Page 12 - The Hockey Academy News February 2018

THE MAN BEHIND OUR ADULT HOCKEY LEAGUES
We took a some time to catchup with long time Hockey Academy employee, Paul Lebarre. Paul has been with The Hockey Academy for 25 years!
If you have played in our adult leagues or attended one of our hockey tournaments there is a good
chance you have seen or met Paul Labarre. Paul has been working with us at The Hockey Academy in various roles since the summer of 1993. Currently, Paul oversees several of our adult leagues and directs some of our hockey tournaments. Yes, when you’ve been with us for over 20 years, you get your own featured section! We took some time to talk with Paul about his involvement with The Hockey Academy over the years and how it all started.
Academy 1993 by three Daniel Webster College (DWC) students who wanted to play “real hockey”. They’d been getting some money as a club from the school and had been buying ice to play pick-up wherever they could get ice. They knew I was a referee and that I’d started coaching my ve-year-old grandson in the game that I loved. So, my involvement with The Hockey Academy (HAC) got me started with coaching the DWC hockey team in a HAC men’s league at Skate 3 in Tyngsboro. The twenty- ve DWC players had come to an agreement with the HAC that they would be
exchange for a reduced rate on the cost of playing in the league. The team started out slowly and lost it’s rst two games by a combined score of 21 to 1. We lost the rst game 11 to 0 and the second one 10 to 1. I was ready to quit but the guys didn’t let the losses slow them down. By the end of the session, they wound up winning a B Division trophy. I can still remember the crowd of students who came to the games and cheered our guys on – esp. When they played the BIG-BAD Bruins – yes – the teams had names then. When January came around, I got the team some college games
“I was introduced to The Hockey scorekeepers for the league in
12 FEBRUARY 2018 | THEHOCKEYACADEMY.COM