BC HOCKEY AWARDS: FRANK SPRING AWARD MINOR HOCKEY ASSOCIATION OF THE YEAR - SEMIAHMOO MINOR HOCKEY ASSOCIATION
Photo credit: sportsphotosbc.ca
By MARIO ANNICCHIARICO
The saying, it takes a village relates to life itself and the raising of children, but it can just as easily refer to minor hockey associations.
It certainly does for Semiahmoo Minor Hockey Association, this year’s winner of BC Hockey’s Frank Spring Award, which recognizes the past president and life member of BC Hockey.
The award is presented annually to the minor hockey association judged to have made an outstanding contribution to its community by providing a properly organized program where a player can learn the basic skills and the fundamentals of sound hockey.
“We're thrilled and I don't think that Semiahmoo has ever received the award in the past,” said the association’s executive director Scott Ackles. “We had a board meeting recently, to inform the board, and everybody was super thrilled.
“Our board is comprised of volunteers and they all play important roles in leadership and what we do in terms of programming and hockey operations and they're all very talented people in their own businesses.
“I think this is a tremendous honour, of course, for Semiahmoo to be recognized. We've got a super strong hockey background in our inner community –we've been operating since 1966 and this is our 60th year.”
Ackles credits the work of many within the association, including director of hockey operations David Newson, president Jared Harman, and Carla Reid, the administration co-ordinator.
But it goes much deeper than that.
“We've been able to get the right people in place, in terms of our hockey development - a team which has Shane Kuss and Matt Erhart and they give direction to all of our coaches, and they coach as well,” said Ackles. “They have a paid hockey operations team which Shane and Matt have run very, very successfully in tandem with Dave.”
Kuss and Erhart work with coaching staffs and skill providers to ensure consistency throughout the programs.
The success on ice has shown, as Semiahmoo has competed at the prestigious Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament in 2024 and finished as the runner-up to the Mid Fairfield Jr. Rangers.
This season also produced four selections at the Western Hockey League’s Prospects Draft, including two in the top three selections as forward Parker McMillan was taken second overall by the Wenatchee Wild and defenceman Eli Vickers was chosen next at third overall by the Vancouver Giants.
The Swift Current Broncos picked defenceman Nathan Roberts 23rd overall in Round 1 and forward Jayden Ni saw his name pop up as a Kelowna Rockets selection in the 11th round, 247th overall.
“I'm really proud of those guys from our 2011 crop of kids,” said Newson. “They're the ones that probably would have started in the initiation program years, just around the time that we really revamped how we were delivering our U7 - or U9 programming and moved to the cross-ice model and really invested in coaching from the skill development side.
“More access to more ice time for those kids and that's where we're seeing the fruits of that, in the results of how well, not only our team success, but also individuals from that year have risen to the top.
“That particular group, the 2011s, were the ones that made it to the finals (of the Quebec International) and lost in the championship game. So that was the pinnacle of several years of knocking on the door at that tournament. Hopefully we'll have another run at it this year.”
Like Ackles, Newson is delighted to see Semiahmoo’s name on the Frank Spring Award.
“We're pretty proud to get it,” he said. “We've had a lot of good accomplishments this season. I think we provide a lot of leadership locally for PCHA, in terms sharing some of our resources and ideas and just leading by example in some of our program areas.
“Registration is continuing to grow (just under 1,000) and obviously we’ve had success on the ice in terms of winning with a few teams and championships. We've progressed to the point where we're pretty stable with our coaches. We've built up a really good staff of skill development and we're really reaping the benefits of the investment we put in over the last 10 years in our philosophy around player development.”
The association is also focused on providing more facilities for the players and are hoping to announce a new three-sheet facility in the near future. Of course, none of it works without the support of volunteers.
“We have outstanding sponsorship support in our community and our association just doesn't operate without great volunteerism. People and parents help all of our programs to run efficiently,” stressed Ackles. “We’re blessed that way and our hockey community is super tight-knit and strong in Semiahmoo.
“We’re thrilled that we're being recognized for the work that we do and how we do it and the success that our programs have had the past number of years.”