WOONSOCKET – Mount Saint Charles Academy has entered into a long-term agreement for Black Bear Sports Group to manage Adelard Arena, the school reported in a press release last week, and as part of that agreement, Black Bear Sports will assume all facility operations functions.
In addition, Black Bear Sports will also assume management of the national powerhouse Academy hockey teams, including the Junior Mounties USA Hockey teams, which were formerly known as the Rhode Island Saint M’s, and Mount Saint Charles will retain ownership of the storied arena.
As part of the transaction, Bruce Berard will be named president of the Junior Mounties. Berard and his family are legends in the New England hockey community, and his involvement in this transaction will also be instrumental to the hockey teams’ success.
“This is a great evolution of our hockey academy and Adelard Arena, entering into a multi-faceted partnership with a group like Black Bear that has the expertise in elite sports management to accelerate the growth of all our programs,” Mount president Alan Tenreiro said in the press release. “By having Black Bear take over managing those programs and that arena, it frees up school resources so we can do what we do best: cultivating a school community that educates the whole student.”
The nationally-recognized hockey academy, which is the home of the U14 USA Hockey national champions, will continue to offer the same experience for student-athletes who are members of the academy teams under the direction of Devin Rask. Students who are part of the academy will continue to benefit from Mount Saint Charles’ top tier academic and extracurricular programs, and they will continue to be members of the re-christened Junior Mounties at the U14, U15, U16, and U18 levels.
Black Bear Sports Group will maintain and upgrade the arena, manage scheduling and marketing of the building’s facilities, and manage the Junior Mounties’ coaching staff, schedules, and teams. Black Bear Sports will also investigate the installation of an additional sheet of ice adjacent to Adelard Arena.
The facilities upkeep and improvements will also benefit the school’s NEPSAC-affiliated prep school varsity, junior varsity, and middle school teams. In addition, MSC’s champion-producing Sur la Glace figure skating program will also continue to call Adelard Arena home.
Tenreiro added: “Continuous improvement of all our facilities, whether through partnerships like this one or direct investments like our new athletic fields, benefits all of our students. NEPSAC competitive athletes and gym classes are obvious benefactors, of course, but the school events will bring students together in these improved spaces.”
“What Mount Saint Charles has created is unparalleled in New England: a true school based academy with elite, nationally-ranked hockey teams,” Murry N. Gunty, the founder and CEO of Black Bear Sports Group said in the press release. “We thank them for the opportunity to build on their prior success and believe that involving this rink and their teams in our family of rinks, leagues and tournaments will elevate both of us to even greater success.”
“We’re excited about all our hockey teams – the Junior Mounties and our NEPSAC prep school teams – playing on the Adelard ice this season,” added Tenreiro. “This opens doors for extending the academy concept to girls’ teams in the future, and continuing to provide top quality facilities for all our athletes.”