Sunday, December 5, 2010

QMJHL dedicates Education Fund to former Governor

Press Release

CHICOUTIMI, Saturday, December 4, 2010 – The Commissioner of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Gilles Courteau, today announced at a press conference held at the Georges-Vézina Centre in Chicoutimi that the QMJHL Education Fund will be dedicated to Gervais Munger in order to honour the memory of the former Chicoutimi Saguenéens player and Governor.

"Although the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s mission is to develop players for professional hockey, an extremely important part of our mission is to ensure that we support them academically in order to make sure that they become responsible and educated citizens which society can count on," stated the Commissioner. "In this regard, we are certainly on the right track with 94% of our players pursuing their studies at a high school, cegep or university and based on the statistics provided by Alliance Sport-Étude, the success rate is approximately 83% for players currently taking courses at cegeps. Furthermore, the League contributed $396,000 in study-grants to 98 former players last year alone. Judging from these results, it’s safe to say that the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League has made enormous progress over the past ten years in academics, and unsurprisingly this progress coincides with the arrival of Gervais Munger on the Board of Governors."

The Commissioner elaborated on the work done by Gervais Munger during his mandate as Governor and on his legacy.

"Academics and ensuring that players had the necessary support to succeed in school was always the first point on his agenda and he was very passionate about it. He expressed that legendary passion and used it to ingrain academics into the very fabric of our mission to the benefit of our student-athletes. We owe him a lot and today I am very proud to announce that our Education Fund will be renamed the Gervais Munger Education Fund to inspire future generations of student-athletes who wish to reach their potential through perseverance and hard work. That is the legacy that he has left us with."

(Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

No comments: