The Smithers Minor Hockey Association held their annual awards night April 11-12 to recognize those dedicated to the sport of hockey and to remember those who have gone before through memorial awards.
“We do this every year and giving out the memorial awards is very interesting,” president of SMHA, Kent Coish said. “They’re very serious awards after some people passed away.
“I think the highlight of most years is getting comments from graduating players, how interesting their comments are about their parents and coaches over the years. It’s probably the highlight for most people.”
For some of the players, awards are a way to see their hard work pay off and for Nathan Cachia his goal at a tight moment might have made him the unsung hero of the season.
“Scoring in the finals of the Prince George tournament, that was probably the biggest moment of the year for me,” said Cachia.
“We were up by one or two and then I scored, making it so they couldn’t recover that pretty much won it.”
However, the final award of the evening recognized an outstanding contribution to minor hockey over the years and this year Steve Hidber accepted the award after several years of support and contributions that kept building through the years.
“I’ve been involved in minor hockey for a number of years, had a couple boys go through and then as a business we supported and continue to support minor hockey,” he said.
“We think they run a great program here in Smithers and it’s fun to be competitive and they’ve done a good job to focus on the fun which you can drive competitive hockey from.”
Wednesday evening Jaden Loverin received the Ted and Annabel Tucker Memorial Award.
Jackson Powers received the Cody Boot and Family Memorial for best novice defenceman, while Ethan Tucker was named the most inspirational player in the Atom division. Carson Golder received the Ruth Griffin Memorial Award.
This years Volunteer of the Year was Suzanne Rourke.
In the senior divisions Kevin Fillier and Adam Kingsmill picked up the Lee W. Arnold Memorial Award for most inspirational player in the peewee division.
Joel Nikal received the Roger Logan Memorial Award followed by Lucas Wray who accepted the Bill Robinson Memorial Award.
This year’s Pietro Lorenzon Memorial Trophy was awarded to Aaron Steenhof and Adam Veenstra.
The Mark Greene Memorial Award went to Brady Taekema and Kalen Geertsma.
Nathan Cachia and Andrade Louie received the Warren William Memorial and Corri Oliarny got the nod for the Volunteer of the Year for the upper divisions.