The St. Malo Warriors have claimed the CRJHL championship for a second straight season, defeating the Beausejour Comets in seven games.
"It feels great," head coach and general manager Ralph Colette says with a smile. "Like every hockey season, it was a long season and to cap it off with a championship win, that's the ultimate goal."
It was a great battle on the ice between the Warriors and Comets and the veteran head coach says it's a great rivalry with both sides pushing each other. "We knew that last year, we were fortunate enough to be the winners and it was against the Beausejour Comets. Beausejour had a strong team but I think they were stronger this year than last. Gaining that experience of playing them, beating them last year, I don't want to say they were playing for revenge, but we knew they were gunning for us. They're a good team and the games were so good. We had a bunch of one-goal games, a few where we lost by a few but most were hotly contested. We won three games in overtime. The hockey gods were on our side, the bounces could have went either way, but we're happy we were able to come out on top."
Colette believes that a big part of why this group was successful was the experiences from years past. "Going back to the finals from two years ago when we lost, then the finals last year when we won, we did have maybe half the team remaining from that. Again, I think it was key, the key was to be composed. We knew all year that we wanted to finish in first place, we wanted the first round bye, because it pays dividends if you need a game seven, and that's exactly what happened. That game came around and it was in St. Malo, our fans are tremendous, they follow us so well. It was an enthusiastic crowd. From St. Malo to Beausejour, the league got a lot of great exposure and we're really proud of that."
After winning it all, Collette, who's won 8 times now, made sure to soak in the moment because winning never gets old. "I think I got a taste of that after we won, for sure. We were all on the ice and the crowd hadn't left. It was wall-to-wall. I got a good feeling. I looked around and I'm just so lucky. Our fans are just the best, we have people that follow us and people who just love hockey in general. We're a proud supporter of all hockey in our community. I love the junior levels of hockey to minor hockey."
As far as his future goes, after 31 seasons of coaching, Collette was a little coy about his future but says there's a lot to consider. "Yeah, I guess I'll take a little more time to think about everything," the legendary coach says with a chuckle. "Regardless, I'm pretty sure I'll remain with the team in some capacity. I'm the vice-president of the CRJHL. I play a big part but I am getting up there in age and I've been doing it for many years. My oldest son plays hockey in Wisconsin, so maybe next year my wife and I will take a little time to go down and watch him in his final season. In saying that, I do have a great co-coach, Patrick Trudeau from Ile des Chenes, he's been great for us. We'll be in talks the next few days and we'll see what comes around. I wouldn't mind taking a backseat to look back on the years and enjoy more time with my kids. But, we'll see, I'm not sure yet."