Hockey Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean responded to Hockey Canada’s new policy, which recommends that underage hockey players, in particular, wear swimsuits when closed showers are not available. For coordinator Pascal Bouchard, there is a risk that the application will be challenging due to the already established habits of the players and the current infrastructure.

The new policy has been in effect since September 12th and requires lower level players to wear one too Basic clothing change when they arrive at the arena or at a private location if they don’t have one.

Hockey Canada wants to set up one environment at a time secure And respectful to everyone.

For Pascal Bouchard, the application of this policy requires more frequent interventions on players, especially older players.

It’s a lot of prevention, frequent reminders, especially with older children. The younger ones haven’t been playing ice hockey that long, so these things are easy to teach. […] But it is certain that the oldest, who are now 14, 15 or 16 years old and who have always functioned in the same way, will also have to adapt. Then it gets a little more difficultexplained Pascal Bouchard in an interview on the radio show Public place.

No complaints or excesses

Apart from a few isolated cases, Pascal Bouchard assured that he has never received any complaints about inappropriate behavior from players that may have occurred in the showers and locker rooms of arenas.

Everything seemed to be working well in the locker room. Incidents can occur from time to time during a season, but nothing serious has happened. We have no complaints for this particular file. he added.

According to him, the region’s sports infrastructures are not adapted to this new policy. Changing rooms and showers are common in most places.

Since these standards were not yet in force, no infrastructure in the region is currently adapted to these changes. The showers are shared and the changing rooms are also open. Should municipalities that are investing significant sums in renovation plan for this over time? […] We’ll have to think about that.

Even newer facilities don’t have separate showers, he added. 95% of them are open showers.

The challenge at the moment will be not only to convey these new values ​​to the players, but also to the volunteers, coaches and managers, said Mr Bouchard. For him, this is a real culture shift that needs to be tamed.