How University is Ottawa is relaunching men's hockey after sexual assault scandal

1/5/2016 How University is Ottawa is relaunching men's hockey after sexual assault scandal | Eh Game Yahoo Sports Canada
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By Neate Sager
29 July, 2015 3:16 PM
Eh Game
   
How University is Ottawa
is relaunching men's
hockey after sexual
assault scandal
Patrick Grandmaitre (centre) will be uOttawa's new coach (University of
Ottawa photo)
Winning trust — and wins along the way — is job one for Patrick
Grandmaître, who will helm the University of Ottawa's relaunch of
men's hockey once a break stemming from a sexual assault
scandal concludes.
Nearly all questions posed to the young coach at his introduction
on Wednesday focused on the ins and outs of building from
scratch for the GeeGees' return to Ontario University Athletics
play in 201617. The real question, though, is about effecting a
culture change in the wake of why the team was suspended last
season and will not play games this winter. The wheels were put
in motion, after all, when university president Allan Rock
suspended the program in March 2014 once staff were informed
by Thunder Bay, Ont., police about a sexual assault investigation
involving players. The misbehaviour occurred during a boozy hotel
party while the team was on the road at the school's expense,
acting as its representatives. Two former players were eventually
charged. Coach Réal Paiement was also fired.
Ottawa has reached out in sports figures such as Ottawa
Senators CEO Cyril Leeder and former NHL coach Jacques
Martin to consult and help reestablish credibility. The 36yearold
rookie coach also said the virtual "expansion team" he's leading
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will have to convince the university community it belongs on
ampus.
"I think we'll have to be involved in some community projects,"
said Grandmaître, a former pro in Germany whom since 2009 has
been a physical education teacher at Collège Nouvelles
Frontières, a private high school in neighbouring Gatineau.
"Finding the right people, the right players, it's all about having the
strong people sending the right message and having a sense of
pride within the team to follow those rules. When some guys are
getting off the rules, it's my job to bring them back but it's also the
job of the leaders inside the team, to have a sense of
accountability to not only the team but the school.
"It's not easy. It's not something where you just flip a switch. But
you have to set the tone right away. We'll make it clear while we're
recruiting so that the guys who are accepted here are aware of
this reality. And they'll embarking on this journey to rebuild not only
the hockey team, but the confidence in the hockey team."
"I think I'll have to go deeper than to just go see hockey games
because I am looking for character traits, not just hockey traits."
Grandmaître added that indulging prospective recruits' misgivings
about the code of conduct Ottawa enacted after its investigation of
the hockey team would perpetuate a broader social ill.
"I can give these guidelines to players on paper if they want to see
what they are," he said. "I want to be as clear as possible. Put it
out there. If it scares some guys right away, then it's good for me
to know so I won't waste as much time on those guys. It's a
privilege to play CIS hockey. It's not a penalty to come. People will
want to come here. I think from talking inside of the hockey
community, I think that it won't be an issue for the players coming
in. They'll be excited to be coming in, they'll excited to play CIS. It
will be like an expansion team. It's exciting to be one of the 25
guys that relaunches the program."
Several former players have filed a lawsuit against the university
over the program's suspension. No individual was stripped of
eligiblity to play hockey elsewhere in CIS or, in theory, join another
GeeGees team. Members of that 201314 team could also rejoin.
Since the hockey team's suspension, uOttawa has instituted
training for all studentathletes on the concepts of consent, signs
of sexual abuse and bystander invention. Julie Lalonde, a public
educator with the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres,
believes proper steps were taken to inform studentathletes about
why rape culture can pervade the sports world.
'Message has been sent'
"For me, the question about whether it's an appropriate time for the
team to come back can't be separated from how they will be
integrated," Lalonde said. "I think it's an appropriate time to come
back. I think the message has been sent. Had it been done 10
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years from now, my response would have been the same: 'what
are you going to do to make sure that culture doesn't get recreated
again?' It wasn't just that team that had a problem. I feel confident
that them coming back now is the right move.
"I believe what the University of Ottawa did [by suspending the
hockey program] was a gift to not only the women involved with
this particular case, but to all survivors on campus," Lalonde
added. "To see that the campus would elevate, to pull the team, to
investigate, to speak out very strongly in public. That's the attitude
all campus should have. People are taken off teams for plagiarism,
for not having grades, for not coming to practice. It's unbelievable
to say that you should be able to play hockey if you were part of a
sexual assault or a conspiracy to cover one up. The campus has
a priority to protect its students and the university did something
that I hope resonated to all campuses."
Starting over will be tough. Men's hockey, typically, is the second
most expensive CIS sport after football, which can offset costs
with ticket sales. Marc Schryburt, who was hired as uOttawa's
director of sports services this spring, said he plans to attract
private sponsorship in order to increase the hockey budget from
$450,000 annually to the mid$600,000s. Schryburt visited 11
universities to glean ideas about how to get businesses involved
with a CIS team.
"We'll be able to provide the equivalent of 25 entrance
scholarships for 201617," Schryburt said. "That's unheardof in
CIS ... Rules are fairly strict in the CIS, especially in the OUA. You
cannot provide more than $4,500 a year as [an athletic financial
award]. And the athletes have to keep marks up to retain that each
year. You can do the math. Fortyfive hundred times 25, that's
what we're working on to make sure that is what Patrick has to
work with."
Martin will be a special advisor to Grandmaître for at least one
season. He will also be a guest coach at the Senators rookie
camp in September.
"We're surrounding ourselves with good people," Schryburt said.
Grandmaître, who is a former assistant coach with the school's
women's team, is in for a hectic 12 months. On the
homefront, Grandmaître and his partner Jani Lalonde are getting
married in August and are expecting their second child, who will
be a sibling for their twoyearold son Louis.
Then there is the challenge of recruiting 25 players at once instead
of a halfdozen or so. Many 21yearolds who played an overage
season of junior only look into CIS once it is evident a professional
contract will not materialize. Grandmaître, a former captain of both
the QMJHL's Victoriaville Tigres and Quebec Remparts in his
youth, notes four junior leagues have a presence in the national
capital region. No recruit will have to wait his turn behind a
veteran, either.
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At the same time, OUA coaches work in a scarcity economy
when it comes to recruiting. Twenty teams are competing for
former juniors, as opposed to eight in the Atlantic conference and
seven in Canada West.
"The beauty of our region is we have an OHL team [Ottawa 67's]
and a QMJHL team [Gatineau Olympiques] 10 minutes apart,"
Grandmaître said. "It's easy to see games in those both leagues.
We have a good [Central Canada] Junior A league and a Junior A
franchise in Buckingham, Que., starting this year. Then it's
networking. I don't have an unlimited budget to travel around
Canada, but once network with contacts, you can see players and
get them interested in junior hockey.
"There are a lot of players out there who can help start this the
right way."
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on
Twitter @naitSAYger.
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