Kuujjuaq hockey program teams up with Montreal high school league

Coaches and players involved with Natturaliit pose outside Jaanimmarik high school earlier this year. Back row, from left: Natturaliit’s coach and coordinator Danny Fafard, Jaanimmarik school principal Alain Rochefort, Bantam player Lydia Berthe, Jaanimmarik’s Joe Snowball and coach Paul Parsons. Kneeling in front, from left: Jaanimmarik vice-principal Jeff Creamer and Bantam players Devon Tooma and Sammy Johannes. (PHOTO BY ISABELLE DUBOIS)

Nunavik’s Natturaliit hockey program can count on some strong competition next season with its players slated to compete against a Montreal-area hockey league beginning this fall.

The Kuujjuaq-based hockey program prepares local minor league players, aged 11 to 13, for post-secondary education opportunities in the South — and a potential hockey career there too.

In 2014, Kuujjuaq hockey dads Paul Parsons and Danny Fafard helped launch Natturaliit — eagles in Inuktitut — to help get young hockey players interested in college and other post-secondary training, but also to help prepare for the big move south.

For the past two seasons, the pair has taken a group of minor league players south to visit Montreal-area colleges, as well as to play exhibition games with high schools in the city.

Now, the program has been welcomed to join the Greater Montreal Athletic Association’s high school hockey league, a first for any hockey program in the North.

The new partnership also includes Kuujjuaq’s Jaanimmarik high school and the Kativik School Board.

“The intention was to keep progressing the experience for the kids both on and off the ice,” said Parsons.

“This is a first for the league, to accept any school from the North to join and to participate to a season. We are very excited.”

Parsons knows the value of offering this experience to young Nunavimmiut. A few years ago, his teenaged son made the move south to pursue both hockey and education, and struggled with the transition.

Natturaliit was created as a way to help bridge that gap for young students.

Under the new agreement with GMAA, Natturaliit students will play a 12-16 game season, in two regular season trips — once in November and again in February — and a third time in the spring, if they make the playoffs.