we'll take the appropriate actions that are in line with district policy and school procedures and practices."
A call to Farmington coach Keith Revels was not returned, but Chaska coach Dave Snuggerud said he wasn't aware of any inner turmoil among the Farmington team and sympathized after seeing Tuesday's events transpire.
"I always use everything as a teachable moment, so I just tried to pull the kids together and remind them it's just a game and we're here to build character," Snuggerud said. "It's an unfortunate situation for the young man and for the program of Farmington because they're a good hockey program. . . . I just feel bad for them."
Farmington has just one regular-season game remaining before the playoffs and will now attempt to move on after Krause's bizarre actions have brought the school plenty of unwanted attention.
"Our job here is to really help those young men and their coaches finish their season on a positive note," Kusch said. "Certainly in school and out of school, one of the things we hope students gain is a learning and understanding of how we can disagree without being disagreeable. I think in that regard, this is a real opportunity for a teachable moment as well as to learn and grow from all kinds of perspectives."
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