The sanctions that the RSEQ imposed this week on the Condors of Cégep Beauce-Appalaches in order to punish them for the demolition of the Bol d’Or trophy do not pass with the parents of players, who go up to the barricades to denounce.
• Read also: Destruction of the Bol d’or: why not $100,000, for that matter?
• Read also: Destruction of the Bol d’Or: the Condors will appeal the sanctions of the RSEQ
Parents consulted by The newspaper all agree on the fact that the action taken by a handful of young people on the team was “irresponsible” and “not intelligent”.
However, the brake imposed on recruitment and the exclusion of the playoffs in 2023 constitute too heavy penalties, they believe.
“There are junior hockey players who have molested a girl who are not receiving this treatment right now. It’s completely disproportionate and we see that the RSEQ made its decisions under popular pressure,” said Étienne Fortin, who considers that “minors are treated like criminals.”
After winning the Bol d’Or in Division 3 for the past two seasons, Condors players have destroyed the trophy by melting it down and mocking previous winners.
Stock photo taken from Snapchat
A portion of the damage inflicted on the trophy.
The other side of the coin
The gesture was unanimously decried, but parents are now finding that student-athletes are paying too much for a youthful mistake.
“I know I’m going to get stoned when I go out publicly, but I want us to show the other side of the coin,” insisted Étienne Fortin.
“We are in the process of making young people branded with a red iron. It’s gotten to the point where my son and many other young people on the team no longer want to wear their Condors clothes for fear of getting sickened. It all got too big,” he recalled.
For his part, another parent, Fabien Simard, says he is also troubled.
“You have to ask yourself if the sentence is proportional to the act committed. Normally, there are stages before firing someone,” he said, pointing out that the Condors will be forced into a participatory football situation next season.
If he is quick to point out that he condemns the gesture of the young people who destroyed the trophy, he would like to put things in context.
“The Bol d’Or is not new for nothing. They do it again every year because incidents occur. You can’t say that before everything was fine and all of a sudden it’s zero tolerance. »
Fear of retaliation
Called to decide on what could have been an acceptable sanction, Mr. Simard mentioned the idea of defeats by forfeit.
“If you tell young people that they start the season with two losses, they will have to roll up their sleeves. You will force them to work to get up, and that is formative, ”he suggested.
The other parents who agreed to answer us preferred not to be identified, for fear that their children would be splashed.
“In the court of social networks, we will never win,” one of them told us.
Sufficient supervision
In this Bol d’Or saga, some have suggested that young people should have been better supervised. This is a perception that players’ parents believe to be completely wrong.
One of them wanted to specify that “the coaches are almost always with the young people, they are very committed”, citing the Condors’ involvement with Moisson Beauce, Operation Red Nose and other missions. community.
“These young people set an example for two years, but because of a blunder at one party, everyone was lumped into a mold of little bums “, he chained.
Cégep Beauce-Appalaches confirmed this week that it would appeal sanctions from the RSEQ.