You can still smell your hands. They smell of the shaving cream you used to try to mask the odour of your hockey gloves, the smell you better half notices every time you slide into bed after a game? If it’s the case, you probably didn’t stop playing this summer, like many who play our national sport 12 months of the year. (which only bears the name symbolically, as you know, because lacrosse is the true national sport) 

For the others who prefer to take the summer off and do other things or to let themselves heal, it’s the start of a new season. And yes, even if we officially begin in September your league is already preparing the ground to make sure we start the season on the right foot. Because of our expansion to six teams this season, there will be a number of new faces around us, and it’s important to make sure we don’t take for granted our success and draft the right guys..

That’s why La Ligue Fédérale des As skipped vacation this summer and amongst other things has secured five time slots to organize pre-season games to have a look at our new recruits. Having completed a similar exercise of three games in the spring, the LFA is forging ahead again to give our selection committee a chance to see our hopefuls at work and see if they can obtain a spot among the regulars in our league.

Five games in eight nights for those who want to be part of the league next season as a regular will allow people to show their skill and their character, because as we all know, it’s not talent alone that makes a great player. Attitude and interpersonal skills are attributes we will also consider during our selection period. This series of games will take place Aug. 20 to 28.

We are still in negotiations with Collège Notre-Dame Arena for some details, including the final schedule and the addition of some dates. We’re still seeking more players to make sure we have well-balanced teams and and a well-stocked replacement roster. To assist this effort, we have printed this poster and thousands of promotional cards, and we are looking for help to distribute them across the metropolitan region. We have also created a Partnership Prospectus to raise interest with potential partners and sponsors. The prospectus will be sent to you shortly so you can distribute it in your network. And if that wasn’t enough, in addition to advertising on the internet, the LFA took part for the first time in a street fair to let people know about us. We will be participating in two more in comings weeks on The Main and Mount Royal Avenue. If, like Larry, Mimi and Craig, you would like to be ambassadors for our league during these up-coming events, let us know.

Over the course of the summer, history was revised, and you could see Eric Drapeau joined the list of founding members of the LFA to underline his participation and commitment to the sort of the league. The other man who got his due was Larry, who became vice president of league operations. You can not imagine all the work that takes place in the background to bring everything the league has to offer. Since the beginning, Laurent has always pitched in. He was one of the architects of the league’s success. His immeasurable contribution earned him this well-deserved honour. We are lucky to have men of their calibre among us.

The league is investing in our sweaters to bring a few modifications and to create extras for our replacement goaltenders. We are selling the royal blue uniforms of the Avengers to replace them with some light blue ones to optimize the visual contrast in games against the Cabane Express who have black jerseys. Four sweaters are already reserved, but the 11 others must be sold for us to make the switch. If you are interested in obtaining one of these collector’s items let me know.

To end this first installment of news for our upcoming season, I want to welcome Jonathan Fernandes of Nortigo who joins our web team and to Sebastien Reneault with whom I am editing the LFA demo and who may be shooting some clips for us this season. I also want to thank Marie-Hélène Dion who prepared with me the Partnership Prospectus and who is an important partner, and Matthew Peris who translated it. At the same time, I must thank Jéremy Lancelin for all his help developing the site but who could not continue this season due to some heavy professional commitments, but will still be there to help us out when he can.

May the hockey gods be with you this season
JFD (AS TRANSLATED BY LES PERREAUX)