“They let us down”: a Patriots player empties her heart

We learned earlier this week the pause – the words of the administration – of the Cégep Saint-Laurent first division collegiate women’s hockey program.

In this slightly Kafkaesque story that Beauceron colleague Jean-François Poirier tried to clarify on Thursday, the players appear to be the big losers.

Mégan Miron is not fooled. She first claims that this pause is in fact a sabotage of the program in order to eliminate it, quite simply.

In 2023-2024, the RSEQ (Student sports network in Quebec) wanted there to be one less team in Division 1. Instead of making sure we stick together and say: “Ok , it’s not us who will go to the cash“, they just said, ‘It’s the end’. They just let us down. That’s the impression I have and pretty much all the players on the team haveaccording to her.

” They say they’re putting the program on hold and coming back in two or three years, but at the same time, the RSEQ wanted to cut a team. I don’t understand why in three years, the RSEQ would accept a seventh team. They contradict each other. »

There was talk of difficulty recruiting elite players. Disagreements between some athletes and their recently hired coach, Alexandria D’Onofrio, have also been cited as the reason for the hiatus.

The last few years have been very difficultsaid Thursday Danielle Malkassoff, director of student services and communications at the Cégep.

There was a lack of stability in the coaching position. And when the coach leaves, the players often leave. This created a turnover. We prefer to take one step back and then take two steps forward. Women’s hockey is not dead, it is part of our DNAshe added.

Mégan Miron speaks rather of a lack of supervision and accuses the sports director of the establishment, Hugo Lamoureux, of having made sexist remarks which scared off some of the employees. This is why some players wanted to leave, according to her.

At the meeting after the dismissal of [D’Onofrio], [Lamoureux] told us: “I will try to hire a coach male with an age difference and more experience”. At the time, we didn’t react too much. We thought it was a bit sexist, but we let it passsays the third-year player.

When he confirmed that the program was closing and we confronted him with the fact that it was because he wanted a male coach that all of our staff left, he answered us saying that we were exaggerating. By saying that his ideal profile is a man, but that if Caroline Ouellette applied, he would take her. It’s two extremes. We heard him say it twice. The whole team was thereshe assures.

Limbo

Like her teammates, Mégan Miron finds herself at an impasse a few months before the start of the next collegiate season. There are still six teams in the first division, but the formations are full.

The young woman is studying architecture and, according to her, only Cégep André-Laurendeau offers the same technique and would allow her to play at the highest level. She has been throwing bottles overboard for a few days; no one has reached out to him yet.

The team is full [à André-Laurendeau]. There are no other places elsewhere. The coaches have made promises to their players that they won’t be in the stands, what line they will play on, etc. They have difficulty accepting another playershe says.

Miron now considers continuing his career in Junior A, although this league is more recreational than competitive. The hockey player wanted to graduate from CEGEP and then make the leap with a university team, a plan seriously compromised by the decision of the Cégep de Saint-Laurent.

” I have no other options. Otherwise, I drop my technique to go to humanities, but that would give me another three years of study to go play university. I’m a bit in the chnoute. »

She is now considering the American Avenue, which she refused to do in the past to be sure of having a diploma recognized in Quebec. She will also check to see if there are opportunities in Ontario. In either case, studies in architecture are very likely to pass. For a time at least.

Last week, the committee on the revival of Quebec hockey made the development of the female component a priority by wanting, among other things, to invest as many resources for girls as for guys.

Eight days after the tabling of this report, Minister Isabelle Charest finds herself with a clear example of this disparity on her hands.