The Concordia Stingers have added another big-name coach to their roster by hiring Gladymir Charmant.
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The one who has more than 15 years of football experience will be the defensive front coordinator for the team that hired Paul Eddy Saint-Vilien as defensive coordinator last week.
Recently, the Stingers also added Justin Chapdelaine (offensive assistant), Martin Lapostolle (defensive line coach), Olivier Fréchette Lemire (defensive backs coach) and Nicholas Melsbach (defense assistant) to their coaching staff.
It was the arrival of all these players from the world of Quebec football that convinced Charmant to join the hive, but more particularly the arrival of Saint-Vilien.
“Paulo is like my big brother. I consider him to be one of my mentors,” he said in a telephone interview.
“It’s really nice to reconnect with someone who showed me football.”
The arrival of so many football headers on the defensive end of the ball could also see the Stingers through to the next stage, they who have not appeared in a Dunsmore Cup final since the 2008 season.
“With Olivier Roy as quarterback and all the great wide receivers, the Stingers represent one of the best offenses in the league. It was defensively that it was more difficult. Hopefully we’ll be able to change that,” said Charmant.
An “emotional” separation
For the past six seasons, Charmant has been the defensive line coach of the Université de Montréal Carabins. He also wore the colors of this team in the first decade of the millennium.
The man recognized for his frankness did not hide that he finds it difficult to have to say goodbye to the “Blues”.
“I am leaving my alma mater, the place where I have spent the most time for almost ten years”, he raised with emotion.
“The Carabins decided not to renew my contract, because they wanted to go in another direction. Marco [Iadeluca, l’entraîneur-chef des Carabins] and I had a very emotional discussion. […] He did what he thought was best for his program, but reluctantly. I felt it was a tough decision for him.”
Charmant made sure that his Carabins players were the first to know that he was going to go over to the enemy camp.
“I told them that I loved them very much, that it was a ‘business’ and not a betrayal. Their answers really warmed my heart.”
A busy man
With the Stingers, Charmant will be full-time during the season, but will be part-time during the offseason. This is explained by the fact that he is the head of a new football development program at Georges-Vanier high school in Laval.
“I’ve been working on this for a while. Paul wanted me to be full time. I couldn’t, because I had signed up with Georges-Vanier,” said Charmant, who initially refused his friend’s offer to join the Stingers.
“Paulo came back to the charge and I changed my tune. He created a job that was tailor-made for me.”
“I am a psychosocial worker by profession. To be able to combine my job and my passion for football is the best thing,” said the man who will oversee a program where young people will practice football every school day.