Chuck Williams is the Commissioner of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.  He was approached in the spring of 2014 by various teams about taking over the role, which was vacated by Mark Ellis, the Executive Director of the Ontario Hockey Association, as it was felt by both the GOJHL and OHA that an independent Commissioner was needed.

The main duties of the Commissioner is to maintain the governance of the league and to ensure that all members are following the guidelines, policies, and procedures as set out in the GOJHL and Hockey Canada constitutions.  Part of his job is to mitigate concerns and situations that the teams have.  If a team has a problem, they can go to their Conference Convenor, Mark Tuck for the West, Doug Black for the Midwest, and Paul Quaranta for the Golden Horseshoe, to resolve the issue or they can go directly to the Commissioner, who could then take it to a higher level, if needed.

Mr. Williams describes the main goal of the league as recruiting, developing, and promoting the players.  “I feel terrific about all 27 teams coming together to further this goal and making decisions to better the league.  It is our duty to develop our players’ hockey skills to their greatest potential, while supporting their education.”  To further this, in recent years the league has developed a close working relationship with the NCAA, CIS and OHL.  “We need to ensure that our players are getting the maximum amount of exposure to the next level of hockey, while educating themselves for their futures.”

Chuck’s hockey background includes volunteering with his three children’s minor hockey teams while they were growing up, working with Alliance hockey as their Vice-President of Region 2, and being a member of various Ontario Hockey Federation committees, including risk management.  He is retired from the Waterloo Catholic District School Board, where he worked for 32 years, spending 26 years as an elementary school principal.

 

Photo Credit: Dan Hickling/Hickling Images