The management of the Cégep de Saint-Laurent suspended the activities of its women’s hockey team earlier this week. This decision sent shockwaves through the student sports community.
Posted at 7:59 p.m.
Prestigious program in the first division of the Quebec Student Sports Network (RSEQ), which now has six teams, the players of the Patriotes of Cégep Saint-Laurent had heard, according to information reported by Alexandre Gaston of Radio-Canada, that the RSEQ wished to put an end to the activities of a formation.
A few days later, the players learned, despite themselves, that their team no longer existed, that it was dissolved.
To explain this decision, some question the difficulty of recruitment and the need to restructure the program to better return in a few years. Others speak of sexism within the walls of the CEGEP on the part of decision-makers.
Caroline Ouellette denounces
Olympic champion and Concordia University Stingers coach Caroline Ouellette wrote a post that caused a lot of reaction on her Facebook page late Friday afternoon.
“I tried to understand what could have happened. I could see my anger, my frustration, my incomprehension and then my sadness flowing, ”she wrote in the introduction to a very long text.
She finds it unfortunate that the program’s reputation and rich history have not been taken into consideration.
It also underlines what some players and coaches have deplored, that is to say the sexist vision of some decision-makers. Some had even decided to leave the program for this reason, some time ago: “Some fired on the pretext that a man would be better for the role. Others who resign upon hearing this vision of leadership. I would have made the exact same decision,” explains Ouellette.
She also goes on to say she is sorry for the 10 new players, including three from France, who signed up with the team for the next season, and who are now facing a wall.
She also insists on the fact that the activities of the women’s team are coming to an end, while the men in the first division dominate and that the financing for a team in the second has even been started.
Ouellette, who has herself worn the colors of the Patriots, wonders: “Where will our female athletes and coaches go if our female hockey programs are continually threatened while the D2 offers on the men’s side continue to grow?
The question remains unanswered, for the moment. The Olympian thinks that to advance the cause of women’s hockey, we must stop pushing it backwards.
“We need this visibility, this representation and this service offer. This vision clearly does not align with those responsible at Cégep Saint-Laurent. »