Black Bear Sports Group will manage and maintain Adelard Arena while Mount continues facility ownership
October 8, 2024 (WOONSOCKET) – Mount Saint Charles Academy (MSC) has entered into a long-term agreement for Black Bear Sports Group to manage the historic Adelard Arena. 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, formerly known as the Rhode Island Saint M’s. 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. Bruce and his family are legends in the New England hockey community and his involvement in this transaction will also be instrumental to our hockey teams’ success.
“This is a great evolution of our hockey academy and Adelard Arena – by 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 of our programs,” said Mount President Alan Tenreiro. “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, 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 Mountie coaching staff, schedules, and teams. Black Bear Sports will also investigate the installation of an additional sheet of ice adjacent to Adelard Arena.
The facility’s upkeep and improvements also benefit Mount Saint Charles Academy’s NEPSAC-affiliated prep school varsity, junior varsity, and middle school teams. In addition, Mount’s champion-producing Sur la Glace figure skating program will also continue to call Adelard Arena home.
Tenreiro continued: “Continuous improvement of all of 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,” said Murry N. Gunty, Founder and CEO of Black Bear Sports Group. “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 of our hockey teams – the Junior Mounties and our NEPSAC prep school teams – playing on the Adelard ice this season,” continued Tenreiro. “This opens doors for extending the academy concept to girls’ teams in the future, and continuing to provide top quality facilities for all of our athletes.”
Black Bear Sports Group, Inc. is a privately held company formed by Murry Gunty and Blackstreet Capital Holdings, LLC in 2015 that seeks investments in sports and entertainment facilities, teams, and youth sports events. Black Bear focuses on ice arenas in metropolitan areas with compelling demographics, markets with a National Hockey League club presence, and arenas with existing youth hockey clubs. The largest owner/operator of ice arenas in the U.S., Black Bear’s footprint totals 40 facilities across the United States with 76 sheets of indoor ice, 40 youth hockey clubs, four hockey leagues (Atlantic Hockey Federation, Atlantic Girls Hockey Federation, Tier 1 Hockey Federation, and National Girls Hockey League), two tournament businesses (Defender Hockey Tournaments and The Show Tournaments), eight Junior “A” hockey teams with membership in the United States Hockey League, North American Hockey League, USPHL NCDC, USPHL Premier and Elite, and Foundry Adult Hockey, the largest adult hockey organization in the USA. Black Bear TV, the broadcasting arm of Black Bear, now reaches nearly 100 sheets of ice and has quickly established itself as one of the largest hockey broadcasters in the U.S.