After pausing its Patriotes women’s hockey program on May 12, the Cégep de Saint-Laurent leadership took a round on Tuesday, much to the delight of the college players. The situation remains uncertain, however, as the team is looking for approximately six players who could line up next season.
As Alexandre Gascon wrote last week, a way out of the crisis seems inevitable as the Quebec hockey community has acted to demand review of this controversial decision.
On Tuesday, Cégep de Saint-Laurent’s director of student services and communications, Danielle Malkassoff, and the Patriotes ’new head coach, Daniel Continelli, met with players to express their intentions for next season. Ms. also took advantage. Malkassoff took the opportunity to apologize to the young athletes for the disturbance last week.
Mégan Miron denounced the situation in a letter sent to the official opposition spokesman for sports, Enrico Ciccone, and to the Liberal MP for Acadie’s ride, Christine St-Pierre. The student welcomed this decision, but he said he understood the moderate enthusiasm shown by some of his teammates. I was a little angry that we had to do that, but at the same time it would help us give visibility to women’s hockey. It will not be for nothing.
Stopping the program has the effect of a bomb. It took five days for Cégep de Saint-Laurent management to get their first division women’s team back on track. A way out of the crisis was celebrated by Liberal MPs Christine St-Pierre, Enricco Ciccone and their colleague Marwah Rizqy, who came to support the Patriotes players at a press conference organized Wednesday in front of Cégep of Saint-Laurent. Quadruple Olympic champion Caroline Ouellette, and University of Montreal Carabins coach Isabelle Leclaire, also saluted the initiative of the group of athletes.
The support of politicians and former Patriots surprised the architecture student, who admitted to being somewhat delayed in his work on interviews and obligations in the last days.
I never thought it would be this big actuallythe 19 -year -old girl honestly admitted. I’m glad it succeeded. Perhaps this will motivate people to help us have more visibility and more opportunities, like men.
Supporting politicians
Positive but no one has won yetremembered with caution Enrico Ciccone. It is still ironic to file a report [sur le développement du hockey au Québec], and a week later, we lost the program. We must be in addition mode, we cannot subtract. There is a huge fund to be made.
If a government is serious about its desire to develop hockey in general and women’s hockey, it should support institutions like Cégepbelieves Liberal MP Christine St-Pierre. Cégep needs support and now we will see the result and I am very happy.
The same goes for the Minister for Education and responsible for Sport, Isabelle Charest, who was driven by the outcome after working closely with various parties, including Hockey Québec and the Réseau du sport sportif du Québec (RSEQ).
I think everyone has good intentions to make it work, so we put the actors on the same table to find solutionsexplains Minister Charest, who wonders about RSEQ’s project to increase the number of teams in the college’s first division from seven to six within two years.
Of course, we are working with the goal of expanding sports training and having more girls playing hockey. With this perspective, we don’t want to cut teams, we want to have more. If there are many teams, we may have teams of equal caliber.
We feel like we are on our way home
This is the feeling that lived in Olympic champion Caroline Ouellette when she learned of Cégep de Saint-Laurent’s decision. The Concordia Stingers coach needs a few days before he can speak to reporters. He could not contain his anger after reading the reasons given for the closure in the meantime of the team whose colors he wore in his college career.
It was a program that has been very important in my career, in my life, where I have had friends that to this day I continue to talk to.told Ouellette at the press conference. Cégep Saint-Laurent was a real springboard in my career to be a national team, but it was also pivotal years in the careers and lives of our young student athletes.
Caroline Ouellette received a lot during her time with the Patriotes, and she wanted to do the same for those who wanted to emulate her career, or just practice the sport they wanted before starting a professional career. The former national team captain, with the help of the Carabins coach of the University of Montreal, Isabelle Leclaire, wants to call the former St-Lau to try to set up a system of bursaries intended for program players and coaches.
” An event that may seem negative to us at first, I think, will have positive effects and show us that in 2022 anyway, there are issues for women’s sport. “
For me, positive things are happeningunderlined Caroline Ouellette. The mobilization of the players, the meeting with the Cégep de Saint-Laurent, Daniel Continelli who wants to return to his position, who wants to save the program … We need to stop eliminating programs that help our girls to practice our national sport.
Rebuild a winning team
Daniel Continelli made his first steps as a hockey coach in leading the Patriotes women’s team in the early 2000s. This prompted him to take over management of the team after spending 11 years there. .
” The message was that Cégep de Saint-Laurent was mistaken and the scope and size of the program were confused. [de hockey féminin]. They admitted their mistakes, they said they were back, and that was to convince these girls to come back for real, and I was here for that. “
While 12 players have confirmed their return to the Patriotes next season, six to seven players are still missing to reach the minimum threshold of 18 players set by the head coach. Convincing so many players won’t be an easy task at the start of the summer, but he has secured concessions from Cégep, including improving training times, to increase his craze power.
I don’t want that to be what stop us from playing next year, I couldn’t believe that’s itsays now Mégan Miron, who has done everything possible to continue the sport he loves.
Of course, I still have work to do, we don’t know each other very well, but Cégep’s objective will definitely come back., said his coach. He should know the intentions of the undecided players on Friday.
The young coach has no illusions about the level of play his team will offer next season, but he remains convinced that he will return some shine to him in the near future.
Will we fight for the championship [la saison prochaine], probably not, but I want us to compete and be fast. We’re already the best program in Quebec, and my goal is that in three to five years, we’ll be back at least in the top three.
If he needs to rebuild a hockey program that has been failing for years, Daniel Continelli knows he must first build the bridges between his organization and the players it has failed.
Source: Radio-Canada
