HAMILTON – Quebec giant Marc-André Fortin, who plays with the Montreal Alliance, feels some discomfort when identifying his favorite athlete when he was younger: former Canadiens player Andrei Kostitsyn.
• Read also: Basketball in Quebec: an identified group
• To read also: Alliance de Montréal: “too many ups and downs”
It’s that before turning to basketball, the 6’8″ athlete had long hoped for a career in hockey. Originally from Sainte-Marie, the former right winger was a proud representative of the Beauce-Amiante clubs. Fortin has even participated twice in the Victoriaville Tigres camp in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, at a time when Kostitsyn had already returned to the KHL.
If he definitely changed discipline around 2015, the proud 26-year-old Beauceron finally realized his dream, Wednesday evening, of starting a career in professional sport. By chance, however, it was in a hockey arena, that of the Hamilton Bulldogs, in the Ontario Junior League.
“It’s funny for me to play over the ice,” Fortin himself remarked Wednesday night in Hamilton, as part of the game between the Alliance and the Honey Badgers. It remains the beginning of my professional career and I have no intention of it stopping right away. I’m glad it’s started.”
“A great experience”
Although the Alliance lost the game by the score of 80 to 72, Fortin played for more than 14 minutes, scoring his first five points in the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CLEB). He also had four rebounds and three assists.
“It would have been nice to win, but it was a great first experience,” he said. I was used a lot and I had the opportunity to demonstrate what I am capable of doing. I’m pretty happy.”
Playing as a basketball center, Fortin shared the task with Greek veteran Gaios Skordilis.
“It is sure that the arrival of a guy like Gaios can bring me a lot; he has been playing with the pros for about fifteen years, admitted the former Rouge et Or of the University of Laval. The level is much higher than the university [in Quebec], but I feel that I am able to manage very well in all that.
The support of the crowd
After this baptism in Hamilton, Fortin hopes to fully enjoy the Alliance’s first home game, on Sunday, May 29, at the Verdun Auditorium.
“There will be family and friends, it will be curious for me to be encouraged in Montreal, he noted. During my university career, with the Rouge et Or, we were always enemies.
Why Kostitsyn?
Before concluding: why Andrei Kostitsyn?
“I have a hard time explaining it to myself, but he still had good years,” Fortin said with a laugh. When I went to basketball, I really liked Blake Griffin, I watched him “dunk”, it was impressive. That’s what I wanted to do.”
A message to pass in closing: “I am one of those who encourage young people to do several sports, it allows them to develop different skills”. It is said!
