Caroline Ouellette Women’s Hockey Celebration | For the pleasure of young warriors

There were fascinated eyes and big smiles per square inch in the locker room of the Étoiles de Laurentides-Lanaudière pee-wee AAA, Thursday morning, when Caroline Ouellette came to welcome the young hockey players.

Katherine Harvey-Pinard
Press

That morning the kickoff of the 7^e edition of the Caroline Ouellette Women’s Hockey Celebration. And there was a good atmosphere between the walls of the Étienne-Desmarteau arena. Trumpets, bells, rattles, cries… All means were good to make noise and encourage the young players on the ice.

“Very nice game, that! “,” Go on, go on! “,” It’s okay, we’re not giving up! Shouted parents from the stands.

Maya-Jade Vincelette, 11 years old and player for the Stars, met Press after his match. She had in her hands a small Styrofoam sword.

“It’s the warrior’s sword!” She cried.

The warrior’s sword?

This is the second time that Maya-Jade has participated in the Celebration. She has been playing hockey for seven years. His idol ? “Marie-Philip Poulin! ”

She has already had the chance to meet her in the past. You can almost see stars in her eyes when she talks about it with a smile on her face.

“She told me to always persevere, never give up and always try,” she said. Even if sometimes we make bad plays or bad passes, we must not belittle ourselves. We must continue. ”

Véronique Dupras, she plays for the Remparts du Richelieu. Thursday morning, her team lost their first game by a score of 10 to 2. But the young hockey player had a smile on her face despite everything.

“We lost, but it was fun and I think the atmosphere of the tournament is pleasant,” she hinted. It had been a long time since we had lived it. […] This is the only tournament where there are lots of girls and where we are not just four teams! We have to fight to win. ”

The celebration

It’s been seven years since Caroline Ouellette, a member of the national team for 16 years, organized the Women’s Hockey Celebration, an annual tournament that brings together teams from the novice to peewee categories in a festive atmosphere.

“I remember talking to Mel Davidson about this, who was the general manager of Hockey Canada on our side of the elite women’s program. She explained to me that there were not enough players in Quebec. When you don’t have a lot of players, your elite players don’t have enough players of the same caliber to keep improving, ”she added.

Ouellette, who was still playing for Les Canadiennes de Montréal in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (LCHF) at the time, proposed the project to Hockey Quebec, who immediately collaborated.

The event is not only intended for women’s teams. It is also aimed at individual players playing in boys’ teams; these are placed in a female team created especially for the tournament. The idea being, of course, to introduce them to women’s hockey.

“We notice over the years that it has the desired effect, argued Ouellette. The girls have a lot of fun together, then in the years to come, sometimes the next year, they transfer to women’s hockey. ”

“Ideally all the girls would play together,” she continued. We would have more leagues, more teams and there would be less travel for parents. ”

The Celebration, which brings together teams from across Quebec and even Ontario, fits perfectly with Ouellette’s mission to introduce young girls to sport and all the opportunities it can bring them.

“My biggest motivation is that a lot of times I think about how I almost didn’t play hockey,” she said. I asked my parents very persistently. It took me two years, to convince my father, because he had never seen a girl play hockey. And I have the impression that it is still happening today. I want to give girls opportunities to play women’s hockey. ”

“Lack of fun is one of the main reasons girls stop playing sports,” she added. We wanted to make sure that we created a positive experience, where there would be a lot of fun, for them to hang on to hockey. ”

Each year, former and current players of the Canadian team come to meet the young girls. Ouellette also takes advantage of the event to showcase the coaching and refereeing to former players.

“I am very proud [de dire] that for the first time, the entire Celebration will be refereed by officials, ”she also underlined with a smile.

There will also be a “Discover Hockey” session on the weekend to allow girls who have never played hockey to try the sport for the first time.

No call from the Canadian

While the owner of the Montreal Canadiens, Geoff Molson, recently announced that he wants more diversity within the organization, Caroline Ouellette’s name has sometimes been mentioned in rumors. The quadruple Olympic gold medalist assures us, however, that she had no contact with the Habs.

“I really like what I do [actuellement], recalled the head coach associated with the Concordia Stingers. I love the Canadiens, I watch all the games I can, but my mission is to develop my sport. As long as there is no professional women’s league where our athletes can make a living… That’s what I would like to see and help create in my life. ”