Raiders captain Tim Vanstone recognized for his work with P.A. minor hockey

While most people may be familiar with Tim Vanstone as the scrappy, hard-nosed captain of the Prince Albert Raiders, this week the veteran forward was honoured for his softer side.

Prince Albert Minor Hockey (PAMH) technical director James Mays presented Vanstone with the Adopt-A-Raider Coaches Challenge trophy in the locker room ahead of Thursday afternoon’s practice at the Kinsmen Arena.

This is the second year of the Adopt-A-Raider program, in which Raider players are assigned to novice-level PAMH teams and attend practises and games to work alongside the coaches and act as mentors. Last year Vanstone shared the award with Kolten Olynek.

“I know (Raiders head coach) Marc (Habscheid) and (associate coach) Dave (Manson) and (general manager) Curtis (Hunt) are big on paying it forward and helping out. And from the feedback I get, emails and the letters I get from the coaches and the parents and the kids of how excited they are when you guys go out to the practices or go out on the bench for the games, that’s just enormous to those little kids,” Mays said to the team.

“So I want you guys to know that that it really does mean something to them. A lot of you guys are going to be back next year the way Curtis has it set up so hopefully we’ll do this again next year and you guys can have a lot of fun with it.”

Mays gave “honourable mentions” to centreman Cole Fonstad and goaltender Ian Scott before handing the trophy to Vanstone, calling him “a good citizen” and “a great benefit our program.”

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