Choules out for Eagles
SYDNEY — The Cape Breton Screaming Eagles announced Monday they had fired head coach and general manager Ron Choules.
Choules ran the team’s practice on Monday afternoon and was relieved of his duties shortly after. The Montreal native was in his second season behind the bench of the Screaming Eagles and took on the role of general manager after former GM Pierre Roux was let go in October.
The Screaming Eagles have a record of 7-172-4 this season for 20 points, 16th overall in the 18-team Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and have lost seven straight games (0-6-0-1). Choules had an overall record of 30-59-3-6 with the Screaming
Eagles.
“The team hasn’t been playing well and we just had to make a change, so we made the change,” said Screaming Eagles president Andre Cote, who wouldn’t say how long the team has been actively searching for Choules’ replacement. “We decided the time was now to do it.
“There’s never a good time to do these kind of things in my mind. A decision had to be made and we made it. We just move forward. The whole idea is to try and get the Screaming Eagles moving forward in the most positive direction we can. Sometimes, a coach takes a brunt for that, sometimes the GM does. That’s just the nature of the game.”
The team’s attendance has seen a dip this year as well. Last season, the club averaged 2,600 fans per game, but after 15 home games in 2012-13, the team is down to 2,481 fans per game.
“I’d imagine there are fans out there who aren’t happy with the performance,” said Cote.
“What’s in the fans mind and why they don’t come, I don’t know, but I imagine it would have some impact on them.”
Choules is being replaced by Marc-André Dumont, who served as head coach with the Val-d’Or Foreurs for three seasons before being fired in October. Dumont was also general manager with the Foreurs from February to August of this year. He also served as an assistant coach with the Gatineau Olympiques in 2006-07 and part of 2007-08, before returning to midget ‘ AAA’ hockey.
“I think it’s a great hockey town here, it’s a great place to work in major junior and I thought it was a great fit, the organization and myself,” said Dumont, 38, of Montreal. “It’s a team that needs to grow, that’s still young and has some talent. I think it’ll be important for me to assess what the team and the players are all about, and I think it’s important also to have a team that’s going to focus on working really hard game in and game out.”
Dumont had a record of 82-11011-11 in his time with Foreurs. He was let go after a 4-6-0-0 start in Vald’Or this season and replaced by former Screaming Eagles head coach and general manager Mario Durocher. Dumont cited an ownership change looking to go in another direction for his early dismissal behind the bench.
“If you look at the team in Vald’Or when we came in in 2009, I came in as a head coach and the team hadn’t made the playoffs,” he said. “The three seasons I was there, the team progressed every season and went from not making the playoffs to a better ranking the next year, to a better ranking the next year and a better ranking the next year.
“The team was really on a roll after Christmas last year. We played a (.576 win percentage) and we’re proud of the development program in Val-d’Or. We were able to bring 15 out of 16 players that were 16-yearolds into the under-17 programs during that period of time.”
Cote called Dumont a bright, young man with a passion for the game, his players and his team. He also called him technically strong.
“Not everything is in a record,” Cote said, referring to Dumont’s time in Val-d’Or. “One of the key things is that if you can identify an individual who learns from experiences, that’s important too.”
Dumont will be behind the bench tonight when the Screaming Eagles host the Halifax Mooseheads at Centre 200. The game starts at 7 p.m.