Patrice Tremblay, a longtime PE teacher at Laity View Elementary, recently had his jersey retired by the Chicoutimi Saguenéens of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) during a home game attended by 3,000 hometown fans.
Tremblay played for Chicoutimi from 1985-1989 and he’s the club’s all-time leading goal-scorer with 225 goals in 273 games. He is also the first player raised in the region to have his jersey retired by the local team.
On Thursday, he received another roaring ovation from another home crowd as 400 students and staff at Laity View held a surprise ‘jersey raising’ tribute for the teacher inside the school gym.
“We had an assembly already planned but honouring Patrice was a surprise twist. At the start of our assembly, we took ten minutes to recognize his outstanding accomplishment. Each student had their own self-decorated mini Tremblay jersey on a popsicle stick hidden beside them. When we surprised him and called him up for the ceremony we all ‘raised his jersey’ and honoured Patrice.”
Then, the gym erupted in cheers for Tremblay.
“It was great to see those little jerseys waving at me in the gym,” said Tremblay. “Awesome to share that moment with everybody!”
