Toxic climate, law of silence, degrading initiations, sexual scandals. Voices are rising everywhere to demand a healthier environment for young hockey players. Can the redemption of the “national sport” of Quebec pass through a reform of its structures? The duty goes around the question with the architects of contemporary minor hockey.
“To make a short story, before, there was only one paved road: it went through association hockey. There, we are asphalting a second path through the school, which will lead to the same place. There are going to be two beautiful roads. »
This image is that of Stéphane Auger, director of the hockey department at the Quebec Student Sports Network (RSEQ). For years, this former National Hockey League referee has been working to “harmonize” the three school leagues that previously existed independently. “That’s settled,” he said, delighted, in an interview at the Duty.
If the intentions are good, the result is not yet fully developed, nuance Albert Marier, former government adviser on hockey, who established the rules of sport-studies in the 1980s. According to him, the school hockey is still only at the “gravel road” stage of forming the elite. He also believes that school hockey is not the best path for a young person who dreams of becoming a professional.
“It’s not the school that develops the athletes,” he says. Only in football is this 100% true. In the case of baseball, basketball, the best all evolve in private programs. If the goal is to train good citizens, then sport-study is the perfect choice, he specifies. “School success is in the ceiling, it is excellent. It’s a total success. »
Organized wedding
For a long time, it was the war between the associative and school networks. But the latter has proven itself and continues to gain followers, to the point where it is now impossible to ignore it. Parents like the school network especially for the supervision of young players, which is done by physical education teachers rather than by volunteer parents like in the associative network. Class schedules are adapted and training sessions are usually done during school hours. For overworked parents, this is often a big plus.
The RSEQ and Hockey Quebec recently signed an agreement. Today, their leaders are saying loud and clear that both structures are necessary, since they both meet particular needs and work together rather than against each other. This is at least the case on paper, because, in reality, “marriage is more difficult” in certain regions, explains the general manager of Hockey Quebec, Jocelyn Thibault. “It’s one of the big challenges we’re currently experiencing,” agrees the former Habs goaltender.
Some minor hockey associations under the leadership of Hockey Quebec deplore the loss of players to school, he explains. It therefore tries to make them evolve towards a reality more suited to today’s needs. “It’s true that it’s more difficult to organize teams when you have 400 players rather than 200 in a region. But we have to stop thinking that we are losing players. They are just somewhere else. It is this perception that must be changed, and it is fundamental as a change. »
To maximize the pool of players, you have to find ways to play teams against each other, regardless of the network in which they evolve, explains Mr. Thibault. “We are working on it, but it will take a few more years to succeed. »
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The third way
One of the problems raised by several experts is the fact that too much is placed on the performance of young people at a young age, when it is scientifically proven that before the first big growth spurt, around the age of 15, there is no there is no point in specializing, on the contrary. In a report by the Quebec Committee on the Development of Hockey, of which Stéphane Auger and Jocelyn Thibault were members, published last year, it is repeated that we must “prioritize the pleasure of the game in children” and stop exerting pressure undue to make them future stars. He evokes a “system where the young prodigy and his entourage have the impression of being in a higher class, surrounded by specialists who will make sure that we ‘do not escape'”.
In this report, it is recommended in particular to abolish the statistics for those under 13 years of age. A measure to which Jocelyn Thibault subscribes, but which causes him a lot of headaches. “The problem is that when people are not happy [des actions faites par Hockey Québec pour favoriser le plaisir et le développement aux dépens de la compétition], they start from private programs,” he explains. “The same thing happened when we made the decision to have our under-nines play on half-ice rather than full-ice,” he adds. There are plenty of people who have disaffiliated from Hockey Quebec and who have left private programs to compete with that of Hockey Quebec. »
At the RSEQ, Stéphane Auger makes the same observation. “We work with the federation [Hockey Québec] to regulate and structure hockey to ensure that there is good development of young people, except that there are parallel leagues that are springing up everywhere, and from a very young age. They offer spring camps, AAA camps, they are business. »
In covert words, both explain that these private parallel leagues exploit at a high price the will of parents to make their offspring future stars of the NHL. They ask, just as the Quebec Committee on the Development of Hockey did last year, to require that all organizations and activities related to the practice of hockey subscribe to the rules of Hockey Quebec, in order to ensure healthy development at all the children.
Go up the slope, and avoid slipping
Hockey is losing steam. In the “good years”, between 2008 and 2013, Quebec had some 100,000 active players. In 2019-2020, there were only 87,000. And the pandemic has driven the nail into the coffin, pushing the number of registrations below the 70,000 mark. This year, the numbers look promising — Jocelyn Thibault estimates that they will be between 80,000 and 85,000 — with an increase observed among girls. But the slope is steep.
The future passes by “a hybrid structure” which is inspired by the best practices of the school network, according to Jocelyn Thibault. Hockey Quebec cannot afford to replace all of its volunteers with professionals or to remunerate them in this capacity, but the federation is evaluating the possibility of using professionals to supervise and equip volunteers. “We are going to have discussions on this in the coming months,” concludes Mr. Thibault.