M’Chigeeng woman becomes third vice-president of Northern Ontario Hockey Association

By Sam Laskaris

M’CHIGEENG FIRST NATION – Gayle Payette originally thought it was time for her to step back from her hockey responsibilities.

Payette, a 48-year-old member of the M’Chigeeng First Nation, has been involved in various capacities with minor hockey associations the past couple of decades.

Since 2012, Payette had been a member of the Northern Ontario Hockey Association (NOHA) executive board. She served as the council director for District 7, an area which includes all of Manitoulin Island and all the way up to Blind River.

As it turns out, Payette will no longer be the NOHA’s District 7 rep. That’s because she has agreed to take on an even more prestigious title instead — the NOHA’s third vice-president.

The NOHA, which is celebrating its 100th season of operations, staged its annual general meeting on May 4 in Temiskaming Shores.

“This new appointment is just moving me up the ladder,” Payette said of her involvement with the NOHA.

Payette said she had been contemplating relinquishing her NOHA responsibilities, partly to get some others involved with the association.

“I was thinking it’s time for a change, perhaps to get some new faces in,” she said.

But when it was announced this past March that a vice-president would be resigning with one year remaining in his term, Payette was asked to fill that role since she was the most experienced council director.

Payette would be required to run for re-election next year as the NOHA’s third vice-president should she decide she would be interested in seeking a three-year term starting with the 2020-21 campaign.

“Knowing me I probably will,” she said.

Meanwhile, another Indigenous individual, Kevin Eshkawkogan, is the NOHA’s new District 7 council director. Eshkawkogan lives in Little Current, on Manitoulin Island.

The NOHA has eight council directors representing their districts. In her new capacity, Payette is expected to serve as a mentor to either two or three of those directors.

In addition to attending regular meetings at the NOHA office in North Bay, Payette is expected to serve on a couple of the association’s committees. This past season, she was on the NOHA’s player development and referee committees.

“Plus I’ll be more involved now at the Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF) meetings,” Payette said.

The OHF is the governing body for most of the hockey associations in the province.

One of Payette’s first responsibilities will be to serve as one of the NOHA representatives at a two-day Hockey Canada meeting, scheduled to begin May 31 in Ottawa.

Payette first got involved with hockey because her husband Mike was working as a referee.

“I had always said if we ever had children we would not put them in hockey because of the abuse [Mike] was taking,” Payette said.

Payette herself then got involved, at first volunteering to be the secretary for the Manitoulin Minor Hockey Association.

Payette then started filling managerial roles for the Manitoulin Panthers rep teams, eventually working her way up to become president of the Panthers’ organization.

When her only child, son Mitch, started progressing up the hockey ranks to the AAA level, he switched over to a hockey association in Sudbury. Payette ended up joining the board for that Sudbury association, also serving as a league convener and liaison.

And though she contemplated stepping away from the game, Payette continues to be involved, even more so now.

“I’m not afraid to speak my mind,” she said. “I want to make a change and I think I can. But I’m doing all this for the kids.”