Hockey memories of the Quebec North Shore

Hockey has been a popular sport on the Quebec/ Labrador coast for many years and still is.

Some of the players are in their sixties while others are as young as fifteen. Hockey started in the early sixties when there were no indoor rinks but ponds cleared and marked sometimes with rubber boots to indicate the lines, and mounds of snow pyramids to accommodate the spectators as they stood around in the freezing cold.

The first teams on the coast were:

Kings -St. Paul's River

Bradore Flyers -Bradore Bay

Canadiens - Middle Bay

Hawkes - Old fort Bay

Wolves - Lanse au Loup

Beothuks - Lanse au Clair

Condors - Lourdes Du Blanc Sablon

Falcons - Forteau

Raiders - St Augustine.

Chesley Lavallee of St. Augustine has coached hockey for 30 years.

He was fourteen years old when he first started playing hockey. He became interested in the sport when he went to Port Cartier to school in 1970. In 1972 the boys in St. Augustine got together and formed the Raiders. Chesley started coaching in 1977 and the Raiders won their first trophy in 1979. And for the next 24 yrs the Raiders went without ever losing the cup.

Mr. Lavallee was coach for most of those years.

He recalls the first time he started practicing hockey in St. Augustine - with a hockey stick whittled out of a spruce tree and a beaten up milk can.

"I think the first pair of skates I owned was given to me by the priests. We use to receive a charity box from the church. I think the skates was size 14, they were miles too big," he said with a chuckle.

While he was away to school, other coasters taught him how to lift the puck from the ice and he gives credit to Donald Roberts of St. Paul's River for teaching the Raiders how to play hockey. (Donald Roberts passed away in 2009)

"A few rinks had walls back then, in the beginning we played on the St. Augustine River, and when we travelled to other communities we played on ponds and later on outdoor rinks".

He has a lot of interesting stories during the time he was coaching.

"I recall one time," he said "it was so windy when we played in Lanse au Clair we had to anchor the net down with rocks to keep it from blowing away...another time when Harrington Harbour and the Kings played it was so cold that many of the players froze their fingers and toes, and it took the game a lot longer to finish. Some couldn't go back on the ice.

"There was one trophy we couldn't get, we were determined to take that trophy from St. Paul's River Kings, so we went down by skidoo, 15 ski doos in all, to play in that tournament. The weather was so bad that we were the only team that showed up. Half way between St. Augustine and Old Fort Bay, we had trouble getting up Mountain Hill so we tied all the women's scarves together and pulled the skidoos up one at a time. It took us about 2/3 hrs to get all the people and the ski doos up there."

"After we made it to St. Paul's River we played best 2 out of 3 and won the trophy, which we took back with us. We had the trophy for years before we brought it back".

A lot has changed since hockey happened back in 1964. There was no protective head gear or masks and there have been quite a few injuries over the years. The only outdoor rink left now and still in use is in St. Paul's River.

Mr. Lavallee speaks proudly of the Raiders and all the trophies won over the years. The last time they won the Hockey Tournament in Lourdes was in 2008.