MJAHL announces recipients of Character, Community Leadership Awards

Press Release

The Maritime Junior A Hockey League announced the recipients of two new awards on Monday. Upon releasing the annual awards and All-Stars on March 12th, the league announced that a new set of awards would be introduced for 2009-10 in the form of the MJAHL Character Award, MJAHL Community Leadership award and the MJAHL Builders award.

Two of the new awards were announced today while the recipient of the Builders Award will be made known at the league’s AGM and Draft in Bridgewater in June.

The winner of the first MJAHL Character Award is Matt Milson of the Miramichi Timberwolves and the winner of the Community Leadership Award is Josh Coleman of the Amherst Ramblers.

To decide a recipient of the MJAHL Character award, each team is asked to nominate a player on their team that other teams hate to play against, but would love to add to their lineup – a player with outstanding grit and determination. For 2009-2010, Milson came away the clear winner.

Miramichi Head Coach and General Manager Billy McGuigan wasn’t surprised at the news of Milson’s award. “Matt is a huge part of what the Timberwolves were this year as an Assistant Captain”, said McGuigan. “ Matt is what we consider the trademark of what a player should be for our program: hard working, relentless, great penalty killer, sacrifices his body as a shot blocker, great role model in the community of Miramichi and a local player and fan favorite.”

Rambler forward Josh Coleman receives the Community Leadership award and according to Corey Crocker, Head Coach and GM of the Ramblers, is very deserving of the honour. “The Amherst Jr. Ramblers Hockey Club are very proud of Josh and his accomplishment on winning this league award. Josh demonstrates what it means to care and have pride in his community. Josh's endless hours of community service entitles him as a leader on our hockey club and a role model for all the young athletes in Amherst and the surrounding areas.

“I’m sure all teams have players like Josh but we are very thankful for what Josh does in our community".

Pride in community would be an understatement when listing Coleman’s contributions. A native of Amherst and a student at Mount Allison University, Coleman spent fourteen 6am Monday mornings this season helping minor hockey players develop their skills, served breakfast every Wednesday morning from 8am to 9am at Spring Street Academy and also spent considerable time and energies raising money for both the Children’s Wish Foundation and the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the list goes on.

“Josh carries a smile on his face that carries weight in the community as a great role model and he is always willing to attend community events”, said Crocker. “He is a player that other players want to be around because of his good habits off the ice.”

The final of three new awards is the MJAHL Builders award. The Builders award will be given annually to an individual(s) that contributed special value to the success of the MJAHL as a league executive, team executive, volunteer and/or coach. The Builders award will be announced along with Executive of the Year and Coach of the Year at the Annual General meeting.



(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)