Collège Notre Dame (Sudbury)

History

The school was founded in 1948 as le Pensionnat Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Conseil. Originally an all-girls school, boys were finally allowed to attend after the closure of Collège du Sacré-Cœur in the late 1960s. Le Collège du Sacré-Cœur is now known as École secondaire du Sacré-Cœur and is the other French Catholic high school in the city of Sudbury. Collège Notre-Dame is known for its qualities emphasizing on theoretical academics, offering Enriched Mathematics and Integrated Sciences, as well as possessing a gifted students program (Douance). The school also instils a great deal of discipline in its students, which explains why the school remains very popular among parents.

In the community

Collège Notre-Dame is currently headed by Mme Joanne Chrétien, and is known throughout the city for its work in fundraising for the Northern Cancer Research Foundation, headed in Sudbury. In the year 2005-06 the school raised over $40,000 CDN for the foundation through such events as the blitz, where a large majority of the students went throughout the city, on assigned streets acquiring door-to-door donations. In 2014, the annual Blitz took place on February 20 and raised $26,000.

Sports

College Notre-Dame boys' hockey team captured their school's first-ever title at the Franco-Ontarien tournament, held on April 2013 in Hamilton. The Alouettes also became the first team from Sudbury to capture the gold medal since the 1985 team from Macdonald-Cartier in the large schools AA division. There were 50 teams from across Ontario participating in five divisions. Many schools showcased OHL players. In their first match, the Alouettes jumped out to a 3-0 lead on L'Escale Cougars with great goaltending by Barrie Colts draft pick Kevin Labelle. A couple of defensive miscues led to two quick goals in the third by the Cougars, but that would be close as they could get. Notre-Dame got goals from Pat Labelle, Cédric Primeau and Ryan Fraser, with John Mark picking up a couple of assists. In the second round-robin game, the Alouettes came out flying against the Franco-Cité Aigles and peppered their goaltender time and time again, but could not find the back of the net in the first period. Sheldon Lalonde finally buried one early in the second period for the Als, but a late goal by Franco-Cité tied the game. Brayden Lachance had to come up with some big saves in the third as the Aigles put the pressure on. Penalties hurt Notre-Dame as they surrendered a power-play goal on a rebound in front of Lachance. The Alouettes pulled their goalie and hit the post in the dying seconds and went on to lose 2-1. In their final round-robin game, the Alouettes defeated Béatrice-Desloges 6-1 and got goals from Lalonde, with two, John Mark, Éric Paquette, Jesse Henry and Luc Séguin. Labelle got the victory in goal. Notre-Dame finished first in its pool and moved onto the quarterfinals against the Casselman Dynamos. The Alouettes played a sound defensive game and got great goaltending by Lachance to earn a 3-0 shutout win with goals by Pat Labelle, Joël Grandbois and North Bay Battalion draft pick Brody Brunet. The semifinal featured a goaltending duel between Labelle and the OHL's Niagara Ice Dogs' Brent Moran of the Garneau Gaulois. Both made highlight reel saves, with Moran keeping his team in the game when the Alouettes went on a power play and held the puck in the Gaulois zone the entire two minutes. The first period finished without a goal by either team. Labelle made a key save early in the second off a breakaway. Moran received a delay of game penalty trying to clear the puck that went over the glass and Joël Grandbois scored on the power play on a great pass from Pat Labelle. From then on, the goalies shone. When Garneau pulled Moran for an extra attacker, the Alouettes' Brunet scored an empty netter for a 2-0 final score. Louis-Riel Rebelles of Ottawa were back-to-back champions of the Franco tournament and possessed size and speed. They also had OHLer Alexandre Renaud of the Sarnia Sting and they used that size early in the game as they pinned the Notre Dame Alouettes in their zone. Throwing their size around and causing problems, the Rebelles took out forward Brody Brunet and defenceman Alain Trottier of the Alouettes, who left the game with injuries. Brayden Lachance stood tall in goal again, making 15 saves in the first period of the gold-medal game and keeping it scoreless. Notre-Dame slowly started taking the play to Louis-Riel, but a screen shot midway through the second period gave the Rebelles a 1-0 lead. In the third period, the Alouettes had tilted the ice in their favour and got more great goaltending from Lachance. A few big hits from the Alouettes' Brett MacDonald, Sam Bonin and Kyle Hartman minimized the Rebelles' speed and lifted the play of Notre- Dame. That led to the tying goal by Éric Paquette on a scramble play in front of the net with 7:13 left in the period. The game went into overtime, with a five-minute three-on-three format. Louis-Riel picked up a bad cross checking penalty in the offensive zone. The power play had been successful all tournament and didn't let Notre Dame down as Luc Seguin fired a blast past the Louis-Riel net-minder with 2:32 remaining in OT for the 2-1 victory.[3]

Uniforms

The students are required to wear classic uniforms, such as a navy blue cardigan or sweater vest, a red tie and grey pants for boys, and a navy blue cardigan or sweater vest and gray pants or skirt for girls, complete with a white shirt for both sexes. The uniforms add to the distinct elitist character of the school.