Lake Cowichan Minor Hockey Association brought the curtain down on another successful season with its year-end award presentations this past Sunday afternoon.
A bumper crowd packed into Cowichan Lake Sports Arena’s curling rink as numerous awards were presented to stand-out players and personnel, as well as medals being awarded to every player on each team.
“This season all of our players have learned sportsmanship, dedication, team building and friendship,” said Connie Vaughan from LCMHA. “We were fortunate enough to host our own tournament with lots of hard work. In particular I want to thank Donna Desmond who took over the program for the tournament, I’m not sure what I would have done without her. And Meghan Major who stood on the sidelines every game we played and we wouldn’t have had that tournament without her.”
Major is also the manager at Lake Cowichan’s Royal Bank of Canada branch which provided significant sponsorship to the association over the course of the season.
“It’s been a great season,” said Vaughan. “I want to thank the parents and all the kids for selling chocolates and hot dogs as we said if they wanted to go to a tournament, they’d have to do it themselves so well done. But hockey wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of the parents anyway and driving their kids everywhere.
“My most memorable moment of this season was after one of our first playoff games and one of our goalies Tyler asked where the doughnuts were. At that time we knew it’d been a successful season. The kids played with fun, heart and for the enjoyment. I’d like to thank all the players for their hard work, dedication and teamwork in every game.”
It was a particularly memorable year for the novice team which tied for the championship with Duncan, as well as the bantam team who only lost “approximately six games out of 40.”
Highlights of the mass of awards included: Nic Brown winning a trophy for assisting the most goals throughout every team over the course of the season; Emily Vaughan won the bantam player with the most heart with very few females on that team; Johnny Hieta and Stevie McKenzie being awarded a tied prize for a “player which stands out”; Myles Brooks took home the accolade of most sportsmanlike defenceman; and Tim Gowanlock, LCDMH unofficial, official scorekeeper, was awarded hockey person of the year.
