HOCKEY REVOLUTION SET TO ROLL INTO TOWN
Good morning hockey fans in St-Lazare and all points east and west: the word is out. The former Vaudreuil-Dorion entry in the Quebec Junior AAA Hockey League is headed our way. For the upcoming season, the team’s new owners have arranged for the club to play home games in the St-Lazare Sports Complex right in the centre of town. And they have brought with them a fundamental shift in philosophy. Rather than simply focus on the club’s on-ice activity, management is committed to placing much greater emphasis on the off-ice side of hockey, more specifically, on players’ academic development. Revolutionary? The owners think so. That’s why they named their team, the Revolution. Leading the charge is Dustin Traylen, a West Island alumnus, and graduate of Lac St-Louis’ stellar hockey program, whose own goaltending career took him to Clarkson University in Potsdam, N. Y., and then four years in the upper levels of the minors. When his playing days ended, he stayed connected to the game, beginning as a goalie coach on the West Island. From there, he took on a variety of other hockeyrelated administrative posts, all of which eventually brought him to ownership of the Brockville Braves in the Junior A Central Canada Hockey League (CCHL). To avoid confusion, it helps to know that the term Junior AAA Hockey, as used in Quebec, is the equivalent of Junior A Hockey elsewhere in Canada. There are 10 Canadian Junior A leagues, including the Quebec League. In other words, this league is in pretty exclusive company, standing only one step below major junior hockey. It is the highest level young players can achieve and still retain their eligibility for possible acceptance to American NCAA colleges and universities. Traylen’s Brockville Braves organization is deeply committed to each player’s next step, offering options that keep all doors to further education open, including NCAA possibilities. It is this approach that Traylen aims to develop in St-Lazare. Dismayed by the number of youngsters playing midget and junior hockey who buy into a major junior dream that likely will never come true, Traylen, who has added ‘head coach’ to his other duties, aims to make a real difference. Through education. “What I am trying to convey is that while major junior is a fast track level for the elite player,” Traylen said. “Those others who don’t move beyond it are for the most left stranded, their NCAA possibilities shut down.” This is where the Revolution takes over. “We have a responsibility to those young men who opt for our program. We seek them out and we commit to making their experience as rich as we can,” Traylen emphasized. “Rarely does anyone leave our programme without taking something of value with him. “In fact, I have never, in my life, heard a player return from the NCAA experience and say, ‘I wish I would have played QMJHL hockey instead.’ I can’t say the same for players who sacrificed a future in the NCAA by playing major junior.” Although the early going might be rough, Traylen and his partners know that what they bring to the St-Lazare experience will ultimately enrich both players and fans. Just a pipe dream — or will it work? Traylen is convinced it will. “To put it into perspective,” he said, “consider this. At last year’s championship finals for the Fred Page Cup, the winning Terrebonne team representing Quebec Junior AAA hockey had not a single player qualified to enter any NCAA Division I or Division III college. The Ontario Carleton Place team had 12.” And that, in a nutshell, is what Dustin Traylen and his ownership are all about. The Revolution’s season begins in early September. Give yourself a treat: head out to attend their first ever home opener. It promises to be an exciting season!