Stéphan Lebeau, from Stanley Cup champion in 1993 to kindergarten teacher

MAGOG | In the corridors of Saint-Pie-X elementary school, on a winter Thursday morning, nothing suggests that Stéphan is a Stanley Cup champion. The last from the Canadian.

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That is until the bell rings and a young student approaches him asking if he played professional hockey.

Mr. Stéphan gives him his best smile and answers in the affirmative. The little man turns on his heel and goes to take his coat from his locker, proud of the answer. The educator gathers his little flock and takes charge of the gymnasium.

Mr. Stéphan, it’s Stéphan Lebeau, the n^o 47 for the Canadian from 1989 to 1994 who lifted the cup during the fabulous epic of 1993. A forward with 403 games in his seven seasons in the National League in addition to six campaigns in Switzerland.

At 55, Lebeau is a physical education teacher on Thursday mornings at this small primary school of around 220 students in Magog. He continues the three kindergarten groups, including one bringing together four-year-old children. He thus helps a cracking network everywhere by meeting small needs of his school service center. Because as he puts it: “In an ideal world, there would be no Stéphan Lebeau in schools.”

But he is happy to get his hands dirty.

Challenges mastered like clockwork

The newspaper followed him for a morning as he contributed to the school system in difficulty since the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020.

A first observation is striking when you open the door to the small 300 square meter gymnasium where he has set up three different circuits to develop the children’s skills. The teacher used the entire space for his “challenges”. The ground is littered with obstacles, mats, cones, hoops, tubes, etc. The only vestige of its past on the ice rinks, a small hockey net is placed in a corner of the room so that, on the last course, the students kick a foam ball into it.

This quick look at the gym also allows us to see that the important knowledge of hockey coaching for 20 years is not buried that far away. Jealous would be the minor hockey instructors who rack their brains to create such creative and advanced exercises to promote the psychomotor development of young people.

Focused on development with pleasure

“I have fun. I come to school for these children. I don’t have to work and be there every day. I am not looking for a career in teaching. I appreciate this moment a lot, because I can invest myself fully in them. I especially don’t want them to pay because they don’t have a qualified teacher,” explains the one who believes he has a great responsibility towards them.

“I am committed to their development and their enjoyment. For me, first and foremost, I want them to learn through pleasure, he continues. I try to stimulate them in the game. I think a lot about my lessons. I am changing my routes. I adapt to their development and their abilities.”

“As a teacher, I have a performance to deliver. Like a coach behind a bench and a player on the ice. When I’m in front of my classes, I have to deliver.”

No more hockey

After a 13-year career in professional hockey, Lebeau worked for 20 seasons behind different benches from midget AAA to the American League. Having refused interesting offers for two years, he put a definitive end to hockey at the end of the last 2022-2023 season after eight years leading the Champlain-Lennoxville College Cougars, in the Quebec Collegiate League.

In his mid-fifties, he wants to focus on his family and his passions: golf, fishing, hunting, etc. And through all of this, he wants to give back by getting involved in the Estrie school boards.

In addition to his physical education course load at Saint-Pie-X school, he does a few substitute periods here and there.

“I help out, because the system needs it. I don’t coach anymore, I have time and I want to stay active. This is my fifth year as a substitute teacher. Since I started teaching, I have had an enriching experience, he says, pausing and smiling before choosing his adjective. It’s interesting. I’m exploring the world of education.”

For the love of children

He knows this environment well. Because his partner, Chantal, is a 6 year old teacher^e year at Saint-Pie-X. His love for young people does not date from yesterday. In the house where he boarded during his years with the Cantonniers de Magog, in the AAA midget league, the lady welcomed children from the school where he currently teaches during the lunch hour.

During his only season with the Sherbrooke Canadiens in 1988-1989, he stayed in the family home where his mother ran a daycare.

Mr. Stéphan loves children and he does not hesitate to show it at the end of each lesson in his congratulatory message.

In June 1993, if he had been told that he would one day become a professor, Lebeau would never have believed it.

“It’s proof that you never know what life can have in store for you. Without COVID-19, I might never have explored this environment. I might not have been available. I became one and got my foot in the door. Suddenly, everything came together. It’s a pure coincidence.”

How did the Stanley Cup champion get into teaching toddlers?

It happened in the spring of 2020 when the planet was plunged into the upheaval of COVID-19. Hockey coach, a sport completely immobilized by the pandemic, Stéphan Lebeau volunteered to do substitute work in schools in his region.

One thing led to another and a physical education teaching position became available due to sick leave. Lebeau met with the management of Saint-Pie-X school and the school board, presenting his plan and vision. Without a second thought, he found himself in front of the students.

The former Canadiens did the job so well that another school had heard of him and later offered him a job. He stayed there for almost three months. During the 2021-2022 school year, he returned to Saint-Pie-X which now had new management.

“I had heard about his efficiency and professionalism. When I met him, he arrived with his binder, his preparation and his documents all well classified according to the stages and skills, says the general director, Julie Dubois. He was really on the mark.”

In fact, it was he who assembled this thick satchel that looked more like a large brick. Placed on a table near the board in the corner of the gymnasium, it brings together the skills to be developed, its lesson plans, its evaluations and all the documents necessary to accomplish its tasks. Because without a precise procedure to follow, he must himself concoct the path of his young students by following the broad lines of principles dictated by the Ministry of Education.

Impressive experiences

According to his wife, Chantal Poulin, who is a professor, teaching is innate to him. “He does his research, he listens and he sees lots of different things. He is capable of teaching everything. He’s a perfectionist and he’s having fun with it all.”

The director also praises her perfectionist side in addition to her organization, her professionalism and her love of children. “His experience as a hockey coach led him to acquire adequate skills to teach children. We see that he is a teacher at heart.”

“It is particularly well organized. He also has natural authority. With young children, it develops psychomotor skills through pleasure and action. He is proactive. In all the tasks we give him, we know we can count on him. We are blessed to have him,” explains the woman who obviously wants to keep him in her school.

Source of reflections

But if the education system were effective, it must be admitted, Lebeau could instead indulge his other passions. The former Habs player does not shy away from words to express his opinion.

“In a high-performance society, we would have specialists in psychomotor skills who would come and work with students from childhood to stimulate their different skills. In Quebec, we don’t invest in that. We let them go,” he thunders.

“In an ideal world, there would be no Stéphan Lebeau in schools. They would count on ultra-specialized and certified people,” he continues.

“How can we lack teachers in Quebec and lack so much vision?” he asks himself when the education system has been failing on all sides for too long. “Like tens of thousands of people in the province, I wonder. As a society, how can we get to this point?

He confirms that he still has a “great experience”.

And the weight of the 93 Cup?

Apart from making children dream and making their parents smile, the conquest of the Stanley Cup in 1993 has no influence in his teaching tasks.

In fact, Lebeau plays with discretion and humility. In the opinion of his partner with whom he walks through the school doors every Thursday morning, she disappears instantly. “Stéphan gives off a lot. Young people love him and he captures their attention.”

But, in some schools, it is not uncommon for Mr. Stéphan to take out his felt-tip pen to sign a few autographs. Both for young and old.