Hockey Canada celebrates Prince Albert hockey hero

A group of people were supporting a Prince Albert hockey coach and volunteer as he was named the Canadian Tire hero of play on Thursday.

Luc Robin has been part of Hockey Canada for 28 years. For all of his years of positive work in the sport, he received a commemorative jacket and a trophy. Robin said last week when he found out he was nominated for the award he couldn’t believe it.

“It’s quite humbling,” he said, adding hockey is all about making it enjoyable for the kids. “They always take everything positive out of it, even though it’s a game there’s always life skills to be learned and it’s not always winning that counts it’s how you play the game.”  

Charlotte Coulson is the communications lead for the Hockey Canada Century Tour. She said it was great to see the public, members of Robin’s teams and his full family in attendance.

“This was a really nice crowd for sure and it was intimate and it was the people who knew him and who appreciate him the most, so it was really nice,” she said.

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Coulson said Prince Albert’s local hockey association couldn’t have picked a better winner.

“He has been instrumental in developing female hockey in Saskatchewan,” she said.

Robin said around 14 years ago there were no real girl’s hockey programs in the province, but they have come a long way since then.

“We actually got permission to play in the boy’s league and then we actually grew from that to a provincial league,” he said. “This year we will be hosting our 15th annual female hockey tournament.”

Hockey Canada Century Tour

It’s a special year for Hockey Canada, which is why they are doing the tour. Hockey Canada is celebrating their 100th anniversary by travelling to 100 communities over the next year.

“We’re just celebrating all things hockey as we travel across the country,” Coulson said.  “We’re also celebrating a local Canadian Tire hero of play, which is somebody who has volunteered and dedicated a lot of their time and effort back into hockey in their community.”

Coulson said hockey registration grows year after year and they want to keep the numbers up.

“Hockey is what means the most to Canadians and so we think it’s really important to just spread the word about the game,” she said. “We also want to introduce people who haven’t had their experience with the game into hockey.”

There are 100 stops in total and Coulson said each location is unique.

“There’s something about every stop that we go to though that we remember and that does certainly stand out, often that is our hero of play,” she said.

The tour ends at the end of May 2015.

kbruch@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow