[NAEP] New hockey program in Nunavik

[Dawn Wiseman]

Hi all:

This article appeared in today's Montreal 
Gazette. It's a little long to include in the 
newsletter, and the link will likely be archived 
at the end of the day, so I've copied the text 
into the email.

Perhaps some of our colleagues in Nunavik could 
comment on the impact they feel the program is 
having in their schools.

Best,
Dawn
-----------
Juneau takes work ethic to Inuit
Former Canadien places priority on school while 
raising hockey bar for children of Nunavik

DAVID YATES
Freelance

Thursday, February 07, 2008

There is nothing ordinary about Joé Juneau, who 
spent 12 years in the National Hockey League and 
then quit a big post-hockey corporate job because 
he felt the company was capitalizing on his fame 
as an athlete.

Juneau crafted an impressive hockey career, 
earning all-star honours as a university player 
at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, 
N.Y., before being selected in the fourth round 
(81st overall) by the Boston Bruins at the 1988 
NHL entry draft. He played for six NHL teams 
(Boston, Washington, Buffalo, Ottawa, Phoenix and 
the Canadiens), retiring after the 2003-04 season 
with 156 goals and 416 assists for 572 points in 
828 games.

But Juneau's proudest accomplishment was earning 
a degree in aeronautical engineering at RPI, the 
oldest technology university in the United 
States, according to a headline over a laminated 
newspaper story on a wall of Juneau's office at 
the Kuujjuaq Forum.
This is no ordinary Joé.

Ordinary just doesn't fit a guy who is shaking up 
hockey in the 14 villages of Nunavik by bringing 
a tough-minded ethic to the game, raising the 
level of training, creating more ice time and 
making kids accountable for their school work. He 
wants hockey to be seen and used as a tool to 
advance schooling among the Inuit, who are in the 
early stages of building a tradition in formal 
education. It should be remembered that the 
great-grandparents of schoolchildren here used to 
live in igloos.

The program put together by Juneau, who spent the 
last three years of his NHL career with the 
Canadiens, seems to be a success despite the 
challenge of enormous distance and harsh climate.

Juneau's NHL career - especially the time he 
spent with the Canadiens, the favourite team in 
this part of the world - gives him a lot of 
street cred with the kids who are mad about 
hockey.

Nearly 1,000 youngsters throughout the region 
signed up for hockey in September, and Juneau has 
held clinics in 11 far-flung villages to develop 
trainers (young Inuit and teachers) who, in turn, 
conduct formal practices after school. In return, 
the kids have to deliver on three counts: they 
are required to attend school without fail, 
behave while in class and put out maximum effort.

Juneau, who has grown a full beard and wears an 
Inuit tuque, is serious about those conditions 
and has not backed down on sending transgressors 
to the penalty box.

"We're not asking them to get straight A's, but 
we want them to go to school," said Juneau, who 
has set up a committee to review the school 
performance of each child on a weekly basis.
Failure to meet the attendance-behaviour-effort 
criteria results in loss of hockey privileges for 
a week.

Juneau's approach seems to be working. He said 
that nine kids missed the first week of hockey in 
October, but since then the number has averaged 
four a week. No child has been suspended in the 
last two weeks.

One father said his son was suspended from hockey 
for a week early in the season and missed three 
games after receiving two detentions.
"He hasn't had a detention since," the smiling dad added.
Juneau cut two of his best players from the 
Nunavik Selects peewee team just before the 
international Quebec City peewee tournament last 
year because their school performance was not up 
to his standards. One boy, the second-best 
player, has returned to the team this year and 
Juneau said he is destined to go to Quebec for 
the tournament, which begins Feb. 14, if he keeps 
up with school. The other boy has moved on to the 
bantam level.

Juneau moved his family to Kuujjuaq, located 
1,450 kilometres northeast of Montreal, in 
September and has been profiled, along with 
hockey in Nunavik, in two recent television 
documentaries and a soon-to-be published story in 
Sports Illustrated. He has been received here 
with great enthusiasm by many, a wait-and-see 
attitude on the part of some and grumbles in some 
quarters.

Among the group reserving judgment is Beverly 
Makiuk, vice-principal of Jaanimmarik School, 
which has 354 students from Grades 3-11. Makiuk 
said she can't comment on the success of the 
school aspect of Juneau's program because she 
hasn't been able to assess the overall results. 
But she likes the program because it has been 
able to get parents more involved in the 
activities of their children.

Juneau put forward his hockey-program proposal 
after a visit to Kangiqsualujjuaq in spring 2006. 
He was impressed by the beauty of the area near 
the Labrador border, but what struck him about 
Kangiqsualujjuaq was seeing kids playing hockey 
in the street during school hours and in a 
dilapidated arena. Fed up with his job at an 
engineering firm and missing the game terribly, 
he made a proposal to Nunavik authorities for a 
more structured approach to hockey. It was 
quickly accepted.

Juneau said part of the budget for hockey has 
been carved out of a crime-prevention program. It 
helps to pay for such expenses as flights on Air 
Inuit, which provides public transit in Nunavik 
as there are no roads linking the villages.

Juneau has also expanded the reach of hockey, 
creating pre-novice and novice levels so players 
age 5 to 9 can have access to ice time and formal 
coaching. The youngsters head to the rink right 
after school, meaning Joe Snowball, the Kuujjuaq 
Forum recreation director who makes up schedules, 
had to move some adults from early evening games 
to late evening slots finishing at 11 p.m.
Were there complaints?

"Oh, yes, some of them grumbled," Snowball said.
So how has Juneau, a native of Pont Rouge 
(population 7,146) near Quebec City, his 
girlfriend, Elsa Moreau, and two children, 
Ophélie, 7, and Héloise, 6, adapted to life in 
Kuujjuaq, with a population of 2,300?
"We love it here," he said. "This is our life. 
This is my new career, my new project for as long 
as possible."

But he has publicly criticized the education 
arrangements that force families like his to home 
school their children, although he said he 
understands the need to defend and promote 
Inuktitut. The early grades at the school are 
taught only in Inuktitut.

"We're a francophone family and we want our 
children educated in French," he said. "It's 
unfair to have kids learning French in a 
bedroom," where Moreau teaches the children. 
Juneau said early French education would help 
attract and keep young professionals in the 
community.

Juneau said he's excited about coaching the 
Nunavik Peewee Selects again at the Quebec City 
tournament. He and the coaches have held a 
selection camp and a couple of training camps, 
flying the players from other villages into 
Kuujjuaq for weekends on each occasion.

After many years of travelling around the big 
cities in the NHL, Juneau was asked how he has 
adjusted to hockey in Kuujjuaq.

"I'd rather coach the Nunavik Selects peewee team 
than the New York Rangers," he said without 
hesitation.
This is definitely no ordinary Joé.

Sammy Koneak, head of the Nunavik Youth Hockey 
Development Program, can be reached at 
sakoneak at krg.ca

d_yates03 at hotmail.com
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008