The hockey coach who jostled a young player in Beaupré charged

altercation between the coach and the player

A minor hockey coach who attacked an opposing player on the ice at the Beaupré arena on December 18 will face justice.

Alexandre Noël, 44, is scheduled to appear Monday at the Quebec City courthouse on a charge of simple assault.

He attacked a hockey player from 14 years old, during a match between the Aigles of Côte-de-Beaupré–Île-d'Orléans and the Boucs of Québec-Centre, in the Bantam B category (U15).

The event that was filmed shows that Noël, then assistant coach of the Boucs, jumps onto the ice to walk towards a player from his team lying on the ice.

The coach runs towards the offending player.

< p class="e-p">Except that instead of stopping at his player, he straddles him to hit the opponent who had just jostled him.

Called to go there, the Sûreté du Québec submitted the file to the office of the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP), which laid the charge.

The coach tackled the player.

The father of the teenager who was bullied by Alexandre Noël is satisfied to see that the latter will have to answer for his actions in court.

I don't wish no misfortune to anyone, but sincerely, I did not want the gesture to be trivialized either, commented Jean-François Noël.

The DPCP has given itself certain parameters to analyze the gestures committed during sporting events.

In the context of a sport, there is an inherent violence, admits Me Louis-Philippe Desjardins, attorney for the prosecution.

The participants in the activity consent to these gestures, which would be illegal in other circumstances We can think of a check in hockey, submits Me Desjardins.

On the other hand, when there are gestures that go beyond the sporting context, which are not consented to by the person who receives them, insofar as there is a complaint from a citizen and an investigation, a prosecutor can bring a criminal charge.

The charge of common assault could, technically, result in up to two years in prison for Alexandre Noël.

But it would be amazing if if convicted he had to serve time in prison. This is not what the father of the jostled hockey player wants.

I do not want him to go to prison, this is not ;is not the goal. I just wanted there to be a message that was sent, that this is unacceptable, argued Jean-François Noël.

His son doesn' was not injured as a result of the events. However, he himself had to serve a three-game suspension for bullying his opponent from the Goats. His father later noticed a change in attitude in the arenas.

At the time we thought it had little impact since he didn't hurt or that stuff. What we realized afterwards was that it marked him as a player with the referees and with the other teams, says Mr. Noël.

Besides, the season that is ending will be his child's last in civilian hockey. According to Jean-François Noël, his taller than average son is taken to task by the parents of opposing teams.

He will therefore join school hockey from next year.

In the case of Alexandre Noël, he is no longer a coach.

The Disciplinary Committee of the Quebec-Beaupré-Charlevoix (QBC) Interligue (QBC) imposed a 10-year suspension on him for his action.