STRATFORD, Ont. - A player with a Stratford, Ont., hockey club who had been found guilty on two counts of sexual assault last year has been dropped by the team.

Mitch Vandergunst was an assistant captain with the Stratford Cullitons of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.

He was suspended by the team in January and the board of directors decided Thursday evening to drop him from the organization effective immediately.

The board says it takes these issues very seriously and has zero tolerance for any behaviour that contravenes the team's code of conduct.

A second statement from the team Thursday evening said head coach Phil Westman had resigned from the club.

The charges against Vandergunst, 20, stemmed from a 2013 incident in which the court ruled Vandergunst forced sex on a woman after a night at the bar.