Liam Alcalde, Zach Fortin, and Massimo Carozza were drafted into the Quebec Major Junior A Hockey League. These boys are terrific players and we are happy to have them help our OHA boy's program shine.
Text from the Standard Freeholder by Todd Hambleton...
And now it's the boys time to shine at the Ontario Hockey Academy.
Three skaters with the Mavericks major midget Gold team have been
drafted into the Quebec Major Junior A Hockey League — a first for the
four-year-old prep school in Cornwall.
“We’re really happy to have guys get drafted (into the QMJHL), and we
had some (early selections two weeks ago) in the Central Canada Hockey
League draft,” said Pat Turcotte, the former CCHL player with the
Cornwall Jr. A Colts who is the director of boys recruiting at OHA.
The school earlier this spring announced that a dozen players on the
girls side had lined up schools to play for at the NCAA Division l and
lll levels next campaign.
In all, seven players have been drafted from the OHA boys under-17
team, the major midget squad, the one that made history by winning the
ODMHA major midget AAA division.
The club, coached by Luke Beck, went 8-0 in two playoff rounds, and scouts from at least two leagues took note of the dominance.
Liam Alcade, of Montreal, was the highest pick among the Mavericks
going to QMJHL clubs — the Halifax Mooseheads chose the forward in the
sixth round.
Goalie Zach Fortin, of St. Jerome, went a little bit later in the round, to the Quebec Remparts.
Massimo Carrozza, of Montreal, made it an OHA hat trick in the eighth round, when the forward also became Remparts property.
Carrozza skated with the OHA minor midget team this past season,
coached by former NHLer Yves Sarault, and he joined the major midgets
for that impressive run.
The “Q” picks caps a great draft year — five Mavericks a few weeks
ago were selected by CCHL squads, including Alex White, of Goose Bay,
Labrador, who went fourth overall in the first round to the Cumberland
Grads.
Pierre Ouellette, a blueliner from Dieppe, New Brunswick, was the very next pick, going fifth overall to the Smiths Falls Bears.
Three more Maritimers also got picked, including forward Cody
McDermott (third round to Hawkesbury), defenceman Josh Hickey (sixth
round to Hawkesbury) and blueliner Josh Crane, who became Cornwall
property in the eighth round.
“I think it speaks to the calibre of play here (at OHA),” Turcotte said.
It isn’t the first time the boys at OHA have made draft news — two
years ago, 14 Mavericks were chosen by CCHL teams at the draft,
including Kenneth Neil, ninth overall to Nepean.
What does the future hold for the OHA program? It often looks bright for the growing school.
“You never really know how things will go from year to year (in terms
of number of drafted players),” Turcotte noted, “but it looks pretty
promising for the Gold team (in 2012-2013), and the major midget Maroon
team should be better.”
Actually, the Mavericks’ movement toward the “Q” is even more
impressive, considering that former OHA goalie Chase Gaudet, of
Charlottetown, has just signed with the defending Memorial
Cup-champions, the Shawinigan Cataractes.
“We’re still building the program and every year it gets a little bit better,” said OHA director Giles Lascelle.
You can read the article in the Standard Freeholder
here.
