Espoir Royals’ future no longer in doubt

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI

The uncertain future that had been hounding the midget espoir Webster Academy / Lac St. Louis Royals recently has been ironed out.

Hockey West Island has taken over full control of the club, both as custodian and operator. The Royals — along with the espoir Lac St. Louis Tigers — will continue to draw the finest 15-year-old regional players from the Lakeshore, Hockey West Island, Deux Rives, Dollard des Ormeaux and Lachine hockey associations. However, those choosing to play for the Royals must attend John Rennie, École des Sources or Dalbé Viau high schools. François Lacombe will return as head coach next year for a Royals club that will disassociate itself completely from Webster Academy.

Since the Royals began play in the Montreal Metropolitan Hockey League three years ago, it had been under the custodian care of Hockey West Island but managed on a day-today basis by the Pointe Claire-based Webster Hockey Academy, which also ran a hockey concentration program at John Rennie. In late February though, Webster Academy, under new ownership this year with Mike and Gary Gaul along with Marc David having assumed responsibility from Jim Webster, decided it would field a midget-level travelling team next year that would play in non-Hockey Quebec sanctioned games and tournaments. It was advertised as an AAA team. Needless to say, the Quebec Midget AAA Hockey League Lac St. Louis Lions, along with Hockey Quebec were very upset about that decision, feeling Webster Academy would be drawing players from the region into its system only to play in an outlaw league. As a result, Hockey Quebec asked Hockey West Island to remove Webster Academy as operators of the Royals.

“None of the issues that led to this had anything to do with the on-ice product,” said Kevin O’Reilly, president of Hockey West Island and vice-president of the Lac St. Louis Hockey Association. “Their record over the past three years has been fantastic. It was more a problem with the organization.”