FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Truro, N.S. (August 4, 2023) – The Maritime Junior Hockey League (MHL) is proud to announce Zach Bishop of the Fredericton Red Wings as the winner of the Bob Boucher Hockey Assistance Fund (BBHAF) Scholarship for the 2022-23 season.
The late Mr. Boucher was a coach and executive, working at levels ranging from Nova Scotia Intermediate to the NHL over the course of his long career. He coached the St. Mary’s (SMU) Huskies for 13 years and led the team to the National Championship game in four consecutive seasons from 1970 to 1973. In total, his Huskies teams captured seven AUS championships. Mr. Boucher was inducted into the SMU Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. The scholarship was established in his name several years ago by a number of Mr. Boucher’s former players as a means to support students within the game who have displayed exceptional scholastic achievements.
Bishop is enrolled in the Bachelor of Kinesiology program at the University of New Brunswick. As a full-time student, he has maintained a 3.0 grade point average through two years of the program. He says his goal is to become an athletic coach/therapist. Bishop has also taken a minor in business due to an interest in sports management.
The 20-year-old from Fredericton, N.B. has spent two seasons with the hometown Red Wings, compiling six goals and four assists in 69 regular season games, in addition to one goal and one assist in seven playoff games. He was named the Brian Smith Community Spirit Award by the Red Wings for last season and recently was one of six players to be awarded the MHL’s Community Spirit Award for the Hockey Fights Cancer Legacy Project. He has also been busy with various volunteer efforts in the community.
“Zach’s work ethic, commitment, and willingness to take on whatever has been asked of him has resulted in this young man taking on a bigger and bigger role with the team. Zach has become a leader within the dressing room and one of the players that others look to for direction and connection with coaches,” says Red Wings Associate Coach Kevin Pottle. “Academically, Zach has been a full-time student at UNB for the last two years where many players only attend university on a part-time basis.”
The MHL and the Bob Boucher Hockey Assistance Fund congratulate Zach Bishop on this scholarship, which will be presented on October 22nd when the Red Wings host the Edmundston Blizzard.
Previous winners of the Bob Boucher Hockey Assistance Fund Scholarship:
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- 2021-22 – Bryce Thomson (Grand Falls Rapids)
- 2020-21 – Chris McQuaid (Summerside Western Capitals)
- 2019-20 – Drew Toner (Grand Falls Rapids)
- 2018-19 – Gabriel Vanier (Edmundston Blizzard)
- 2017-18 – Luke MacMillan (Truro Bearcats)
- 2016-17 – Sam Cameron (Woodstock Slammers)
- 2015-16 – Thomas Stavert (Summerside Western Capitals)
- 2014-15 – Lucas Sangster (Amherst Ramblers)
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Media Contact:
James Faulkner
Director of Communications
Maritime Hockey League
jfaulkner@themhl.ca