Centretown youth who can’t afford to play minor hockey could have another option as early as next year.

Mark Quinn, president of the East Ottawa Generals club that competes in the National Capital Amateur Football Association, is set to establish the Ottawa Outdoor Hockey League (OOHL) next month for residents of Sandy Hill and Lowertown.

If all goes to plan, Quinn says he’d like to expand the league to Vanier and Centretown next year.

Two of Centretown’s three outdoor rinks could possibly play host to the league:

McNabb, located on Percy Street at Gladstone Avenue, and Jack Purcell, located off Elgin Street between Gilmour Street and Gladstone Avenue. Both rinks are adjacent to the community centres of the same names.

“I’d be going right at McNabb, because they do offer recreational activities for kids and Jack Purcell does not,” says Quinn, whose brother Dan played 14 seasons in the NHL for eight different teams, including the Ottawa Senators.

“It would just make more sense to get involved with them. McNabb is just perfect.”

Quinn says he hasn’t had any discussions with McNabb officials yet, as he is focused on just getting the league “off the ground.”

But he has dealt with them in the past, stating they’re “fantastic people” with “fantastic programs.”

The McNabb Community Centre would be “very interested” in housing this league next year, says program co-ordinator Pray Bhindi.

“I wouldn’t want to hinder that initiative, at all,” Bhindi says. “I’d be more than happy to help.”

The OOHL will follow the same model as the Ottawa Spring Football League that Quinn established four years ago.

It will be a free instructional and recreational program geared towards inner-city youth who aren’t registered in the minor hockey system.

Registration fees for the Ottawa Centre Minor Hockey Association, which covers much of the Centretown area, range from $490 to $590 this season, according to the association’s president Eric Lay.

This does not include equipment and transportation costs.

This year, Quinn expects around 100 participants for the four-week season that he hopes will commence in February.

With the additional communities next year, Quinn says he’d go “full board” and extend the season to eight weeks.

To help the program keep growing, Quinn is trying to solicit funding from the city, the Ottawa Senators Foundation, and the Hockey Canada Foundation. Funding would help Quinn secure insurance for the participants and transportation, among other things.

But so far, Quinn says his efforts have been unsuccessful.

“They’re all excited about it, but like anything, they all just sit around waiting for someone to do it, which pisses me off because I’m on the other end of the spectrum,” says Quinn.

“Put your money where your mouth is,” adds Quinn, who also questioned where all of Hockey Canada’s money for grassroots programs is going.

Luc Lavictoire, the City of Ottawa’s program manager for outdoor rinks, says the city would be open to funding such an initiative, but this is something that would likely need to go through council.

Part of the reason Quinn wants to establish this league in Centretown is because he says he believes Chinatown is a “pocket of inactivity” in terms of youth recreational activity due to poverty, low income, and the immigrant population.

Lavictoire says this could well be a legitimate concern, especially for new Canadians.

“Sometimes they don’t know the first thing about organized hockey so this might be the first step for them to learn the game and maybe go on to organized hockey," says Lavictoire.