A Royal struggle?

Steve McCharles is finding out that changing leagues can be a challenge. Photo by Chris Dawson.

Steve McCharles felt like he did the right thing. But the numbers at his main camp didn’t seem to show that.

McCharles spearheaded the Royals move from the non-sanctioned Greater Metro Junior ‘A’ Hockey League to the NOJHL this off-season.

However, to do that, McCharles was forced to cancel spring tryouts and held a poorly attended mini camp in Rouyn-Noranda in late July.

“We got the green light from Hockey Canada about 6 weeks before training camp,” said McCharles

“To me it’s been a huge issue not having the opportunity to announce what our program will be until just recently. There are still a lot of teams and players that aren’t aware we are not part of the GMHL and clearly that hurts.”

The result was less than 30 players attended the main camp in Temsicaming on the weekend and with a few cuts the McCharles felt he was not ready to ice a team for a home-and-home pre-season series with the Abitibi Eskimos over the Labour Day weekend, so the games have been cancelled.

“We have challenges that forced us to not play the games and now our focus is on being prepared for North Bay,” stated McCharles.

McCharles feels he’s at a disadvantage when it comes to bringing in talent from Northwestern Quebec.

“I find it difficult to work with the restrictions regarding import players from Ontario and even tougher restrictions when it comes to players from the North Bay area, and we are losing players from Northern Quebec that are attending other NOJHL camps,” he said, noting that a handful of North Bay area players were given permission to skate by the Skyhawks.

Despite the frustration, McCharles believes in his team and feels he has quality and not quantity when it comes to the players that are sticking around.