By Doug Kennedy
Jill Fraser is being honoured this week with the Hockey Canada Champion award. Kincardine minor hockey U18 coach Steve McAllister nominated Jill for this prestigious award.
Fraser started her hockey career in Tiverton, playing with the boys at a young age. She also played ringette in Tiverton before moving into girls hockey.
Lee Boyadjian let me know this past weekend about this award that is being presented to Fraser. Boyadjian is a video producer for Hockey Canada in Calgary. She told me this is part of the Hockey Canada Community program.
Hockey Canada and Scotia Bank have teamed up to honour volunteers from across Canada. Fraser will receive a Team Canada jersey and a Scotia Bank prize pack and will be in a video celebrating her accomplishments. You can watch the video on hockeycanada.ca website or on its Twitter account or Facebook page.
Fraser was a key part of making sure local young women got to play some hockey this past winter during this pandemic. She is KMHA vice-president in charge of girls hockey in Kincardine. This job includes being the liaison for all the teams with the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association.
“Jill worked tirelessly last fall to make sure the association’s female players had a place to play, when the provincial and municipal governments declared it was safe to open arenas and other recreational facilities, Said Steve McAllister. “Not only did Jill coordinate ice schedules for girls in five age categories, but she also played a leading role in working with the other associations in Grey, Bruce and Huron Counties to schedule three-on-three and four-on-four games in November. (Because of) the changing dynamics caused by the pandemic (associations backing out under the orders of their municipalities), associations had to put their programs on hold because of an outbreak of COVID-19 cases.”
“At the same time, Jill formed a new committee that will help expand girl’s hockey in our community and put additional programs developing goalies, recruiting former players to get into coaching and officiating in place, for current and future players. Thanks to Jill, the girls got to play games and practice for 8 weeks at the end of last year.”
McAllister said with this assist from Fraser, three girls were able to finish their final season of minor hockey on a positive note.
This is an amazing Hockey Canada award for Fraser to win. A tip of the hat for the leadership she is showing with KMHA Women’s hockey program. It sounds like our women’s program will be in good shape for years to come.